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New Mac user here. I got a Mac Mini for testing at work, and connected a Norwegian Logitech Bluetooth Windows keyboard to it.

This mostly works well, but some of the keys result in different character than that are on the keyboard. Most notably, Alt+2 should produce @ (this is shown on the keyboard, and is produced in Windows) but on the Mac it produces ™. I see this confirmed also on the “Input Sources” and the “Keyboard Viewer” on the Mac.

I see there are many related questions here on Stack Exchange, but I don't see any that fix my specific case.

Is it possible on the Mac to get the keyboard to produce the printed keys?

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If you have your input source set to Norwegian, @ will be on the rightmost key on the center row on a Mac.

(Which key does what depends entirely on what you have set in “System Settings > Keyboard > Text Input > Edit > Input Sources.”)

For info, the Apple Norwegian layout:

enter image description here

If you want to make a custom layout that matches the printing on a Windows keyboard, Ukelele is a good app for that.

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  • Okay thanks, so you're saying that even though Mac recognized the Windows keyboard, there is no build-in way to get all the characters printed on the keyboard to match with characters produced on screen?
    – Peter
    Commented Apr 8 at 14:23
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    @Peter That's right, at least in the case of Norwegian. For some keyboards, Apple provides an input source tailored to the Windows version. "British PC" is an example.
    – Tom Gewecke
    Commented Apr 8 at 14:30
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    @Peter The same is also true in reverse: if you take an Apple keyboard (which has the @ character printed next to æ as shown in the screen shot in the answer) and plug it into a Windows machine, you won’t be able to type an at-sign by hitting that key either – you’ll have to press (Right) Alt + 2. Keyboards don’t actually know anything about which character you’re going for, they just send specific codes for specific keys, and the OS then uses the information about the selected (software) keyboard layout to map those codes to specific characters.
    – Janus Bahs Jacquet
    Commented Apr 8 at 23:49
  • @JanusBahsJacquet. For someone who needs to use an Apple keyboard with Windows, there are fortunately a number of Windows layouts available that match output with the printing on the keys.. See magicutilities.net/magic-keyboard/help/keyboard-layouts
    – Tom Gewecke
    Commented Apr 9 at 4:11
  • @Tom Yes, keyboard layouts are always your friend. I just wanted to clarify that what makes the system interpret which physical keys correspond to which characters on screen is determined by software (i.e., keyboard layouts being interpreted by the OS), not by the keyboard itself. Many people aren’t even aware that there is such a thing as keyboard layouts and just assume that what’s printed on the keys is the character that the keyboard sends to the computer.
    – Janus Bahs Jacquet
    Commented Apr 9 at 9:00

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