Change your Linux keyboard to a British layout

Q I have installed Ubuntu on my computer but it is using an American keyboard layout. This is frustrating but I don’t know how to change it.
David Harris

A This is straightforward to change but there is one important job before doing this. Ensure no passwords used to log into the computer use any of the characters that are in different places.

If they do, and you don’t change them first, it may be difficult to log into the computer. Click on the System menu, Preferences and then Keyboard.

If there is no reference to the United Kingdom keyboard, click on the + symbol underneath the list of keyboard layouts.

Select United Kingdom in both the Country menu and Variants menu. A picture of the keyboard will be displayed underneath so you can check that it matches what you are expecting. Click on the Add button.

Click in the circle in the Default column for United Kingdom to make it the default keyboard. It might be worth clicking on the Apply System-Wide to make sure it is used all the time.

If you want to remove the US keyboard, click on the title and then on the - button. The bottom text box can be used to double-check the keyboard settings before you click Close.