#ExcelPedroWave

Download for free at the end of this article the renewed version of the International Virtual Keyboard most complete that exists worldwide made entirely in Excel.

It has all the functions of a few keyboards in a single Graphical user interface. Check it out for yourself!

This virtual keyboard is used for touch screens or as a substitute, if the physical keyboard breaks down. It is also useful for learning and testing various keyboard layout in several languages or in the Dvorak keyboard layout.

You can even create your own keyboard! adding a column in the 'Teclas' sheet.

Background of the Virtual Keyboard in Excel

10 years ago I allowed myself the audacity to modify the original idea of a virtual keyboard of a genius of macros, to make it international.

The idea came from Macro Antonio, a VBA macro expert and friend on Excel forums, who posted his version of a virtual keyboard.

Another of the best Excel forum members I had the pleasure of meeting was verzulsan, who improved the keyboard to repeat the keys in "machine gun" mode, and I made the international version and posted it on my blog:

International virtual keyboard | #ExcelPedroWave

3 weeks ago, a follower of my YouTube channel warned me that the keyboard "only works on old 32-bit systems", which made me review it and I decided to update it, adding the PtrSafe keyword to make it work in 64-bit Excel.

In addition, I myself had written a note in said article: "The Alt key doesn't generate the encoded characters, for example Alt+21 = §"

Then I realized that a follower of the blog had commented 6 years ago that: "Fonts on the page is blank, the fonts are not visible."

Features of the new Virtual Keyboard in Excel

So this International Virtual Keyboard, made entirely in Excel!, incorporates the following new features:

• Compatible with any 32-bit and 64-bit version of Excel.

• Insert symbols and characters with Alt + code, holding down the Alt key while typing the character's decimal code on the numeric keypad, for example Alt+21 = §, explained in: Insert ASCII or Unicode symbols - Microsoft Support

• List the types of text fonts with a dropdown ComboBox that allows you to choose the type of text font: About Microsoft Typography | Microsoft Learn

• New dropdown ComboBox with default Zoom: 100; 125; 150; 175; 200. With the ScrollBar you can continue changing the Zoom.

This is how the revamped International Virtual Keyboard looks like with different keyboard layouts in several languages:

Instead of pressing the keys of a physical keyboard, try pressing the keys of this International Virtual Keyboard, with the following functions:

• Design the keyboard doing it entirely in Excel, with a user form: UserFormTeclado built dynamically with VBA macros.

• Translate the keyboard to multiple languages: Español, Latinoamericano, English, Français, Italiano, Deutsch, Português, with the possibility of adding more languages on the 'Teclas' sheet, or even your own custom keyboard.

• Change the layout of the keys: QWERTY, QWERTZ (German), AZERTY (French) and Dvorak keyboard layout in Spanish and English.

• List all Windows text fonts and format the text according to the chosen font.

• Save in the 'Personal' sheet the zoom and the last font, size and text properties.

• Show the symbols of the special keys according to the international standard ISO/IEC 9995.

• Include the special keys: Enter, Tab, Ctrl, Alt Gr, Shift, Caps Lock, Num Lock, Windows key, Menu, Insert, Delete, Home, End, Page Up, Page Down and cursor movement arrows.

• Operate the numeric keypad as a basic calculator.

• Hide or show the numeric keypad.

• Expand the text box with double click.

• Other minor improvements, such as positioning the keyboard on the screen.

• Insert ASCII and Unicode symbols with the key combination Alt + decimal code. This function is explained below.

How to enter special symbols with the Alt key

To enter ASCII and Unicode characters:

• On a physical keyboard, hold down the Alt key and type the decimal code of the ASCII or Unicode character with the numeric keypad. When you release the Alt key, the special symbol appears.

• On the virtual keyboard, press the Alt key (which remains marked), write the decimal code of the ASCII or Unicode character with the numeric keyboard. The Alt key is pressed again and the special symbol appears.

Codes with the Alt key are divided into 3 groups:

• 255 BIOS ASCII codes: Alt+1 to Alt+255

• 128 ANSI codes or Windows Alt codes, with the number 0 in front: Alt+0128 to Alt+0255

• 149186 Unicode codes, with the decimal code of the 1 to 6 digit Unicode character. It should be noted that in this virtual keyboard you cannot enter hexadecimal codes, only decimal codes. For example: Alt+129412 represents the Unicorn symbol: 🦄 (hexadecimal code: 0x1F984)

Some interesting pages about Alt key codes:

Alt code - Wikipedia

List of Unicode characters - Wikipedia

ALT Codes | Windows ALT Key Codes for Characters & Symbols (altcodeslist.com)

Emoji Group: Animal & Nature 🐶 🌻 🐯 (altcodeunicode.com)

Video tutorial of the International Virtual Keyboard

In this video tutorial I explain how to use this International Virtual Keyboard.

Select your language caption to understand the video.

Download the International Virtual Keyboard

Download version 2.0 from one of these links:

• Microsoft OneDrive: International Virtual Keyboard - Teclado Virtual Internacional PW2.xlsm

• Sites Google Drive: International Virtual Keyboard - Teclado Virtual Internacional PW2.xlsm

The downloaded file's macros are blocked by default. To unlock the macros you must modify the file Properties following these instructions:

Macros from the internet will be blocked by default in Office - Deploy Office | Microsoft Learn

Open the file and press the button: Enable editing when the PROTECTED VIEW notice appears.

Press the button: Enable content when the SECURITY WARNING appears Macros have been disabled

The sheets are protected without a password and the VBA project is not protected, so you can study and analyze all the code. You can even modify it respecting these license:

Creative Commons —  Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0)

Competitors of this Virtual Keyboard in Excel

Compare this keyboard with the Google virtual keyboard on this page:

Try Google Input Tools online

Google's virtual keyboards are built into Google Translate, for example:

Pressing on the keyboard (within the red rectangle) selects the text input tool, for example in English: ⌨️ English; ⌨️ English DVORAK; ✏️ English touch writing.

The main advantage of Google's virtual keyboard over mine is that when you press the physical keyboard keys, it sends the virtual keyboard keys instead.

It will be an issue to consider if I decide to improve these Virtual Keyboard.

In the meantime you can read my previous articles on keyboards and special characters in Excel from here:

keyboard | #ExcelPedroWave