For quite some time I’ve been searching for a way to use a Danish external keyboard with my iPad when writing in English.

While it is possbile to let iOS know that you’re using a hardware keyboard with a layout other than the language you’re writing in, Danish is unfortunately not on the list of layouts that can be paired with English, and no amount of searching the web nor trips to my local Apple store have led to a solution, nor have hopes that the next major iOS version would add Danish to the list been fulfilled. Fortunately the addition of cursor control and text selection to the iOS 9 software keyboard have made using it a joy, and for some time my Keys-To-Go have gone unused.

There are however situations in which the ergonomics and extra screen space that using a hardware keyboard affords can be desirable. Opening up the keyboard viewer on my Mac and comparing the layouts of the languages that are included in Apple’s list, I was happy to discover that Italian comes very close to the Danish layout. There are few symbols that are placed differently, but they’re easily remembered, meaning that I can now happily type in English with the benefits of spellchecking and autocorrection.