Russian Phonetic Keyboard for Windows

The keyboard layout on the screen is arranged in the usual way on any normal keyboard. You can either right-click the letters for simple selection, or you can press the space bar to bring up a whole list of available options for your mouse clicks. The advantage of this arrangement is that you don't need to learn any special characters unless you want to, and also you don't need to know the symbols on the keyboard to read your Russian text. The disadvantage is that it's easy to get used to looking at a big picture on your monitor while you're trying to type, so it's not as convenient as a separate input device would be. Many people find that their hands become used to the layout pretty quickly, and sometimes it's hard to come back from a long day at work without seeing all of the letters displayed at once. Other people find that they're able to type much faster and more effectively using the Windows key-combination remapping feature which is included in newer versions of MS Windows operating systems.

The keyboard layout described above is the simplest and most familiar one that anyone who hasn't learned a second language can use. Many people find that if they learn some additional words along with the basic dictionary that they are able to do pretty well in all aspects of their communications. A good alternative to the old Russian keyboard is the Cyrillic keyboards.