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I'm confused by what you're saying here - do you have a keyboard with '#' as a primary key? Every keyboard I've ever used requires shift-3 to generate a '#'.

Your reference to 3rd level keys seems to refer to an international keyboard. Is your keyboard not a U.S. layout?

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Sorry, I should have said: I'm talking about the UK models.

The standard layout for UK keyboards has a dedicated # key right next to the return key: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keyboard_layout#United_Kingdom

Mac keyboards for the UK - all of them, not just the laptop keyboards - omit this. I have yet to figure out why, but it's an unfortunate choice.

Is this done in hardware, or would it be possible simply to change the keyboard layout to US?

Can't you just use your own layouts on the Mac, if something about the keyboard bugs you?

(I only tried using dvorak an the Macbook, and it works fine.)

To be honest I've never tried. I use a standard UK keyboard at work and I've got a vague feeling that there'd be too much cognitive dissonance for me to learn a new layout without the right labels on the keys.

How about not learning a new layout, but just using a `normal' layout you are used to? Instead of having to get used to the Mac layout.

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