Full agreement from me. My ergonomics and efficiency both improved immensely when I switched from my native layout to US International. With US International,

Full agreement from me. My ergonomics and efficiency both improved immensely when I switched from my native layout to US International. With US International, unless I want to hit the key combo to change layouts, I can still write a single or just a few umlauts (say, for a person's name). I find it easier to keep my focus when I don't have to make the right wrist twister that is otherwise required for { if using a Swedish layout.