Perplexing keyboard problem with Lenovo T430

[davek]

I acquired a new Lenovo T430 laptop this week and I am pulling my hair out (what’s left of it). I cannot find any way to access the ‘less than’ or ‘greater than’ keys on the keyboard. They are placed as a third option on the key with ‘[‘ and ‘{‘ and I just can’t get the "<" or ">" to register. I have searched the user manual, many many forums and haven't had a trace of a solution.
I cannot believe that any company would produce a laptop with such functionality and give no indication of how to operate it.
My company provided me this laptop this week but I think I'll reject it.
I have seen many great appraisals of the new compressed keyboard and based on my experience I am perplexed by such enthusiasm.
As a software developer I may be driven to waste a lot of time writing a new keyboard interface utility !
Anyone any idea ?

[twistero]

... What weird keyboard layout are you using? I've briefly looked through all listed QWERTY keyboard layouts in this Wikipedia article and found no standard keyboard that puts less-than and greater-than symbols on the same key as square brackets. Also, on a T430 with US keyboard, the < and > symbols are definitely on Shift+, and Shift+. . I seriously don't think Lenovo will mess with non-function keys in their transition to island-style keyboards.

Please tell us where in the world you and your company are located, which keyboard layout the ThinkPad came with (preferably with a picture of the keyboard), and what keyboard layout is selected in your operating system.