gHacks technology news » keyboard layouts http://www.ghacks.net A technology blog covering software, mobile phones, gadgets, security, the Internet and other relevant areas. Mon, 23 Nov 2009 22:22:46 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.6 en hourly 1 Computer Keyboard Locales Switcher http://www.ghacks.net/2009/09/12/computer-keyboard-locales-switcher/ http://www.ghacks.net/2009/09/12/computer-keyboard-locales-switcher/#comments Sat, 12 Sep 2009 08:19:35 +0000 Martin http://www.ghacks.net/?p=16246 windows softwareI just came across a computer program that allowed Windows users to change the language of the computer keyboard with the Caps Lock key. Using different keyboard locales is a solution for users who work with different languages throughout the day, e.g. Chinese and English. These users need to read and often write in different languages and an option to quickly switch the keyboard layout would probably be appreciated by most of them.

What the developer of the software program Capswitch did not know is that the Windows operating system comes with options to switch keyboard locales with keyboard shortcuts. The Windows XP operating system for example provides this option in the Regional and Language options module of the Control Panel. A click on the Details button under the Languages tab will open all installed input languages.

computer keyboard locales

A click on the Key Settings button will open another menu with the option to define keyboard shortcuts to switch instantly to the input language.

computer keyboard locales switcher

Only the keyboard shortcut to switch between all installed keyboard layouts is configured by default. It is however possible to define shortcuts for specific switches, e.g. From English to German and vice verse.

These keyboard shortcuts provide the easiest way to quickly switch between keyboard locales. The additional benefit is that no extra software needs to be running in the background for the functionality.

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]]> http://www.ghacks.net/2009/09/12/computer-keyboard-locales-switcher/feed/ 7 Custom Keyboard Layouts In Firefox http://www.ghacks.net/2009/06/05/custom-keyboard-layouts-in-firefox/ http://www.ghacks.net/2009/06/05/custom-keyboard-layouts-in-firefox/#comments Fri, 05 Jun 2009 08:23:50 +0000 Martin http://www.ghacks.net/?p=13319 firefoxThe technical world and the advance of the Internet has made it a necessity for many users to speak English. This does leave many users with at least two languages that they read and probably also write in which is usually not a big problem if the languages are closely related, say Dutch and German or English and German. Things become more difficulty when you have to write in languages that are not related at all, like English and Japanese.

keyboard layouts

Keyboard Layouts differ depending on the country they are sold in. A basic example is the differences between a German and English computer keyboard. The German keyboard swapped the Y and Z key for instance which can be really annoying when playing web games that use the YXC keys in the game.

Tablang is an add-on for the Firefox web browser that allows the user to use different keyboard layouts in Firefox. Each tab can be launched with a different keyboard layout which is preserved from there meaning that links that are originating from that tab will also use the keyboard layout.

The user needs to have at least two different keyboard layouts installed on the computer system for the Firefox add-on to be of use. The add-on can be downloaded from the Mozilla homepage. It is available for the Microsoft Windows and Linux operating system.

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]]> http://www.ghacks.net/2009/06/05/custom-keyboard-layouts-in-firefox/feed/ 4 Convert Between Alphabets On The Fly http://www.ghacks.net/2008/10/16/convert-between-alphabets-on-the-fly/ http://www.ghacks.net/2008/10/16/convert-between-alphabets-on-the-fly/#comments Thu, 16 Oct 2008 08:25:29 +0000 Martin http://www.ghacks.net/?p=7663 If you ever had to use a computer for writing text in two different languages that do not share the same alphabet you might have experienced that you wanted to write the text in one language but missed to switch to it which resulted in writing the text, or part of it, in the wrong language.

Instead of deleting the written text, changing the keyboard language and writing the text anew users can make use of the software LangOver which is freely available. The software can convert text instantly between languages. The application will provide access to all installed keyboard layouts but only one can be defined in the program’s options.

A Japanese user who would write in English to correspond with English speaking people could set the options to convert the Japanese alphabet to English and vice verse. The user can perform the operation with the F10 key to convert language 1 to language 2, F6 to convert language 2 to language 1 and SHIFT F10 to convert lower to upper case.

langover

The hotkeys can be changed in the program’s interface. Alternatively the mouse can be used to convert between alphabets instead. The conversion can also be done directly in the program’s interface and copied from there into another application.

There is currently no way to switch between more than two alphabets automatically but the software developer told me that this feature would be on his list for upcoming versions.

LangOver is an interesting application that can be quite a time saver for users who have to regularly switch between keyboard layouts.

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