What the sense in input languages and keyboard layouts?
Hi to all,
In Windows 7 and early versions using Regional and language settings applet you can set up multiple input language. For each language you can add multible keyboards (keyboard layouts). For example, for English (USA) you can set up default USA layout and
Dvorak. However clicking "Show more" in Add input language window allows you to set up keyboard layout of any language for this language. For example, you can add russian layout to english input language or chinese layout to spanish. What is the sense
in this feature? What the sense in input languages if you can add for each input language any keyboard layout, even from different writing system?
Thanks.
May 28th, 2011 11:14pm
Hi Alexander,
Thanks for the post!
Every keyboard layout has a corresponding handle that identifies the layout and language.The user can associate any input language with a physical layout. This means the user can enter text in French using the familiar English layout.
I would like to share this document with you to understanding more design about the Keyboard Input:
About Keyboard Input (Windows)
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms646267(v=VS.85).aspx
Regards,
MiyaThis posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights. | Please remember to click "Mark as Answer" on the post that helps you, and to click "Unmark as Answer" if a marked post does not actually answer
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May 30th, 2011 7:29pm
Thank you for the answer, but I still not understand. The document says:
"A keyboard layout not only specifies the physical position of the keys on the keyboard but also determines the character values generated by pressing those keys. Each layout identifies the current input language and determines which character values are
generated by which keys and key combinations."
But I dont see that layout identifies the input language in Windows 7. I can setup absolutely
any layout to
any input language, so what's the difference between setting up two input languages with one layout for each or setting up one input languages with two layouts?
http://img805.imageshack.us/img805/2345/input.png
For example, what difference between having two input languages:
English
keyboard: english (USA)
Russian
keyboard: russian
and one input language with 2 layouts:
English
keyboards: english (USA), russian
May 30th, 2011 7:42pm
Thanks for the feedback.
From the document, I don't think there would be much difference in the usage results, between the two combinations.
The keyboard layout and the characters generated by pressing keys are decided by the keyboard layout, not the nature language. The default keyboard layout are picked by Microsoft to simplify your configurations. For example, if you are located in the United
States and use English(United States), the most possible keyboard layouts you may use is US(Default), United States-Dvorak, and so on. This doesn't exclude the possibilities that you want to click "Show More..." and add other languages into your natural
language category.
I think there might be some exceptions for 3rd party input systems, for example, for Asian character language users, the 3rd party keyboard layouts are only listed in the specific language categories.
I hope the information could help you.
Regards,
Miya
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights. | Please remember to click "Mark as Answer" on the post that helps you, and to click "Unmark as Answer" if a marked post does not actually answer
your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.
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June 6th, 2011 4:42am