If you type foreign language on a Mac

< Next Topic | Back to topic list | Previous Topic >

Posted by Larry_in_Bangkok
Oct 28, 2021 at 06:04 AM

Have been some rumblings that Apple software is not what it used to be.
Here’s another, which might effect those typing in foreign languages on Mac OS.

When you upgrade to a new version of OS, the keyboard layout may change slightly, without warning.
It changed here yesterday when I upgraded from Mojave to Big Sur.
(Keyboard layout is system software preference, not the plastic keys in front of your screen.)

There was no alert, no warning of the change during the OS upgrade.
This morning while typing text for a translation—BOOM!—a few wrong characters appeared.
(A few, not all.)

It is very annoying to have 10 years experience touch typing in a foreign language, and suddenly a few keys change position.
Doubly annoying to spend half the morning trouble-shooting the problem.

Are similar changes made in layouts for other languages?
I have no way to know.

Granted, the language I’m using is somewhat obscure: Thai ภาษาไทย but that’s no excuse.
And my keyboard layout is somewhat obscure too:
Just as English has a QWERTY keyboard and a DVORAK variation (and others), so, too, Thai language has an ergonomic keyboard variation, which I use.
And the keys which changed are for characters which are not used often, but they are used.

I hope this alert will be useful to others here who type in foreign languages on a Mac.
If you upgrade your Mac OS version, and suddenly a few wrong letters appear in your typing, look at System Preferences - Keyboard layout.
Use “keyboard viewer” to see if any character positions have been changed.

—-

In recent years I’ve started thinking that Mac OS and the entire Apple eco-system is getting worse instead of better.
Alas, I can find no other operating system which is so much better that it’s worth the pain to change.

Posted by 22111
Nov 7, 2021 at 08:32 PM

Greetings to Bangkok, hopefully western so-called “feminism” hasn’t eroded your local economy & community life over there yet (well, it’s spreading like the plague, so I knock on wood for you all (sic! i.e. m/f/d): may your natural Thaï! life experience be preserved for some time at least, and long live the Thaï king… living, allegedly, in Germany?! (Well, that’s a former “export world champion” without government, summers without the sun shining, and all the rest, but well… to everyone their own, as their say, right?)

But for not digressing too much: I see that the old and venerable league here doesn’t even deign to answer you, so I think I should intervene with some observations:

- Any criticism of Apple is abhorred here, and that’s final.

- W10, together with a really good, viable AHK script is far superior to any Mac equipment without macroeing, but then:

- There might even be some (paid or free) Mac scripting language, and there’s always some (paid) Mac macro tools which could help in re-assigning keys; a decennial ago, and not having discovered AHK yet at the time, I even had been interested in Quickeys, but had finally refrained from buying it, since for Windows, they never got beyond v3, whilst for the Mac, it was v4, very well enhanced indeed, and yes, “everything is relative”, as they say…

- So I now googled - no: startpaged - for “Quickeys”, and the hits I got were from 2010… ha, ha, ha - but some “Keyboard Maestro” seems to be available, as a “Quickeys alternative”, even for current Macs?

- This being said, the last maestro I remember of was HvK, deceased in the same year Thaï King’s elysium was overtaken by the East, but that’s another story yet…

- Whatever: Try Before Buying, and then Happy Remapping!

Posted by Amontillado
Nov 7, 2021 at 11:34 PM

Keyboard Maestro is pretty cool. Version 10 just came out with macro subroutines.

The keyboard option in the Mac’s System Preferences lets you select foreign keyboards. If your layout is not quite right, there are alternatives there. For instance, I think there are two US keyboard layouts available. That might be helpful.

I’ve heard good things about AHK. I was going to use it on my company computer but there was blowback. I ended up with a Genovation CP48 programmable keypad.

As to Windows versus Mac, I’m not very qualified to say. Without rancor, I avoid Windows. I’m happy with either Linux or MacOS. Available software for the Mac works well. I don’t think there is anything quite like Devonthink available for Windows, and I’m somewhat addicted to Devonthink.

Posted by satis
Nov 8, 2021 at 02:32 AM

Amontillado wrote:

>Keyboard Maestro is pretty cool. Version 10 just came out with macro
>subroutines.

Shortcuts, once it matures some more on the Mac after migrating from iOS, has the potential to be a really great tool. But I’ve been using Keyboard Maestro for years on the Mac, so the $18 upgrade (rising to $25 in a month) was a no-brainer.

Back to topic list