Keyboard resources, all things keyboard, fonts too!

[zenmonkey]

As the title says - a thread on keyboard resources...
(to be filled out ...)

PC

Mac

By adding a keyboard or an new language as an input source, you can choose a keyboard layout that matches the language you are studying. If you bought your Mac in the United States but you work primarily in French, you can add French to your Mac keyboards and type with the French layout. (You can also set the system language to French - different subject).

To add a keyboard:
Choose Apple menu > System Preferences, click keyboard
Choose Input Sources, click on +
Select the language you want and the layout. Done

Make sure you select “show keyboard and emoji views in menu bar” checkbox if you want to be able to have a virtual keyboard.

But you don't need to have a special keyboard layout to use special characters on a Mac. Just hold down the 'core' letter down and a popup will show the possible alternate characters like this when I hold down the 's' letter:

Screen Shot 2018-01-22 at 18.11.26.png

special keyboards - How do you type in IPA or Syriac or Ladino?
Some keyboards do not exist as part of the standard Mac set up. If you want to type in IPA or Syriac or Ladino you might have to install a specific keyboard layout and/or a font. (to be outlined next...)


Linux
Someone want to write that?

iOS

Android
Someone want to write that?

Other


Learning to touch type in different languages

https://www.keybr.com

[zenmonkey]

Specific languages

When you can't install a standard keyboard layout.

Syriac
To write in Syriac on the Mac your going to need to find the Syriac Phonetic keyboard layout:
http://www.bethmardutho.org/index.php/syriac-mac.html
For PC: http://www.bethmardutho.org/index.php/s ... ndows.html
Instructions for writing in with these : http://users.ox.ac.uk/~wolf2305/documents/syrkey.pdf

You might need to install a font specific to Eastern or Western Syriac.
http://www.bethmardutho.org/index.php/r ... fonts.html

or you can use a virtual Syriac keyboard: https://www.branah.com/syriac

[rdearman]

One small addition. I think you should include mobile devices as well as Mac, Linux, PC. The reason is that there are a number of keyboard systems which are available for mobile touch screen devices which you cannot get on desktops. One of which I really love is the hieroglyphics system aka, Graffiti used by the Palm OS which has been ported to Android & IOS.

[Axon]

The vast majority of my foreign language typing is with the US International keyboard built into Windows 10. It's a regular QWERTY layout but if I type a diacritic then a letter that can carry it, they combine. Doesn't work with the accented letters in the Polish alphabet, but I can type most everything I need to here.

I like the Gboard keyboard for Android - it presumably has an iOS counterpart. It's QWERTY with very smart predictive text that figures out when you're switching languages. Voice typing does the same thing. I have mine set to recognize English, German, and Indonesian, and it usually does an outstanding job. I use Google Pinyin Input for Chinese, since Gboard isn't quite smart enough for that.

I made my own Vietnamese keyboard layout because I absolutely loathe the system used in Unikey, which sadly is the most commonly used method these days. I don't type Vietnamese much at all, but it was a fun experiment. Here's the link to the Microsoft Keyboard Layout editor.

[rdearman]

Fixed your links. The format is: [ url = http://.... ]Words to display[ / url ] <==(minus the spaces)

[peter]

I'm using the XUbuntu flavour of Linux, but the basic process should be similar for other flavours. This is for a desktop computer.

Under Settings/Keyboard and the Layout tab, you get the window below:

keyboard.png

Clicking the 'Add' button lets you select a language layout (from many many options) to add to the list. I have added Bangla and German.
The 'Change Layout' option lets you select a key combination to switch between your keyboard layouts.

There's not much more to say. I had to look up the Probhat keyboard layout for Bengali, which I found on wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bengali_input_methods#/media/File:KB-Bengali-Probhat.svg I kept that image open for a while until I could type fairly fluently. I switch between the two now quite smoothly, both while typing using the 'change layout' combination, and also mentally. This is probably because Bengali and English are so completely different, though occasionally I forget which I've got selected, and get some unexpected লীটটীরস! I did look up getting stickers or something at first, but I rarely look at the keys beyond orienting my hands, so there's little point.

Before this, I was using a website http://www.lexilogos.com/keyboard/bengali.htm

[neuroascetic]

On dealing with languages' different layouts, you can always throw money at the problem with an OLED keyboard.

[smallwhite]

In Hong Kong, to type Traditional Chinese on a computer, most people use one of these 2 input methods 輸入法:
* Chinese (traditional) - ChangJie
* Chinese (traditional) - Quick

which can be found under:
* Chinese (Traditional, Taiwan)
in Windows.

The 2nd one, 速成 Quick, is an easy version of the 1st one, 倉頡 ChangJie. Easier to learn but more troublesome to type. They are both based on the shape of the character so you need to know how the character looks but not how the character sounds. They both have to be learnt upfront - you can't just hunt and peck. Takes maybe 6 hours to learn and practise 倉頡 and maybe 2 hours for 速成, half of that learning and half of that practising. With 倉頡 you can type looking away from the screen most of the time and look at it only once in a while to make choices, while with 速成 you have to look at the screen constantly because you have to make choices for every single character. (Think auto-complete - the more letters you type the fewer possibilities there are to choose from). So if you often copy things from paper to computer like secretaries do (in the 90's), you will need 倉頡.

Some people use a USB 手寫板 stylus-trackpad set. It's slow and tiring because you have to write huge characters.

Windows lets you write with your mouse like you do with a stylus. I don't remember how to activate this function.

A few people use 九方 Q9 but it is not free. You can learn it in 10 minutes. You need to know how the character looks. You use the numeric keypad, you must look at the screen, you make several choices to finally get your character.

Cantonese pinyin (spelling/transliteration) input method is another option. You need to know how the character sounds but not how it looks. You type something like "YUM 2 CHA 4" to get "飲茶". We don't learn pinyin in Hong Kong so this would actually be very difficult for us.

My first PC came with a certain Taiwanese bo-po-mo-fo input method. You need to know how the character sounds but not how it looks. The first column on the keyboard (1 Q A Z) types BO PO MO FO, the second column (2 W S X) types DE TE NE LE, etc. You have to type the tone as well. I liked this input method. The keyboard has enough keys for it so no Hot Keys and no Shift-ing.

There are other input methods popular in mainland China.

Computers in HK libraries have at least 倉頡 ChangJie, 速成 Quick, 九方 Q9 and stylus as far as I remember, and shared computers at work usually have 倉頡 ChangJie and 速成 Quick already activated.

[Axon]

Smallwhite, how do children learn to type in Hong Kong? Are there websites or programs everybody uses?

[smallwhite]

Smallwhite, how do children learn to type in Hong Kong? Are there websites or programs everybody uses?

No idea, sorry! Some 10? years ago I saw in a documentary a primary school teaching the Q9 input method, but Q9 has fallen out of popularity since. No idea what they do now.