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Using the Keyboard Menu
Using the Keyboard Menu
With System 7.0, a new menu, the Keyboard menu, displays a list of all the
keyboard layouts available in the system. (See the Figure below for an example
of the Keyboard menu.)
Note: The Keyboard menu displays the keyboard layouts that belong
to any script systems that have been installed and enabled. If you
place a 'KCHR' resource in your system that does not belong with any
of the script systems you have installed, the Keyboard menu does not
display that 'KCHR'.For example, if you install German, French,
Japanese, and U.S. 'KCHR' resources in a system that only contains
the Roman Script System (that is, any generic U.S. system) and set
the appropriate bit in the 'itlc' resource, only the German, French,
and U.S. keyboards are displayed in the menu.
The Keyboard menu groups the keyboard layouts by script. The script groups
are delineated by gray lines. In the Figure below, the Roman script includes
two keyboard layouts (Spanish and U.S.); the Hebrew script contains a single
keyboard layout; and the Japanese script includes two keyboard layouts (Kana
and Romaji).
The Keyboard menu appears if there are multiple script systems installed in
the system or if the smfShowIcon bit in the
Script Manager flags long word is set when system menus are initialized
during system startup. The Script Manager initializes the smfShowIcon bit
from the flags byte in the 'itlc' resource earlier in the system startup process.
If the menu is available at startup, the keyboard icon for the system script's
default keyboard appears in the menu bar to the left of the Application menu
icon.
Each menu item includes a keyboard icon and the name of the keyboard layout
(which may be in a non-Roman script). In the Figure below, the Hebrew
keyboard icon-a star of David-is to the left of the Hebrew name of the keyboard
layout and to the right of a checkmark that indicates that this is the current
default keyboard in the active keyboard script.
The list of keyboard layouts corresponds to the script ordering specified in
the 'itlm' resource. Within each script, the keyboards are listed in the script's
sorting order. The system script's keyboards always appear first in the list. In
the Figure below, the system script is Roman, so the Spanish and U.S.
keyboard layouts appear first.
The keyboard icons that appear in each menu item are defined by the new
keyboard color icon family: 'kcs#', 'kcs4', and 'kcs8'. If a keyboard layout does
not include a keyboard icon when it's installed in the system, a default
keyboard icon is used.
For each script there is a current default keyboard. The default keyboard for
the active keyboard script is the active keyboard and is indicated by a
checkmark. In the Figure below, the active keyboard layout is Hebrew.
The Figure shows the Japanese Kana keyboard layout being selected. When the
mouse button is released, the Kana keyboard icon will appear in the menu bar.
When the About Keyboards item at the top of the Keyboard menu is selected, a
dialog box appears with additional information about the menu and changing
keyboards. Balloon Help is also available for the Keyboard menu.
The Keyboard menu
Selecting Keyboard Layouts
Several ways are available to select different keyboard layouts:
• Selecting the desired layout from the Keyboard menu.
• Using keyboard equivalents such as Command-Space bar to switch to
the next available script and the current default keyboard for that
script.
• Using the Keyboard control panel to select the keyboard for the active
keyboard script. If the Keyboard menu appears and the user selects a
new keyboard layout, the Keyboard menu data structures are updated so
the Keyboard menu reflects the new selection.
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