If you have set up more than one keyboard layout for a single language, you can switch between layouts by clicking the keyboard layout icon on the Language bar and then clicking the keyboard layout that you want to use. The name on the indicator changes to reflect the active keyboard layout.
5 Free Keyboard Layout Switcher Software for Windows
In most cases, the Language bar automatically appears on your desktop or in the taskbar after you enable two or more keyboard layouts in the Windows operating system. You cannot see the Language bar if it is hidden or only one keyboard layout is enabled in the Windows operating system.
Here are 5 free keyboard layout switcher software for Windows for you to try. These software let you change the default keyboard layout in Windows with a hotkey or a single click. In most of these software, you can switch a keyboard layout by pressing a single keyboard key. While some of these software use other approach to change the keyboard layout. These software precisely identify the installed layouts on your PC and then help you switch between them in an easy way. Most of these software are portable and can run automatically at Windows startup.
EveryLang is one of the best free keyboard layout switcher software for Windows. This software gets all the installed layouts from your PC and then lets you switch between them through a hotkey. It can set the Caps Lock, Right Alt, Left Alt, like keys as keyboard shortcuts to switch between different layouts. Also, apart from just switching between different keyboard layouts, it offers other features too. There is a language translator in this software that you can use to easily translate any text from any language to another. And it also comes with a simple clipboard manager and a text autocorrector as you type. You can configure these tools from the settings section of the software.
This keyboard layout switcher comes as a portable software and you can get it from above URL. After downloading it, you can run it and see its icon in the system tray. To switch between a different layout, you can click on its icon and then choose the target layout from the list. It will set that layout and you can always switch it in the same way. You can also open its Preferences section and then configure other tools that it offers. It offers text auto correction, text autocomplete, calculator and converter, etc.
dotSwitcher is another free software that you can use to switch between different layouts using specified hotkey. This software is primarily meant for switching between the different layouts. It gets the list of installed layouts from your PC and then lets you switch between them easily. You can either set a single key or combination of keys to switch between different keyboard layouts. It keeps running in the background and you can see its icon in the system tray of Windows. You can open it anytime using its icon and then set the custom hotkey for switching between different layouts.
Recap is extremely simple tool to switch between installed keyboard layouts in Windows through Caps Lock. It overrides the Caps Lock function and sets it to change the keyboard layout. However, you can still use Caps Lock key to switch between uppercase and lowercase letter using the Alt + Caps Lock combination. There is no specific interface of this software. You can only see its icon in the system tray as it keeps running in the background. Also, here you cannot modify the key for switching keyboard layout. Once you run it, it will keep running in the background and you can always switch between different keyboard layouts through Caps Lock key.
These are the best free keyboard layout switcher software for Windows that you can try. Use these to switch between installed layouts easily and just in a second through keyboard shortcut. And I really liked the other tools that some of these software offer like translator. So, if you are looking for some free keyboard layout switcher software, then this list will come in handy.
This article describes how to change keyboard layouts for the Microsoft keyboards listed in the "Applies To" section.You can configure your keyboard to use a different language or keyboard layout, such as Canadian Multilingual, Spanish, or United States-Dvorak. A large selection of keyboard layouts is installed with the Microsoft Windows operating system.Generally, you should configure your keyboard layout in Windows to match the actual keyboard that you use. If you can choose a different layout, be aware that the keys on your keyboard may display different characters than those that appear on screen.
In the Regional and Language Options dialog box, click OK.Note The Language bar appears on the taskbar. When you rest the mouse pointer over this bar, a tooltip appears that describes the active keyboard layout.
306993 HOW TO: Use the Language Bar in Windows XPFor more information about how to use the United States-International keyboard layout, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
A keyboard layout is any specific physical, visual or functional arrangement of the keys, legends, or key-meaning associations (respectively) of a computer keyboard, mobile phone, or other computer-controlled typographic keyboard.
Physical layout is the actual positioning of keys on a keyboard. Visual layout is the arrangement of the legends (labels, markings, engravings) that appear on those keys. Functional layout is the arrangement of the key-meaning association or keyboard mapping, determined in software, of all the keys of a keyboard; it is this (rather than the legends) that determines the actual response to a key press.
Keyboard layouts have evolved over time, usually alongside major technology changes. Particularly influential have been: the Sholes and Glidden typewriter (1874, also known as Remington No. 1), the first commercially successful typewriter, which introduced QWERTY;[14] its successor, the Remington No. 2 (1878), which introduced the shift key; the IBM Selectric (1961), a very influential electric typewriter, which was imitated by computer keyboards;[15] and the IBM PC (1981), namely the Model M (1985), which is the basis for many modern keyboard layouts.
Within a community, keyboard layout is generally quite stable, due to the high training cost of touch-typing, and the resulting network effect of having a standard layout and high switching cost of retraining, and the suboptimal QWERTY layout is a case study in switching costs. Nevertheless, significant market forces can result in changes (as in Turkish adoption of QWERTY), and non-core keys are more prone to change, as they are less frequently used and less subject to the lock-in of touch-typing. The main, alphanumeric portion is typically stable, while symbol keys and shifted key values change somewhat, modifier keys more so, and function keys most of all: QWERTY dates to the No. 1 (1874) (though 1 and 0 were added later), shifted keys date in some cases to the No. 2 (1878), in other cases to the Selectric (1961), and modifier key placement largely dates to the Model M (1985); function key placement typically dates to the Model M, but varies significantly, particularly on laptops.
The earliest mechanical keyboards were used in musical instruments to play particular notes. With the advent of the printing telegraph, a keyboard was needed to select characters. Some of the earliest printing telegraph machines either used a piano keyboard outright or else a layout similar to a piano keyboard.[16][17] The Hughes-Phelps printing telegraph piano keyboard laid keys A-N in left-to-right order on the black piano keys, and keys O-Z in right-to-left order on the white piano keys below.
In countries using the Latin script, the center, alphanumeric portion of the modern keyboard is most often based on the QWERTY design by Christopher Sholes. Sholes' layout was long thought to have been laid out in such a way that common two-letter combinations were placed on opposite sides of the keyboard so that his mechanical keyboard would not jam. However, evidence for this claim has often been contested. In 2012, an argument was advanced by two Japanese historians of technology showing that the key order on the earliest Sholes prototypes in fact followed the left-right and right-left arrangement of the contemporary Hughes-Phelps printing telegraph, described above.[18] Later iterations diverged progressively for various technical reasons, and strong vestiges of the left-right A-N, right-left O-Z arrangement can still be seen in the modern QWERTY layout. Sholes' chief improvement was thus to lay out the keys in rows offset horizontally from each other by three-eighths, three-sixteenths, and three-eighths inches to provide room for the levers and to reduce hand-movement distance. Although it has been demonstrated that the QWERTY layout is not the most efficient layout for typing,[19] it remains the standard.
Most modern keyboards basically conform to the layout specifications contained in parts 1, 2, and 5 of the international standard series ISO/IEC 9995. These specifications were first defined by the user group at AFNOR in 1984 working under the direction of Alain Souloumiac.[22] Based on this work, a well known ergonomic expert wrote a report[23] which was adopted at the ISO Berlin meeting in 1985 and became the reference for keyboard layouts.
As noted before, the layout of a keyboard may refer to its physical (arrangement of keys), visual (physical labeling of keys), or functional (software response to a key press or release) layout.
Physical layouts only address tangible differences among keyboards. When a key is pressed, the keyboard does not send a message such as the A-key is depressed but rather the left-most main key of the home row is depressed. (Technically, each key has an internal reference number, the scan code, and these numbers are what is sent to the computer when a key is pressed or released.) The keyboard and the computer each have no information about what is marked on that key, and it could equally well be the letter A or the digit 9. Historically, the user of the computer was requested to identify the functional layout of the keyboard when installing or customizing the operating system. Modern USB keyboards are plug and play; they communicate their visual layout to the OS when connected (though the user is still able to reset this at will).[example needed] 2ff7e9595c
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