International Input Menu

[bellbram]

In the International Input Menu the only items I have ticked are "British" and "US".   Being a Brit, I obviously need the Union Jack to show and I occasionally need the US keyboard for the odd symbol that doesn't appear in the British menu — '#' for example.

Although for years there has been no problem with the British Flag symbol appearing constantly in the menu bar, recently, for no reason I can determine, the symbol will suddenly change to the Stars & Stripes with no input from me.

Any ideas why this should happen and how to cure it?

Also, on my keyboard there is a symbol for the Euro which I sometimes need to use, but can't find the appropriate language in the International Input Menu to display it.  Anyone know how to get it to show?

P.S.  In case anyone wonders why I can't just use the US keyboard all the time, the answer is that I need the British keyboard to display the "£" sign.  Not that I have a lot of them  

[Paddy]

Shift + Option + 2 will give you the Euro symbol on the US keyboard layout. (I had to look, but I knew it was there, since I've used it without changing keyboard layouts!)

As for the flag switching with no input from you - perhaps it's corrupted preferences? I assume that it's com.apple.KeyboardViewerServer.plist. You could try dragging it out of the User->Library->Preferences onto the desktop, restarting and seeing if that cures things. If not, put it back.

[bellbram]

Paddy:  Thanks for the Euro tip.  It works fine with the British keyboard.  I've adopted your suggestion re removing com.apple.KeyboardViewerServer.plist and so far that seems to have done the trick.  Thanks again.

[pendragon]

And on the Yank keyboard, Option + 3, will produce the £ sign.

Note: Use the 3 on the keyboard proper, rather than the 3 on the number pad.

Cheers!

[Paddy]

And further to the above - the # symbol is available in the British keyboard layout - it's option + 3. I couldn't believe that they'd leave it out, so had a look-see!

Interesting info here (in the Mac section):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_and_American_keyboards

and more here, though some of the images don't show up - more showed up when I reloaded the page.

What I didn't realize is how good the Canadian keyboard layout is for multilingual use - it's got most of the diacritical marks you'll need for just about any language. Of course, looking around Toronto these days, that seems like a good idea - we're now being called one of the most multicultural cities in the world.

[bellbram]

Thanks both of you for the additional info.  Very informative and useful.
I # am £ now € a é much ü more ß enlightened ‰ typist, ç though ∫ still ñ only † using § two • fingers  

[Gregg]

If the hunt doesn't turn up the right critter, the peck isn't too effective, is it?

[krissel]

Also worth checking is your keyboard shortcuts since a rotation of the menu inputs can be done via key commands.

[bellbram]

Kris:  I've had a look at Keyboard Shortcuts in the Help menu but can't find the appropriate cut to change the keyboard input.
         Where is it?    
         
         But perhaps it's not important as the only ones I really need are UK & US and they're easy to interchange by putting the
         cursor on the flag in the menu bar.  Perhaps not as speedy as a shortcut, but I can spare the extra second it takes  

[krissel]

Go into the International prefs and you will see below the main window "Input menu shortcuts". The keyboard sequence is listed next to "Select previous input source" and "Select next input source in menu". There is also a button for "Keyboard Shortcuts" which if clicked will take you to the main keyboard shortcuts menu where you can change the keys needed to make the switch.

You may see a yellow triangle which indicates that the particular combo listed is also used by some other application or system event. That is why some people find the wrong keyboard in the menubar when they accidentally use a combo for another purpose that inadvertently changes the keyboard. I was wondering once why I kept getting Romanian characters when I typed and realized I had switched keyboards with a key combo that was for something else.

If you only have one keyboard selected in the International prefs, the input and keyboard shortcuts are greyed out and not a selection within the Keyboard prefs (in the Keyboard and Mouse prefs).

Oh, and all this is in Tiger. The path and locations may be different in Leopard.

[bellbram]

Grateful thanks for that Kris.  I had previously looked at International, but hadn't spotted the section about menu shortcuts. Your explicit
instructions put me right.  I suspect that although I said in my first post the language changed "with no input from me", I now suspect that I had inadvertently changed language by using a shortcut without realising it.  

And I'm still using Tiger, not yet convinced that it's worth upgrading to Leopard, more so 'cos I'm watching all those posts that find something amiss with it.  Anyway, tigers are an endangered species and I'm not going to add to the problem by killing mine off