switch keyboard layout for marked text

25
2014-03
  • HeYzN

    This is a very common issue for people working with more than one language: You start typing and when you look up at the screen you realize you were typing in the wrong keyboard layout (language)... only thing to do is mark the text (shift-home), delete, switch language (alt-leftshift) and start over.

    My question - is there any tool, tweak, applet, whatever, that allows you instead to mark the text (shift-home) and with a magic keyboard shortcut replace it with what you intended to type?

    Related question - is anyone with relevant experience able to say how much effort it would be to write such a tweak for windows? (any pointers on where to start would be great too). It sounds like a very easy job, but I have no experience in this kind of development, and the fact I can't find any such tools is strange considering it is a problem that affects almost everyone I know.

    Thanks!

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    Related Question

    Keyboard layout to shift wasd keys
  • Joel Coehoorn

    I like to play video games on my computer. One of the things that bugs me, though, is how the wasd keys became the standard movement keys in first person shooters and mmorpgs. To me, esdf makes a lot more sense, because that matches your normal hand placement for typing. "Fixing" that layout is always the first thing I do when installing a new game. Sadly, this is often a pain in the neck, and some games won't let you do it at all.

    Is there an alternative keyboard layout you can install that will just switch these around, so the wasd keys fall in the esdf positions? And is low-level enough two work with DirectX/DirectInput, perhaps that works with the language bar for easy swapping back and forth?


    • Related Answers
  • Emory Bell

    Assuming you are running Windows, Microsoft provides a solution that allows you to create your own custom keyboard layout which can subsequently be accessed via the language bar.

  • Mart

    How about creating an AutoHotkey script? http://www.autohotkey.com

    If a game does not allow you to remap, or you don't want to mess with remapping keys for every game, you can probably write a simple AHK script to remap keys, and run it before running a game. AHK also allows you to create powerful keyboard macros as well.

    Tutorial: http://www.autohotkey.com/docs/misc/Remap.htm

    Or maybe a key-remapper application will suffice? http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/OS-Enhancements/KeyTweak.shtml (I tried looking at the original page for KeyTweak, but got a 404.)