Interlinearizer: it keeps changing the keyboard layout (keyboard language)

Question

We have a project that uses a language I’ll call Lang1. The Windows keyboard setting for Lang1 is Azeri, since Lang1 is not in Windows’ list of languages; but Azeri is set to use a Lang1 keyboard created with MSKLC.

One user has the following problem in the IL when glossing Lang1 in English: every time he clicks a wrong gloss and enters a new gloss he has to change the Windows keyboard to English; as soon as he presses , the keyboard changes back to Azeri. As you can imagine, doing this for every gloss he types really slows him down!

In PT, the Lang1 project (i.e. the main project) has the Project ➢ Keyboard set to Azeri.

The feature to choose a keyboard for PT to automatically switch to does not exist for the IL window – I wish it did. Shall I put in a Feature Request for it? (Click below to vote for this feature.)

What do others see when using the IL? If you choose the English keyboard, say, or Russian, does it “stick”, or does the layout sometimes change to a different one?

BTW, it’s hard for me to use Report a Problem: I’d have to do it from the user’s computer, but this user no longer works in the same office as me.

Answer 1

Further research: on my computer, with the IL set to the same projects, PT also switches the keyboard every time I edit a gloss, but it switches it to English, so I’d never noticed.

So, perhaps the key question is: how does PT guess which keyboard you need in the IL window? Does it look at the language of the Model Text – or maybe the language of the back-translation project (the project you export to from the IL), – and try to find a Windows keyboard with a matching language? Or, in the second case (the BT project), it could look at the keyboard settings for that project.

Regarding the last point: on my computer the keyboard was set to “(Do not switch keyboard)” for the BT project (for both text and Notes).

Comments

wdavidhj:

So, perhaps the key question is: how does PT guess which keyboard you need in the IL window?

From looking at the code, it looks like it is supposed to use the keyboard associated with the project being used as the model text in the Interlinear.

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But a Model Text ins usually a Resource, and as such does not have a keyboard associated with it. … Oh, I just looked, and was surprised to see that the Project ➢ Keyboard… menu item is not greyed out for Resources: you can set a keyboard for the text and for the Notes – interesting! Since Resources are not editable, it seems pointless allowing us to choose a keyboard; and we can’t even write Notes on Resources since the switch to PT8, so no point in a keyboard choice for Notes either .

Having found this, I’ve just tested it, and you’re right: if I set the keyboard for NET08 to Farsi, the IL switches to Farsi every time I try to type a gloss.

It’s logical, and ultimately useable, but it’s a million miles from either intuitive or user-friendly. Intuitive, I’d say, would be to be able to to choose a default keyboard for the IL window itself. But the IL window can be opened with different choices of (1) project, and (2) Model Text, so in practice this would mean storing a keyboard choice for every Model Text that’s been used in the IL – or maybe every for combination of project and Model Text.

@anon291708 , what do you think would be a good way to go?

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Since we’re talking about default keyboards, this recent post of mine may be of interest: How do I go to a Bible reference? , post #3.

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wdavidhj:

what do you think would be a good way to go?

I’d suggest sending in a feature request to have the glossing keyboard be able to be chosen for any combination of source and model project.