Set default keyboard layout (for other language) for a field

[Igor de Oliveira Couto]

Saluton, Jonathan!

On 19/02/2013, at 12:39 PM, Jonathan Cooper <drdada at gmail.com> wrote:

> I've just created a stack with fields that will contain text in Esperanto.
> I have a keyboard layout ("Esperanto-sc") installed on my Mac that allows
> me to type special accented Esperanto characters (eg, "ĉ", "ŭ").

I speak Esperanto fluently, and in the past have been quite active in the Esperanto community in Australia.

The easiest way to type Esperanto with your Mac is not by using a dedicated or custom-made keyboard layout, but by using a layout that is already pre-shipped as standard on every Mac installation: the 'US Extended" layout. This layout allows you to type just about *every* accented character in all latin-based alphabets. Using the 'US Extended' layout, you type the Esperanto characters like this:

* to type ĉ, ĝ, ĥ, ĵ, or ŝ, type "Option+6" to activate the circumflex, then the base character you want.
* to type ŭ, type "Option+B" (for 'breve', the name of the accent), then 'u'.

The advantage of using the 'US Extended' layout, is that it can also handle *all* other accented letters, from latin-based languages. I regularly have to write text in Brazilian Portuguese, for instance, which uses ç, ã, õ, à, á, é, ó, â and ô - and I do it all from the same 'US Extended' layout. I can confirm from first-hand experience that using the same layout you can also type text in Spanish, French, German, Polish, Icelandic, Maori and even Ghanan! These days, a user will normally only change keyboard layouts if they are changing *alphabets* - ie., if they are changing from a latin-based language to a cyrillic language - or greek, arabic, hebrew, chinese, etc. If you're sticking to latin languages, then you should be able to use a single keyboard layout. 

You will find, that 'extended' latin layouts exist in other systems as well. I know that a similar, all-ecompassing latin layout exists by default in the standard Ubuntu linux instal, and I would be very surprised if nothing like this were to be found in the current versions of Windows.

I hope this information helps! Se vi ankoraŭ havas dubojn, aũ se vi bezonas pli da informoj - aŭ se vi simple volas ekzerci vian Esperanton per babilado kun amika samideano - ne hezitu kontakti min eksterliste! :-)

Dezirante al vi sukceson en viaj esperantaj laboroj,

--
Igor Couto
Sydney, Australia