Unable to switch language with language bar

[Guest]

Recently I have been unable to switch between English and Spanish using the
language bar. The bar is there and opens. Clicking on a given language has
no effect and the language displayed by the bar remains the same as the
startup default language. I am able to switch languages using the Advanced
Key Settings. Is this a known bug or just my dumb luck?

 

[Guest]

If you are typing text in Notepad, for example, and you want the application to show Spanish characters, make sure that the Notepad window is active (this is important) and switch between English and Spanish from the Language Bar. This should change the keyboard layout/IME only for the Notepad window. When you finish typing text and close Notepad, the language shown in the Language Bar may change. If you want a 'fixed' keyboard layout you need to use the Text Services and Input Languages dialog box. The Language Bar placed on the taskbar is only useful for an English-speaking person who wants to write a letter or send an e-mail in Spanish or German, for example.

 

[Jon]

It's also questionable whether it's worth switching keyboard layouts for a
language like Spanish.

The ctrl-alt- <vowel> combination covers the accented vowels, and you can
use alt + <keypad combinations> for the ñ (n with tilde) eg alt+0209 or
alt+0241 , depending on your font and the quantities to be typed.

Jon

 

[Guest]

If you are typing text in Notepad, for example, and you want the application to show Spanish characters, make sure that the Notepad window is active (this is important) and switch between English and Spanish from the Language Bar. This should change the keyboard layout/IME only for the Notepad window. When you finish typing text and close Notepad, the language shown in the Language Bar may change. If you want a 'fixed' keyboard layout you need to use the Text Services and Input Languages dialog box. The Language Bar placed on the taskbar is only useful for an English-speaking person who wants to write a letter or send an e-mail in Spanish or German, for example.

--
Greetings,
Daniel Martín



Your last sentence is what I want to do. It was working fine for quite a while. When my wife needed Spanish to send an email, she just clicked the language bar and chose Spanish. I put a keyboard shortcut in the language setup so we can swithc back and forth but the language bar doesn't reflect which language is currently active.

 

[Guest]

It's easier to switch keyboards for a non touch typist with a slight
handicap. Plus there's that whole computer literacy learning curve thing
teaching her the alt+code.