Posts Tagged ‘input languages’

How to change between languages in Mac OS X (Switch between input languages with key combination)

Monday, October 7th, 2013
Ever wondered how to change between set input languages in Mac OS X? If you're coming from Windows background you already are used to keyboard switch mapping Alt + Shift or CTRL + Shift. 

So how to do switch keyboard language setting in Mac OS X ?
Navigate to:

Apple Icon (upper left on screen) -> System Preferences->Language & Text -> Input Sources -> (Tick on Keyboard and Character View) -> Keyboard Shortcuts -> (Select the previous input source).

mac-osX-system-preferences

mac-OSX-system-preferences-keyboard-and-text

keyboard-and-character-viewer-not-selected

By default Mac OS X is set to open SpotLight with same key language switch combination as for switch between languages (key binded are CMD + Space), thus CMD + Space will not work to switch languages.

mac-osx-keyboard-and-character-viewer

select-the-previous-input-source MAC OS X change languages set screenshot

Click on Select the previous input source and rebind it to something else (something very close is cmd + z or alt + z). Onwards you can switch between languages with whatever key binded. Unfortunately there is no default way to make Mac OS X change languages with Windows classical Alt + Shift. 

There is however external app KeyRemap4macbook capable to customize Keyboard mapping to familiar Alt + Shift
I don't like installing it, prefer using default OS features and bind language switch to Alt+Z.