Help creating a keyboard layout shortcut.

March 25, 2010 12:16 PM

Mac users: Can somebody please tell me how to set up a keyboard shortcut or script that allows me to toggle between U.S. keyboard and International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) keyboard layouts? I switch these on and off a LOT when I'm using my iMac and Macbook, but am tired of constantly going up to the little flag dropdown menu in the Finder (which I have to do repeatedly as I switch from program to program, since the drop-down window change doesn't seem to apply globally, but rather only within the current program you have up top). I know there's an easier way, I just haven't gotten around to figuring it out or setting it up. Thanks!

I'd like to be able to switch this globally, btw. So that if i toggle it on/off, it applies regardless of whether or not I'm in Mail, Word, InDesign, or Firefox and until I toggle it back on/off. But if that can't be done, a keyboard shortcut would still significantly cut down on how many times I have to stop what I'm doing to switch keyboards using the finder icon at the top.

Bonus for a keyboard shortcut that shows/hides the Character Palette too!

Mac OS 10.5.8.

posted by iamkimiam to Computers & Internet (5 answers total)

Best answer: Command-Option-Space, but it's turned off by default because it clashes with Spotlight. Go to System Preferences -> Keyboard and Mouse -> Keyboard Shortcuts, turn off "Show spotlight Window" and turn on "Select the next input source".

Screenshot
posted by Mwongozi at 12:25 PM on March 25, 2010

Oh, and the character pallete is Command-Option-T.
posted by Mwongozi at 12:26 PM on March 25, 2010

As an alternate solution, have you considered the IPA Keyboard website? I find clicking on the chart is much faster than scrolling through a list of unicode symbols, and then you can copy/paste the results.
posted by sineala at 12:50 PM on March 25, 2010

Response by poster: Wow. So easy and so genius. Command+spacebar, I love it. Thanks!!!

Also, the IPA Keyboard website is kind of neat and I could see uses for that as well.
posted by iamkimiam at 2:11 PM on March 25, 2010

One more thing, which you probably know already, but just in case not: if you're using character viewer/palette a lot, be sure to put your most frequently used characters in "favorites" by clicking on the character and then the little tiny popup settings menu in the far lower left corner. Then you can choose the "favorites" tab (not really a tab, but i don't know what else to call it) in the top and get to all and only the ones you use. It took me a long time to figure this out but when I finally did it saved me a lot of time.
posted by tractorfeed at 3:06 PM on March 25, 2010