Windows – way to use three keyboard languages, having two of them being switchable with a keystroke and the third one to be enabled by a hotkey

hotkeyskeyboard-layoutwindowswindows 8.1

I use Windows 8.1 and I constantly need two keyboard layouts – QWERTY (en) and ЙЦУКЕН (ru), but I also use Microsoft IME (ja) from time to time. Having all three of them enabled is extremely uncomfortable, since I have to cycle through two layouts to get to the third, but having to add and remove japanese layout every single time I need it is tideous and even less comfortable.

Is there a way to set Alt+Shift to switch between English-Russian-English layouts and a hotkey to temporarily enable Microsoft IME Japanese layout?

Best Answer

Note that this isn't exactly what the OP asked for. It will work for the intended purpose (of not having to deal with the Alt + Shift cycling combination) by instead having 3 different and separate combinations for each layout.

I'm using by reference what is written here in this 7tutorials post, mainly because it has accurate and explicit screenshots.

An important note though: the last steps refer only to changing the combination that deals with the keyboard layout switch. Selecting whatever keyboard layout you want (in your case, the Japanese IME) and then pressing "Change Key Sequence" will show a different window than the one presented. You can choose to combine Left Alt + Shift + a number between 0 and 9, for instance. As such, you could have the following setup:

Left Alt + Shift + 1 for the QUERTY (en) layout
Left Alt + Shift + 2 for the ЙЦУКЕН (ru) layout
Left Alt + Shift + 3 for the Japanese IME layout

How to Change the Keyboard Shortcut

To change the keyboard shortcut used for switching the input language, open the Language panel, found in "Control Panel -> Clock, Language, and Region -> Language".

Here, click or tap the Advanced Settings link on the left.

This takes you to the "Language Advanced Settings" panel. It should look similar to the screenshot below.

Click or tap the "Change language bar hot keys" link in the "Switching input methods" section.

A new window opens, named "Text Services and Input Languages". This is the place where you can change the keyboard shortcut for switching between input languages. Click or tap "Change Key Sequence".

Select the keyboard combination you would like to use as a shortcut and click or tap OK.

Related Solutions

Windows – Multiple input languages, switch between two

I solved this problem using AutoHotKey.

Set up 3 languages, a hotkey for switching between them and another hotkey for switching to the language you want to skip. I had English, Russian and Japanese and wanted to skip Japanese so I assigned Ctrl+Shift+0 to switch to JP.

I already had an AutoHotKey script that allowed me to switch between all the 3 languages using Caps. It looked like this:

CapsLock::Send, {Alt Down}{Shift Down}{Shift Up}{Alt Up}

The idea is to switch the language automatically once you switched to the language you want to skip. It's 0x0411 for Japanese. Paste yours in the if clause in the script below, save it and run it.

Here is the list of language ids, find yours in the first column.

The script only works for switching between languages using CapsLock but you can adapt it to Alt+Shift switch. Probably just by replacing "CapsLock" with "{Alt Down}{Shift Down}{Shift Up}{Alt Up}".

CapsLock::
Send, {Alt Down}{Shift Down}{Shift Up}{Alt Up}

if !LangID := GetKeyboardLanguage(WinActive("A"))
{
    MsgBox, % "GetKeyboardLayout function failed " ErrorLevel
    return
}

if (LangID = 0x0411)
    Send, {Alt Down}{Shift Down}{Shift Up}{Alt Up}
return

GetKeyboardLanguage(_hWnd=0)
{
    if !_hWnd
        ThreadId=0
    else
        if !ThreadId := DllCall("user32.dll\GetWindowThreadProcessId", "Ptr", _hWnd, "UInt", 0, "UInt")
            return false

    if !KBLayout := DllCall("user32.dll\GetKeyboardLayout", "UInt", ThreadId, "UInt")
        return false

    return KBLayout & 0xFFFF
}

Best Answer

How to Change the Keyboard Shortcut

Related Solutions

Windows – Multiple input languages, switch between two

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