by Michael S. Kaplan, published on 2012/10/30 07:01 -04:00, original URI: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/michkap/archive/2012/10/30/10363862.aspx
Sometimes, it is the attempts to simplify that can make things more complicated!
Like the other day, when I was asked:
Hi Michael, hope your recovery is going well! Do you know how I can get to the US –int’l keyboard (not touch) after adding the German lang pack? I can’t find it in the lists offered….
Thanks!
Now keyboard input can get pretty complicated in Windows 8.
There are all of the keyboards.
And the optimized for Multi-Touch soft keyboards.
And the On-Screen Keyboards.
But all of them are driven off that one list!
So in a way, all you have to do is Add an Input Method:
Then scroll down the list until you find the United States - International Touch Keyboard Layout:
And what you really get is the actual keyboard layout in the list!
Now it would have I think been more intuitive to not even mention the Touch Layouts at all, right?
I think the group that owns the touch layouts doesn't quite grok when they aren't wanted.... :-)
If only they didn't oversimplify so much!
Lars Viklund on 2 Nov 2012 2:43 AM:
Is it possible to turn an existing "legacy" non-touch keyboard layout (like the ones authored in MSKLC) like the venerable "altinter" into a "touch-labelled" layout?
I keep getting a spurious US layout injected into my system even though I only have my "altinter" loaded. I assume this is because some app requests touch services or something, but it might just be a plain bug in the OS. Heaven knows that there is stupidity around third party layouts, as can be seen in my rants about not being able to add layouts _at all_ during the CP period.
It feels quite strange that an OS that traditionally has had excellent support for third party keyboards would lose all this in a wild attempt to target some new perceived market, leaving people who rely on it in the dust.
Jan Kučera on 3 Nov 2012 11:20 AM:
I am afraid this "Add an input method" is an improvement I have biggest issues so far. It seems to deliberately hide input methods. Your screenshot is nice, but how do you add the US keyboard layout for your Cherokee language? How does the filter decide? Looks like it favorites keyboard layouts in the language's script, but how does it find it out, and is really correct to tie the language I want to use with keyboard layouts I am allowed to use?
Now how do you add your Tamil table driven text service as an input method for the Tamil language?
Jan Kučera on 3 Nov 2012 11:29 AM:
Lars, I am afraid this was already mentioned... blogs.msdn.com/.../10302072.aspx.