Seperate dictionnary language and keyboard layout

[yvon]

I'm french, used to work with an Azerty keyboard. But I write quite a few email in English. So :

- if I choose "FR", I have my keyboard, but not the english dictionnary

- if I choose "EN", I have the english dictionnary, but then a QWERTY keyboard, which generates lots of typing errors.

Dictionnary and keyboard layout are two different things, could you keep them separate ? In my opinion, the language key (FR, EN, ...) should change the dictionnary, but to change the keyboard layout it should be an option deep in the option menu, as this a huge change in the UI, even more than changing skin.

Thanks for your help

[cyril]

Hi
I think only french people need this
I thought of doing this but it doesn't make sense for many languages (try to use an english dictionary on a russian layout ) and it would make the settings menu more complex.
Anyway I just added an AZERTY english layout, hope it's enough for now

[yvon]

Hi,

English Azerty is a fix, that's right !! I'm going to donwload it immediately !

BTW, using a keyboard not "tuned" to a language happen a lot, on my PC for example : I can switch Windows to Turkish, and then I have three options, none perfect :

- type Turkish with a French Keyboard
- type Turkish with an Turkish logic keyboard, mapped on a hardware French keyboard (nightmare...)
- change the physical keyboard...

Well, the first option is finally the best as far as I'm concerned, using combinnations I can generate all the Turkish letters...

Another way to handle that problem is that as English is the smallest character set (Unicode > Ansi > Ascii), most european keyboards can write english, whilts the opposite is not true. So if the user switch from an elaborate language and keyboard, to english, he/she could keep his/her keyboard, but if you switch to a language more complex than english, you *may* wish to adapt the keyboard....

Thanks for your help anyway,

[AllanTépper]

I agree with Yvon. I always type with a Spanish ISO keyboard, which is capable of typing directly in many languages, including Castilian (aka "Spanish"), Catalán, English, French, Portuguese, and others. Every day, I write about 50% of my e-mails/SMS in Castilian, and the other 50% in English. When I alternate the language, I only want to change the language, not the keyboard. I always want the keyboard to be the Spanish ISO keymap, and alternate the language which affects spelling and avoid typographical errors.

For people like me and Yvon, the Language key on your keyboard should only change the language, and the keymap should be deep inside a menu option that is changed very infrequently.

[huuub]

I think many people woul benefit from the layout being seperate from the language.
You can by default leave them but an option to change the layout to a non native layout would be excellent.
In Belgium we need AZERTY with a dutch dictionary.
(I am searching in the forum how to add words but can't find it)
(also keeping track of choosing suggestions that adds preference would be great)

[cyril]

Yes I can do something but as I said before that would add some complexity to the settings..
As the only people who complain are French/Belgian who need AZERTY, I prefer to add AZERTY whenever needed

[Ducklair]

I would like to second the request. I am used to typing on a German QWERTZ layout, but besides German I also write a lot in English and Italian. I would love to be able to switch between those languages without changing the keyboard layout. It's not a major issue, but I keep looking for Z and Y in the wrong places, and this somewhat slows down typing.

[Mandark]

Seriousley, a lot of the non-English users would like the option of using their language's keyboard layout (if latin, obv) and still have access to the English dictionary.

Myself, for instance, would prefer to have the option of choosing more than one dictionary as the 'active' one, leaving me with, for instance, suggestions from my native tongue in addition to the English ones.

[cyril]

It's not that simple... but I'm thinking about a new way of handling languages and layouts

[cyril]

So... there are several ways of implementing this, but to keep it simple, I propose to add an option "Lock latin layout", or "Override latin layout" (feel free to propose a better name ) which will give a menu similar to the "Language" menu with all the possible latin layouts. The chosen layout will override what is selected in the "language key" menu (of course it will override only the layout, not the language!).

This implementation will not cover all the possible situations, but I hope it will be enough for all of you