Configuring International Preferences


Mac OS X is a multilingual and multiregional operating system. It can display menus, dialogs, and other text in a variety of languages. These include not only languages that use the Roman alphabet, such as English, Spanish, French, and German, but also languages with much larger sets of characters, such as Japanese. Besides accommodating differences in language structure, writing direction, and alphabetical sorting, Mac OS X can also adjust for regional differences in formats for displaying dates, times, numbers, and currency. With Mac OS X, you’re not limited to working in one language at a time. You can work in multiple languages and switch languages while you work. However, you may need to install special applications to create documents in different languages.

Choosing a language

Most but not all Mac OS X applications are able to display their menus, dialogs, and other text in a number of different languages. Applications with this ability include the Finder and the majority of the applications preinstalled in the Applications and Utilities folders. You can choose the language you want these Mac OS X applications to use.

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Language Script Systems and Keyboard Layouts

The world’s languages have many different alphabets and methods of writing (vertical or horizontal, left-to-right, or right-to-left). The software that defines a method of writing is called a language script system, or simply a script. Do not confuse this kind of script with the kind of script you create with AppleScript (as described in Chapter 23.

A language script system specifies which character in the specified language each keystroke produces as well as how the characters should behave — for example, the direction in which text flows. The script also specifies sort order, number and currency formats, and date and time formats.

Multiple languages can use one language script system. For example, the Roman script is used in most Western languages, such as English, French, Italian, Spanish, and German.

Associated with each language script system are one or more keyboard layouts. A keyboard layout defines the relationship between keys you press and characters entered. For example, the keyboard layout for U.S. English produces a # symbol when you press Shift-3, but the same keystroke produces a symbol with the British English keyboard layout.

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The selection of language preference for menus and dialogs for Mac OS X’s Finder and applications is done in the Language panel. The Language panel contains a Languages list of available languages, as shown in Figure 13-24. Each time you open an application, Mac OS X tells it to use the languages in the list specified in order of preference from top to bottom. If the application doesn’t support menus in that language, Mac OS X tells it to use the next language in the list, and so on down the list. Not all languages are available with a default installation of Mac OS X; some languages may require you to install additional fonts before you can view the characters for those languages. Check the Mac OS X Install Disc 3 CD for the availability of additional fonts.

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Figure 13-24: Set the language you want for Mac OS X menus and dialogs in the Language panel.

You change the order of preference for the language that Mac OS X applications use by rearranging the order in the Languages list. Drag your first language choice to the top of the list. Drag your second language choice to the second spot on the list and continue in this manner so that the languages are in descending order of preference. Language changes take effect in the Finder the next time you log in.

You can add languages to the list and remove them from it. Click the Edit button to see a dialog that lists all installed languages. In this sheet, select the checkbox of each language that you want to appear in the Languages list. You can change the sorting in the dialog by clicking a column heading.

The somewhat trickier task is to apply and configure the language preferences for a specific application. This is done within the Show Info window of a selected application from within the Finder. Figure 13-25 illustrates the languages portion of the Show Info window of the QuickTime Player application. Within the Languages section of the Show Info window, you also see a list of available system languages. The list of languages is alphabetized and cannot be reordered. Checking and unchecking the boxes adjacent to the languages can alter the application’s language selection.

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Figure 13-25: The Languages portion of the Show Info window of an application allows you to select your preferred language for that application.

For example, say that you want to open QuickTime up in French, but only QuickTime. You would need to highlight the QuickTime player within the Finder, choose Show Info from the File menu, and select Languages from the pop-up menu. Next, you would uncheck the all the languages except for French. This task can be executed regardless of whether the application is active, but in order for the language change to take effect for an application that is active, you need to quit and then relaunch the application. Upon restart, the application will open in the desired language, which in this instance is French, as shown in Figure 13-26.

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Figure 13-26: SACR BLEU — QuickTime en Fran ais!

In the event that more than one language is checked within the Language section of the Show Info window, the preferred language of the application will be determined by the order of the languages within the Language panel of the International preference pane. For example, say that both Spanish and French are checked within the Show Info window of the QuickTime Player (refer to Figure 13-25), and the order of languages within the Language panel of the International preference pane is as follows: English, Deutsch, Espa ol, Fran ais, Nederlands, Italiano, and Chinese (refer to Figure 13-24). Upon launching, QuickTime’s default language would be Spanish (see Figure 13-27).

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Figure 13-27: El Queso es viejo y mojado — QuickTime en Espa ol.

Customize Sorting

As stated previously, the software that defines a method of writing is called a language script system, or simply a script. Languages may use the same script, yet have different rules for alphabetizing, capitalizing, and distinguishing words. In Mac OS X, this set of rules is called a text behavior. You choose a text behavior for Mac OS X applications by clicking the Customize Sorting button. In this sheet, select one of the installed language script systems from the list on the left and then choose one of the script’s regional languages from the adjacent pop-up menu on the right. For example, the Roman script system in Mac OS X has different text behavior rules for Austrian, Brazilian, Canadian French, Catalan, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Norwegian, Portuguese, Spanish, and Swedish.

Formats panel

You can set up standard formats for displaying dates, times and numbers. The Finder uses these formats in list views, the Info window, and elsewhere. Other applications may use these formats, or they may have their own preference settings.

Dates, Time, and Numbers

You set date, time, and numbers formats for Mac OS X applications in the Formats panel, as shown in Figure 13-28. This is accomplished by selecting the region the computer will be used for, such as Botswana or Zimbabwe. You can also create a custom format by using the customize buttons.

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Figure 13-28: The Measurement Units pop-up menu allows for the selection of U.S. and Metric units.

Input Menu panel

Each language has a different keyboard layout. For example, on the keyboard layout for Spanish, you can type the letter n with a tilde ( ) by pressing one key instead of the two keys required for the same letter on a U.S. English keyboard layout. In addition, the question mark is in a different location, with an upside down question mark next to it on the Spanish keyboard layout, and the keys for adding accents to vowels are more accessible. Regions with the same language, such as Australia, Britain, Canada, and the U.S. have different keyboard layouts. You can even find special keyboard layouts for alternate typing methods, such as the Dvorak layout for typing English.

You can switch to a different keyboard layout or input method to facilitate entering or editing text in another language. You can switch keyboard layouts by using several different methods. If you regularly use multiple languages, you can set up the keyboard menu. You can also employ keyboard shortcuts for switching keyboard layouts, and you can have Mac OS X automatically switch the keyboard layout when you select text that uses a different script. For Mac OS X applications, you configure this using the Options sheet of the Input Menu panel.

Note

Keep in mind that the key labels printed on your keyboard do not change when you switch keyboard layouts. If you change to a different layout, some keys no longer generate the characters printed on them.

If your computer has more than one language script system, switching keyboard layouts may also change script systems. Each keyboard layout implicitly designates a script system. For example, switching from the U.S. keyboard layout to the Japanese keyboard layout implicitly switches from the Roman script system to the Japanese script system.

You set up a keyboard menu and configure other keyboard options for Mac OS X applications by clicking the Input Menu panel, which displays a list of available keyboard layouts. You can change the sorting in the list of keyboard layouts by clicking a column heading, as shown in Figure 13-29.

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Figure 13-29: Select keyboard layouts for the Mac OS X Keyboard menu in the Input Menu panel.

By checking Show input in menu bar or by turning on more than one keyboard layout, a keyboard input menu appears in the Finder’s menu bar, as shown in Figure 13-30. The keyboard input menu lists the keyboard layouts that are turned on in the Input Menu panel. You can change the active keyboard layouts by choosing a different one from the list in this menu.

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Figure 13-30: Switch Mac OS X’s keyboard layout by choosing another one from the Keyboard menu.

To view keyboard layouts place a check in the box next to keyboard viewer in the Input Menu panel and select Show Keyboard Viewer (located in the Input menu on the Finder’s menu bar) shown in Figure 13-31.

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Figure 13-31: Use the Keyboard Viewer to identify what key combinations generate which characters.

Character palettes

Depending upon the languages that are selected, the keyboard menu will display character palettes. Character palettes, are floating windows that facilitate the use of difficult-to- remember or difficult-to-reproduce foreign language characters. The last item in the keyboard input menu is Open International, which is a shortcut for opening the International preferences pane. Languages with large character sets augment the keyboard with other methods of inputting characters. For example, Japanese has input methods that involve a control palette, additional windows, and a menu, as shown in Figure 13-32.


Figure 13-32: Japanese and other languages with many characters offer additional input methods besides a keyboard.

As mentioned previously, there are several ways you can switch between input methods. Aside from the Finder’s input Menu, you can use the Input mode palette, which is enabled from the Input Menu. A floating pallet will appear on the screen containing all of the selected keyboard layouts from the Input Menu pane. This palette, in theory, should be available in all applications. If you want to be able to rapidly switch between the last two used scripts in the input, use the key combination z-Option-Spacebar or have Mac OS X automatically switch layouts when you select text that uses a different script. You can always cycle through all of. the language scripts available in Mac OS X by pressing z-Spacebar. Figure 13-33 shows the dialog in which you set the options for switching keyboard layouts. To enable or disable the latter two of these abilities, click the Options button in the Input Menu panel, which displays a sheet in which these items can be configured.

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Figure 13-33: Set optional methods of switching the Mac OS X keyboard layout by clicking Options in the Input Menu panel.




Mac OS X Bible, Panther Edition
Mac OS X Bible, Panther Edition
ISBN: 0764543997
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2003
Pages: 290

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