Topic Keyman keyboard not activated with alt-Shift

I am currently using two languages and two keyboards:
I use English with the standard Windows keyboard, and,
Greek with a Keyman developed keyboard.
In the languages section of the Keyman Desktop configuration I have associated the Greek language with my Greek keyman keyboard, but I have set nothing for English, since I do not use a Keyman keyboard for this language.
Whenever I toggle between the two languages using Alt-Shift, the keyboards activated are always the default Windows ones. Never my Keyman Greek keyboard.
Any one knows what I am doing wrong?

Hi Amaryllis,

What operating system are you using?

Also, are you switching languages before or after starting an application? As a test, can you start Notepad and try switching to Greek with Alt+Shift once it's started?


Kind regards,

Paul Durdin

I am using Windows XP Home Edition Version 2002, Service Pack 2

I did the test from within Notepad & Word, i.e. after having started the application.
In both cases, languages changes occur normally, but with the Windows, not the Keyman, keyboard activated.

Thanks,
Amaryllis

I got exactly the same problem.
but with the Iranian phonetic keyboard.
i showed this program to a friend of mine who works as a translator, and he likes it a lot as it allows him to type Iranian phonetically in MS word or other programmes (he had a basic text editor that did the same thing but it was really basic and no longer adequate)
he's only 3 days into the trial period but he want to buy it allready.
but every time his PC is rebooted the alt+shift no longer activates the keyman keyboard, and actually manually activating it also doesn't work most of the time so far.
i can fix the problem very easily by adding (and i think also by removing) a keyboard from the regional and language options

just hit details there, and add or remove a keyboard from Farsi.

but is a bit of a pain to have to do that at every reboot.

my friend is using XP pro SP2
his XP version is Dutch, the keyboard he uses for that is united states-international
for Farsi/Iranian he has the default Farsi layout, and we add and remove the united states-international keyboard to fix the problem.

keyman is started with windows and he hits the evaluate button as soon as it appears before he starts word.

i hope this can be fixed for his sake because he really loves the program when it works.

Here are some more details on this:

I want to use the windows layout for english and my keyman keyboard layout for greek.

The only way to make alt-shift produce the right keyboards is
(a) to add the english & greek languages to the keyboard (or regional) settings using the standard MS keyboards.
(b) to set Keyman Desktop Parameters ---> Languages ---> Greek keyboards settings ---> my keyman keyboard.

This has been tested on both Windows 2000 & Windows XP.

EXCEPT THAT:

Setting the Keyman Desktop configuration --> Languages --> installed language to a keyman language does not always work. I had to try unsuccessfully several times, before it was finally accepted, and even then, it did not stay set for ever. Many times, I have had to reset it!

This makes the entire keyman solution unsusable for people who change languages frequently.

Please, do something about it.

Best regards

Amaryllis, Vincent,

I am working presently on this issue to try and track and resolve it. Unfortunately, up to this point we have been unable to reproduce the problem on our test computers.

Could I ask you to complete the following steps and answer a couple of questions to help us locate the issue:

1. Send us a diagnostic report

We can use the data in the report to try and reproduce the environment on our test machines. Amaryllis, I know you have sent in a report previously - could you send a new one anyway as the report you sent previously did not have any Keyman keyboards installed.

a) In Keyman Desktop Configuration, select Support, Diagnostics.
b) After the report window appears, Click "Send Report to Tavultesoft".

2. Check Keyman Desktop Configuration's Languages page

Does Keyman Desktop Configuration report that the keyboards are correctly associated with the languages in its Languages tab, even when Keyman Desktop itself does not do the association correctly?

3. Try restarting Keyman Desktop

Does closing down Keyman Desktop and restarting it make any difference? Wait a couple of minutes after Windows starts before doing this (e.g. wait for hard disk activity to slow down as that is a useful indicator that Windows has finished loading startup applications).

Please feel free to write to me directly through our support email address [email protected] if you prefer. I will keep working on the issue from this end but the above information will greatly help.

Kind Regards,

Marc Durdin

1. I sent you a report with my two keymangreek keyboards installed.
2. No. Keyman Desktop Configuration does not report that the keyboards are correctly associated with the languages in its Languages tab. Setting them correctly and hitting OK, does not change anything: all languages (english, greek 000001 and greek 000002) are marked "use Windows layout". In fact, the only times the keyboard alternation functioned was when the above settings worked, but I have not been able to determine unde which circumstances this happens.
ATTENTION! Although I cannot associate the greek language with the greek keyboards, I can associate the English language (first in the column of languages) to one of the Greek keyboards! That may give you a clue in your investigation for the reason of the problem.
3. No. Closing Keyman Desktop down and restarting does not change anything.

Amaryllis,

Apologies for the delay in responding - I have been out of the office in meetings for the last 4 days. I have been able to track down part of the issue here. Your diagnostic report indicates that you have added the Keyman keyboards through the Control Panel/Regional and Language Options/Languages dialog. Can you try the following for me:

1. Remove the two Greek layouts from Control Panel/Regional and Language Options.
2. Add Greek, but instead of choosing the Keyman keyboards, select US or Greek (either would be fine) for the layout. Do this also for your second Greek keyboard.
3. Click OK and close all the dialogs, then open Keyman Configuration.
4. On the Languages tab, select the Keyman keyboard to associate with each of the Greek language entries.
5. Click OK, then test to see if this fixes the problem.

I am currently investigating the issue with adding Keyman keyboards to the Control Panel/Regional and Language Options/Languages dialog.

Marc,thank you, it works.
I will also try it on other machines and if I get a problem I will let you know.
Best regards,
Amaryllis