Tutorial - Setup Keyboard (Language) Indicator & Install Foreign (Language) Fonts

[dvarsam]

Tutorial:

How to Setup Keyboard (Language) Indicator & Install Foreign (Language) Fonts in Ubuntu:


1. On an Empty area of the Menu, right-click & select "Add to Panel...".

2. On the "Add to Panel" window that shows up, scroll down with the scroll bar on
the right & under the Utilities section, select "Keyboard Indicator".

3. Click on the button named "Add" & a Keyboard Indicator Icon should appear in
the middle of your Menu Toolbar (e.g. in My Computer, a "USA" keyboard
indicator showed up – in your PC, a diff Language could show, depending on
what Keyboard you selected when you installed Ubuntu)

4. Right-click on your "Keyboard Indicator" & select "Open Keyboard Preferences".

5. On the "Keyboard Preferences" window that shows up, select the Tab named
"Layouts".

6. Under the "Keyboard model", you should see the "Generic 104-key PC".

7. Under the "Selected layouts" section, YOUR installed Keyboard Layout should
show (e.g. as I said before in my case it is "U.S. English"). Click on the button
named "Add", to install a Second Keyboard Layout.

8. In my case, I selected "Greece".
Note:
If you select to install a Greek Keyboard Layout, do NOT expand the "Greece"
folder (you would get: Eliminate dead keys, Extended & Polytonic). Just select
"Greece" & click on the button named "OK". For other Keyboard Languages, you
are on your own to experiment & find out which selection works for you.

9. Now you should be able to see your installed "Selected layouts".
Note:
To install more Keyboard Layouts, follow steps 7-9.
To remove a Keyboard Layout, first select it & click on the button named
"Remove".

10. On the "Keyboard Preferences" window, select the Tab named: "Layout
Options"

11. Look for the option named: "Group Shift/Lock behavior" & expand it, to see its
options.

12. The following two options should be selected:

a. "Both Alt keys together change group." (this should already be
checked – leave it checked)
b. "Alt + Shift changes group." (check this too)
Note:
The combination "Alt+Shift", should change your Keyboard (Input)
Indicator, the same way it works in the Windows environment.

13. Click on the button named "Close" & test your "Alt+Shift" or "Alt+Alt"
combination to see whether the Keyboard (Input) Indicator changes on your
Menu Toolbar.

14. To Test whether your Ubuntu's Editor (mine is "gedit"), works with ALL your
installed Keyboard Layouts, select "Alt+F2". "Alt+F2" is the shortcut (way) to
launch the similar to Windows "Start\Run" window.

15. Inside the input box, type your favorite Editor's name (mine is "gedit").

16. Inside the Editor, try to type something in your English Keyboard & then try to
switch to your Greek Keyboard (or the one YOU installed), by pressing
"Alt+Shift". Again, try to type something in your (newly installed) Greek
Keyboard (or the one YOU installed) & voila!!! your Country's Keyboard is
setup & works Great!!!


Important Notes:

1. The (New) Keyboards you have ADDED, are installed ONLY for the User you are
currently Logged In as. If your Computer is used by MORE than one User, each
User MUST separately ADD / INSTALL their own preferred Keyboards. And that
includes the "root" user too!!!

2. The The (New) Keyboards you have ADDED, can ONLY be used to type Keyboard
(Language) Characters in applications / programs embedded to your Operating
System. The fact that you have installed them, does NOT mean that you can
USE them in separate applications / programs ALSO (such as the Open Office's
Writer – e.g. the equivalent to Microsoft Word).

3. In order to be able to type in your Open Office Writer with YOUR Language's
Fonts, you MUST install the appropriate Fonts for your Language.
For Example:
To be able to type in Open Office Writer (e.g. the equivalent to Microsoft Word) in
Greek you MUST go into a Windows PC and copy the ".ttf" (True Type Fonts) that
are used more often in typing Greek. In our case, copy: the "Times New
Roman.ttf", the "Arial.ttf" & the "Sans Seriff.ttf".
Alternatively, you could also search for these Fonts in the Internet.
Note:
You can NOT install ".fon" type Fonts in Ubuntu. ONLY ".ttf" (True Type Fonts).

For more information on installing Fonts, visit the following link:

http://linuxhelp.blogspot.com/2005/1...-in-linux.html

Note:
Keep in mind that Open Office does NOT use the SAME Fonts installed / used by
the Operating System (e.g. Ubuntu). However, the Fonts installed are
independent from the User. Every User can access / use ANY installed Font.
And there is NO Greek Font available for the "root" User.
To make things more clear, just visit the link specified above.

Have Fun!!!

[bountonw]

This thread on setting up multi-language support is also good.

http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=102760

[midra]

Hi there, I did this, but the indicator does not change. I just still get my default language, but I cannot get the language I added, although it is in the layouts list.

[midra]

Okay, if I click the indicator with my mouse it changes so it works, but I still cannot get it to change with my keyboard ALT + ALT nor ALT + SHIFT although they are enabled. Uh well, but as said, the mouse is working and that is as good as needed for me.

[Costas]

It really helped me installing the greek keyboard on my Ubuntu..thanxs a lot for the advices dvarsam! Keep up the fantastic work!

[Costas]

forgot to mention: it's awesome that such forums exist...especially for guys like me who got into Ubuntu (or linux in general) something like 3 weeks ago....and intend NEVER to use MS again...i was forced to get involved with linux, since i had to use a program that needed Lapack and was working in linux only....but thank God that i had to discovet linux!

thanx guys!

[xinelo]

Thanks for the tutorial, very clear.

It explains what I had already done myself but, unfortunately, it doesn't work for me, neither with mouse clicking nor with keyboard shortcut.

Any suggestions?

I'm using Ubuntu Dapper on a Dell Inspiron 8500 and I'd like to be able to type in Arabic.

Thanks a lot!
Cheers, xinelo

[dgbraun]

I have the opposite problem. It seems that when flash is in use on some websites or in trying to install programs under wine, the font is some type of greek/russian/cyrillic. How can I reset this to latin/english?
Thanks

[mormonchess]

Why only a maximum of 4 layouts?? In Windows, you can have all the layouts you want. Most irritating.

Is there any work around?

[simosx]

Originally Posted by mormonchess Why only a maximum of 4 layouts?? In Windows, you can have all the layouts you want. Most irritating. Is there any work around?

As far as I know there is no workaround. I hope it is sorted out soon. You can use a different system though to switch layouts such as SCIM which allows for more.