How to switch languages in Catalina

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Level 1

24 points

How to switch languages in Catalina

On my previous iMac with Mohave I had an icon (British flag + the word British) on the right of the upper menu bar which I used to switch to French or Welsh and to launch the keyboard where I selected the accented letters required. This is missing on my new iMac with Catalina. I've added these two languages in the Preferences/keyboard/input sources and ticked the "Show input menu in menu bar", but I see nothing in the menu bar. Can anyone help please?

iMac 21.5″, macOS 10.15

Posted on Sep 23, 2020 6:47 AM

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Answer 1

Tom Gewecke

Level 10

116,546 points

Sep 23, 2020 1:06 PM in response to willjm

willjm wrote:

Yes I can switch the language using the control key but how do I access the keyboard to select an accented letter?

Try turning on the accessibility keyboard

https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/use-the-accessibility-keyboard-mchlc74c1c9f/10.15/mac/10.15

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Answer 2

Tom Gewecke

Level 10

116,546 points

Sep 23, 2020 12:11 PM in response to willjm

willjm wrote:

"Show keyboard" is already on but I cannot see where to access the keyboard. There is nothing in the menu bar.

Very strange not to see the "flag" menu there. Does Control Space or Command Space switch your input source?

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Answer 3

willjm Author

Level 1

24 points

Sep 24, 2020 4:12 AM in response to Tom Gewecke

OK. When I turn on the accessibility keyboard I get an icon of a person with out spread arms in the top menu, but when I click on it the menu contains several grey inaccessible items, none of them languages. The only accessible item is accessibility preferences. This takes me to the accessibility window in which I can access the on-screen keyboard but, after selecting French there are no accents visible. On my old iMac when I use the flag in the top menu bar I can select the language and then the keyboard which contains the accents. So I'm stuck.

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