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The globe key on iPad keyboard used to offer different languages. But no more. How do I fix it?
(I looked under settings->general->key boards, but nothing seems wrong.)
(Maybe this happened when I last updated iOS…)
iPad Air 3 WiFi, Cellular
Tom Gewecke wrote:
I had not noticed that before, is it new? In any case, very useful, thanks.
I think it was added with iOS 14.
tenasakai wrote:
The question I have at this point is that: how would I get that pill shaped icon outside of app (like Pages)?
Tena Sakai
It should come up any time you tap on a place where you can type in text such as the Messages text box, the text box in this very website, the search bar in a browser, etc... Assuming of course there is a physical keyboard connected to the iPad.
The version in the Pages App is a longer toolbar with other buttons. The version anywhere else should just show the language and microphone icons as shown in the image I added above.
It can be placed at the bottom left or right corners and floats above other stuff.
Tom Gewecke wrote:
I had not noticed that before, is it new? In any case, very useful, thanks.
I think it was added with iOS 14.
tenasakai wrote:
The question I have at this point is that: how would I get that pill shaped icon outside of app (like Pages)?
Tena Sakai
It should come up any time you tap on a place where you can type in text such as the Messages text box, the text box in this very website, the search bar in a browser, etc... Assuming of course there is a physical keyboard connected to the iPad.
The version in the Pages App is a longer toolbar with other buttons. The version anywhere else should just show the language and microphone icons as shown in the image I added above.
It can be placed at the bottom left or right corners and floats above other stuff.
Do you see a small pill shaped box at the bottom of the iPad screen with a language icon and a microphone?
That's normally the Language selector for the keyboard when using a physical keyboard.
You can tap on that to change languages. If you don't see it, make sure its turned on in Settings->General->Keyboards->Shortcuts
What exactly do you see on your list in settings > general > keyboard > keyboards? Your different languages have to be on that list. If not, use the Add New Keyboard button to put them there.
You are talking about the screen keyboard, right?
> What exactly do you see on your list in settings > general > keyboard > keyboards?
Thank you for your response. Here’s the list I see:
English (US)
Emoji
Japanese - Kana
Japanese - Romaji
Chinese, Traditional - Pinyin
English (Japan) // this line is repeated twice
> Your different languages have to be on that list.
I am interested in Japanese and Chinese, which are definitely on this list. In fact…
> If not, use the Add New Keyboard button to put them there.
…the languages I am interested in are not found under ‘Add New Keyboard’ button.
> You are talking about the screen keyboard, right?
I am not positive what you mean by ‘the screen keyboard.’ I use a third-party folio / case and the keyboard is part of the case. In fact until this happened, folio keyboard and screen keyboard were different manifestation of the same thing, kinda. I am typing what you see via folio keyboard and every key works, EXCEPT the Globe key.
Do you know what the (CTRL-, Cmd-, Alt-) alternative for the Globe key is? I ask this in a slight chance that the key is physically broken — so that I won’t fall into unnecessary rabbit hole.
Thanks in advance,
Tena Sakai
tenasakai wrote:
I use a third-party folio / case and the keyboard is part of the case.
Thanks for adding that vital info. iPads do not come with hardware keyboards, so unless you say otherwise the assumption would be that your problem is with the screen keyboard.
Control Space is the standard shortcut to change layouts on a hardware keyboard. The Fn/Globe key should also work, but with a non-Apple product it may not.
Let us know if control space works ok.
tenasakai wrote:
I tried CTRL-SP and nothing happened.
That's very odd, it should always work, no way to turn it off as far as I know. You should get a list of your keyboards on the screen normally. Check the Modifier key item in the hardware keyboard settings to make sure they are on the default.
Fn and Globe are the same key for Apple.
Also you can use Caps Lock to switch between latin and non-latin keyboards, if you turn that on in the hardware keyboard settings.
Wow! Very insightful…
There is no pill shaped icon anywhere on my screen. Then I thought, wait, wait, I have seen it… Where have I seen it? Then it occurred to me that when I use Pages and highlight word(s) that pill shaped icon shows in the lower-right corner of the screen -mine says {EN US}. When I click, it shows a bunch of options and some of the options offered are use of different language. Having highlighted a word, I chose Japanese language option, and, lo and behold, it changed the English word to Japanese equivalent. (I had never seen these extra languages options until a few minutes ago. The way I used this feature is to put extra vertical tab / slew into the document I am composing. I swear that these options are implemented very recently…)
So that’s the observation I made out of your referring to the pill shaped icon.
I did check out Setting->General->Keyboard->Keyboards->ShortCuts option. It was already turned on. But I turned it off and back on. No difference resulted.
The question I have at this point is that: how would I get that pill shaped icon outside of app (like Pages)?
Tena Sakai
I found an app called Logitech Control. (My keyboard case + keyboard is product of Logitech.). I decided to run the app. It told me it was updating hardware and took about 10 minutes. When it announced that update was done, I checked if I could find the pill shaped icon.
No, there is none. I shuted down the iPad, then restarted. Nothing changed.
Then I thought maybe I misunderstood what Phil0124 mentioned. Namely. I thought the pill shaped icon is always on the lower-right corner of the screen, but what if I was misinterpreting his idea. What if the pill shaped icon would manifest only when the iPad is receiving input from me (or any user)? I decided to test my hypothesis. I invoked my mail program and started a new message and pressed the Globe key. Bingo! Similar to what I saw in Pages app occurred. One of options was {EN US} and by tapping it I was able to change it to a letter in a set of kana (Japanese alphabets), which looked like {あ} — the use of curly braces is to overcome my inability to produce pill shaped icon.
The rest was not hard and I was able to do what I really needed to do.
Many thanks to suggestions and guidance from Phil0124 and M10LMAC.
Tena Sakai
PS: I see the microphone icon along the choices of languages. I don’t know yet what it would do, but I will find out in time. :)
The microphone appears when you turn on Dictation in the iPad settings.
Dictate text on iPad - Apple Support
It is still strange that your updated Logitech will not honor the Control Space shortcut.
I tried CTRL-SP and nothing happened. I don’t see Function Key on this keyboard.
Although not definitive, I am inclined to think this is not a hardware key issue…
Tena Sakai
Phil0124 wrote: Do you see a small pill shaped box at the bottom of the iPad screen with a language icon
I had not noticed that before, is it new? In any case, very useful, thanks.
using different language
