Apple Event: May 7th at 7 am PT
I would like to switch between English and French within the same document. In system settings I have both languages as preferences, with English as my primary.
On my PC, I have a keyboard shortcut or I can click the language icon.
How do I do this on a MacBook? Is there a keyboard shortcut? A language icon?
appleantilope wrote: I can't type the accents on the e.
No need to switch keyboards on a Mac, an English keyboard can type what you need for French
Enter characters with accent marks on Mac - Apple Support
appleantilope wrote: I can't type the accents on the e.
No need to switch keyboards on a Mac, an English keyboard can type what you need for French
Enter characters with accent marks on Mac - Apple Support
This got me where I needed to change the language with 1 click.
For someone else coming along here's the steps (see screenshots below and red arrows):
System settings > keyboard > Text input > Input Sources > Edit
There are other toggle options there that might be helpful to others as well.
After clicking done you'll be back in the keyboard window > Press fn key to
With these changes I can:
What do you mean by "switch between languages"? Spellcheck? Keyboard?
For spellcheck, you can try going to system preferences > keyboard > text > spelling and go the bottom of the dropdown to Setup and check only English and French and then put it on Automatic. How well it will work I don't know.
That's for Apple apps. For Word, you have to use its own settings.
It is difficult to understand what you are trying to accomplish. When I am typing a document in English and I want to insert some foreign language text I just type in the foreign language.
Que demandez-vous d'autre?
How then do you type French words with accents, for example Joyeux Noel? (I can't type the accents on the e.)
On my PC I click the windows key + space bar and the keyboard language changes. I do this whenever I want to type in French, which is regularly. Then I switch back to English when I want.
How do I do this on my MacBook whether I'm in an app or online?
What I mean is, can I switch the keyboard language in a click or two?
You can switch between Input Sources using control+space and control+option+space.
Depends on what app you are using. One method using Word: just select Insert Symbol and select the character and accent you want to use.
Hopefully that helps until you find the keyboard answer you are looking for.
appleantilope wrote:
How then do you type French words with accents, for example Joyeux Noel? (I can't type the accents on the e.)
You don't need anything to type English and French. You don't need different keyboards. Just select the default English keyboard. When you want to type any characters that don't occur in English, type them this way:
option e - á
option ` - à
option i - â
option u - ä
option n - ã
and a few others that are single keystroke options like:
option a - å
option c - ç
Want to get fancy?
option q - œ
option ' - æ
Want uppercase? No problem. Hold down the shift key.
This new pop-up method is something made for iOS that Apple then ported to the Mac. It regularly gets disabled when people upgrade their operating system. Sometimes the cause is some random antivirus app. Sometimes the cause is some random corrupt preferences file. I don't know. And I don't understand why anyone would willingly use it. If you are going to type maybe 3 non-english words a year, maybe then. But even then, it would be quicker to use copy and paste.
For some reason, once Apple started porting iOS to the Mac, this pop-up method is the only thing people will use anymore. And they will work for weeks trying to get it to work. Makes sense I guess. If people are willing to spend seconds typing a single letter instead of multiple letters in a single second, why wouldn't they want to waste a lot of time trying to do it?
<sigh>
Let me rephrase.
Can I switch the keyboard language in a click or two - without going to system preferences?
Glad it worked out.
Switching easily between two languages in one document on MacBook Pro
