How to change keyboard language with ease?

[selianpi]

Hello guys. I'm an owner of RPi 2B, and I use the latest Raspbian version available.

I'm sorry if it's a noob question, but how can I change/cycle through two selected typing languages? For example in Windows I can select 2 desired languages to be able to type with, and cycle through them with Alt+Shift or Win+Space. Is there any way to do so with my RPi?

I mainly use English as my typing language, but Displaying language is Greek, but sometimes in Terminal I have to answer Y/N in Greek, so I go to settings, find Keyboard Layout, change to Greek, answer in Terminal then switch back to English. That's a little frustrating.

Thanks in advance.

[NormanDunbar]

Hi selianpi,

this might work for you....but only if you are using Raspbian and have the GUI in use. I assume that when you are using the Terminal, you are using it from the GUI and not at the command line.

So, having got that out of the way...

* Right-click on a blank part of the task bar - mine's at the top of the screen.
* Click Add/Remove panel items.
* Ensure you are on the Panel Applets tab.
* Click the Add button.
* Scroll Down until you find Keyboard Layout Handler.
* Select it, and click the Add button.
* You can move the new applet up and down etc as you desire.
* Click the OK button when done.

Now, you should have a flag in the task bar showing the keyboard layout currently in use. Click on the flag to change to any other defined keyboard.


HTH

Cheers,
Norm.

[NormanDunbar]

I forgot to mention that if you right-click the flag icon on the task bar, you can add more keyboards as desired:

* Right click the flag & select Keyboard Layout handler Settings.
* Uncheck Keep System Layouts
* Click Add button.
* Scroll down the list until you see the one you want, select it and click OK. Repeat as necessary.
* Note the Change Layout Option - mine is grp:Shift_caps_toggle.
* The close button seems to have no effect, close with the 'x' at the top!

Now you can either click the flag icon to cycle through the chosen and added keyboard layouts, or press SHIFT then CAPS then release. You should see the flag icon changing to suit each time you press it.

Obviously, you can change the key combination to suit how you are used to working.


HTH

Cheers,
Norm.

[selianpi]

Thanks for the help. I did add it, but there is no flag. I can although see a small gap where I put it, and right clicking on it will display "Keyboard Layout Handler settings". Clicking on that won't open anything for me. Going to Keyboard settings then layout from Menu won't open anything either.
I forgot to say that I'm remotely controlling the pi (XRDP), therefore this might be the reason (since Pi doesn't have any keyboard attached to it). I guess I'll use SSH to use terminal when I have to answer a Y/N answer, since I can easily change to Greek in Windows and answer the Y/N through SSH.

[NormanDunbar]

OK, good luck!

I don't have my pi set up headless o I can't comment on whether or not that is Wat is causing the problem. For what it's worth, I added French to my pi and that has an AZERTY rather than QWERTY keyboard layout. When I changed to zfrench, typing was "interesting" in Terminal. But that was all local to my pi.

Cheers,
Norm.