2015-01-16

Combined Russian-English keyboard layout for Mac (OSX).

I use this layout for more than a year on all my macs, it works just fine: Русско-английская раскладка для OsX с переключением кнопкой CapsLock. Nobody downloaded it yet, so I decided to give one more chance by placing instructions in English.

The combined layout is a single layout, where you have both Cyrillic and English character sets and you can use CapsLock modifier to switch between them. My file combines American layout and Russian Typewriter layouts.

I was using similar layout in Windows before and when I switched to Mac I started to look for a similar solution, but finally I've gave up and done it myself. The layout file is actually just an XML file mapping keyboard codes to unicode characters. There is no code in the layout file, so its safe to install.

Setup:
  1. Download the zip-file.
  2. Open (unpack) zip archive
  3. Copy "us-ru.keylayout" file to the "~/Library/Keyboard Layouts" to install layout for the current user or alternatively to the "/Library/Keyboard Layouts" to install for all users.
  4. If you don't know how to open Library in Finder: use 'Go' menu item in Finder and type "~/Library". It will open that folder.
  5. Open "System Preferences", navigate to "Keyboard / Input Sources", choose "US-RU" and add it to the list of active layouts. You can also make it default.
  6. I recommend to select "Use the same layout in all documents" option in Input Sources.
  7. You need to select this US-RU layout as active using keyboard indicator on menu bar.
  8. The menu indicator stays the same, but CapsLock light would show the actual mode: light on - Russian, light off - English.

There is no "Ё", sorry.

The CapsLock key does switch character set, but doesn't switch input language. Usually apps don't use that information. I don't type in Russian a lot, but it seems everything works just fine. I've tested the layout in Lion and Maverick. I haven't installed Yosemite yet.

Its Ok to ask questions or send me spelling corrections.

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