Keyboard Switch

Welcome to the Keyboard Switch docs!

Keyboard Switch is an application which switches typed text as if it were typed with another keyboard layout.

If you ever write some text and then realize that you have written it using a wrong layout, you don't have to delete it and start over anymore. Just select the text, press a magic key combination, and that's it!

I hope this app will make your life at least 1% easier :)

If you're using version 3, then you should upgrade to version 4 as soon as possible since it contains major improvements.

How The App Works

The app is composed of two parts: the Keyboard Switch service and the Keyboard Switch Settings app. The service always runs in the background (and starts when you log into the system) and listens to key presses. When you press the magic key combination, it reacts by copying the selected text, transforming it, and pasting it for you. The settings app is used for configuring the service and for starting/stopping it manually.

Here are the basic steps you should take to switch the text:

• Type some text using an incorrect layout

• Realise your mistake

• Select the text (you can press Ctrl+A to select all text)

• Press the magic key combination (the default is pressing Ctrl+Shift twice)

• Profit

The app uses the clipboard to get the text to transform, and then puts the transformed text back into the clipboard. Bear this in mind when you use it - if you have anything else in the clipboard, it will be lost. This isn't that big of an issue since Windows 10 October 2019 Update, because you can enable multiple items in the clipboard.

The app simulates pressing Ctrl+C to copy and Ctrl+V to paste text. This is the default behaviour for most (if not all) applications. But if you are working in an app which behaves differently on those key presses, this app will not be able to instantly switch text. You can disable this behaviour, and copy/paste the text manually.

Supported Platforms

This app works only on Windows 10. It can probably work on older versions of Windows as well, but I'm not going to support them. Future versions of the app will be supported on other platforms, so if you don't use Windows then stay tuned!

Layouts

The app uses the list of your layouts in the same order as defined by the system. You can switch both forward and backward through this list. The app also automatically changes your layouts, so you don't have to do it yourself. You can disable this as well if you so wish. You cannot add a layout that's not present as one of the system's layouts. If you add/remove a layout while the app is running, you'll have to configure it in the settings and restart the service.

This app is "Western-oriented". I developed it specifically to handle switching between Cyrillic and Latin scripts. I don't know how it will work (if at all) with Eastern languages/scripts.