Xfce Forum

XFCEFORUM

Member

Registered: 2016-02-14

Posts: 2

I do not understand what this keyboard setting dialog should do

Hi,

first post, so let me announce here that I think XFCE is a fantastic desktop - exactly not trying to be too much is what I like most.

However, there are still some rough edges, like e.g. documentation, so questions arise while trying to use or modify things.

My live example: I totally can not understand what this setting should do and there is no documentation:
Settings > Keyboard > Layout > Change layout option

Please see the attached screenshot.

Would anybody like to explain what exactly this will change? How do I use this setting?

BTW my investigation started with the simple question:
How do I determine which key on my keyboard is used as the "META" key and how do I change it?

Also there are some annoying overlaps with expected keyboard shortcuts by some applications vs. shortcuts preset by XFCE (Xubuntu 14.04)  and I finally want to solve that annoyances once and forever, so I started to dig into this.

Maybe we could collect some info about this and generate something that might be useful for the official documentation, so future generations of XFCE users will have first-class docs available when messing around with their keyboard settings.

Thanks for your attention!

Oh, I just realized that I am not allowed to upload pictures here, so I put the mentioned screenshot on imgur:

Jerry3904

Member

Registered: 2013-11-09

Posts: 863

Re: I do not understand what this keyboard setting dialog should do

The background is explained some here:

http://fsymbols.com/keyboard/linux/choosers/

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MX-23 (based on Debian Stable) with our flagship Xfce 4.18.

poltiser

Member

Registered: 2011-05-14

Posts: 23

Re: I do not understand what this keyboard setting dialog should do

I use 3 different keyboards: US, PL, MT(US)
Problem I had was that in US and MT(US) - the standard US keys assignment was OK, I was able easy use the characters as they were placed on the keyboard, the problem started when I wanted use the PL keyboard, it has 3-level characters in different keys and I need to use them with PL layout...
I quickly discovered that changing layout was easiest with the xfce panel applet, but how to change the 3rd level keys?
In gnome, mate and KDE it is easy - there is an option in control panel, but not in XFCE...
I modified keys assignment in /etc/default/keyboard and I am happy man again...

Personally - I decided not to use short-cuts - most of them I just switched off...

Panel applet - Keyboard layouts (it works along control panel)

;-)

Best regards

XFCEFORUM

Member

Registered: 2016-02-14

Posts: 2

Re: I do not understand what this keyboard setting dialog should do

Hi, thanks for your quick answers!

OK, so after playing around with it a little bit I now have the idea that this "Change layout option" does not change any layout option (whatever that might be), but it enables the user to select a special key that will change the active keyboard layout. Is this true?

If yes, then there should be some little text in this dialog that explains exactly this. E.g. a tooltip or any other help text that just says:

"This dropdown box enables the user to select a special key that will change the active keyboard layout from the available keyboard layouts - it is only effective when you have multiple keyboard layouts installed."

You can just copy paste this text and put in anywhere, so that users will see it.

BTW is there a github repo for the documentation, so it would be much easier to contribute little things like this?

Thanks!