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Greek and English on Mac

D

deanops

macrumors regular
Original poster
Hey, before i buy my mac...

can i type in Greek and English on it in word? Much like XP?
I want a quick key to change (in XP it is alt-shift)... thanks!!
is there a language bar in OS X... sorry for the noob q's

thanks
 
Absolutely. I think multi-alphabetic support is better handled in OS X than in Windows. There’s even an option for Greek with breathings and accents, which is what I’ve needed when putting quotations in Ancient Greek in (you need extra software to achieve this in Windows).

When you get your Mac, go to System Preferences > International, then choose the 'Input Menu' tab. Make sure that there is a tick next to 'Keyboard Viewer', and then also tick all the languages whose keyboard layouts you want to access—in your instance you’d want Australian and Greek at least. Also make sure that 'Show input menu in menu bar' is ticked at the bottom of the Preferences window. You can also access the settings to change the keystroke shortcut for changing the input source language/layout from there.

Then a flag will appear in your menu bar—Australian by default (because you'll be set on the Australian keyboard layout). You can then change the keyboard layout by clicking on that flag and choosing the layout you want (Greek), or by using the keyboard shortcut to switch input layouts (so the flag will change to a Greek flag). Also from that menu you can choose the Keyboard Viewer: this is very helpful when you're typing in an alphabet whose keyboard you haven't got, so you can see which characters map onto which keys on your own keyboard.
 
Richard Flynn said:
Absolutely. I think multi-alphabetic support is better handled in OS X than in Windows. There’s even an option for Greek with breathings and accents, which is what I’ve needed when putting quotations in Ancient Greek in (you need extra software to achieve this in Windows).

When you get your Mac, go to System Preferences > International, then choose the 'Input Menu' tab. Make sure that there is a tick next to 'Keyboard Viewer', and then also tick all the languages whose keyboard layouts you want to access—in your instance you’d want Australian and Greek at least. Also make sure that 'Show input menu in menu bar' is ticked at the bottom of the Preferences window. You can also access the settings to change the keystroke shortcut for changing the input source language/layout from there.

Then a flag will appear in your menu bar—Australian by default (because you'll be set on the Australian keyboard layout). You can then change the keyboard layout by clicking on that flag and choosing the layout you want (Greek), or by using the keyboard shortcut to switch input layouts (so the flag will change to a Greek flag). Also from that menu you can choose the Keyboard Viewer: this is very helpful when you're typing in an alphabet whose keyboard you haven't got, so you can see which characters map onto which keys on your own keyboard.
Click to expand...

thanks for the very detailed responce!

Another thing... does it come with a dictionary?? like spell check - because in XP, there is none (that i know of and is free), so it kills me when i have to do Greek homework!!

Thanks
 
No, there's no Greek spelling dictionary by default in OS X. These are the languages for which there are spelling dictionaries:
  • Australian English
  • British English (en-gb)
  • Canadian English
  • German
  • 'English' (en-us)
  • Spanish
  • French
  • Italian
  • Dutch
  • Portuguese
  • Portuguese (Brazil)
  • Swedish
There is a spelling dictionary add-on app, though, so you might try searching for that to see if they include Greek. Sorry, am too tired to search myself right now.
 
Richard Flynn said:
No, there's no Greek spelling dictionary by default in OS X. These are the languages for which there are spelling dictionaries:
  • Australian English
  • British English (en-gb)
  • Canadian English
  • German
  • 'English' (en-us)
  • Spanish
  • French
  • Italian
  • Dutch
  • Portuguese
  • Portuguese (Brazil)
  • Swedish
There is a spelling dictionary add-on app, though, so you might try searching for that to see if they include Greek. Sorry, am too tired to search myself right now.
Click to expand...


Thank you very much for your help... i don't really mind about the dictionary, it would just have been a nice helper!!

Thanks!!
 
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