# &applet; Manual

## Introduction

&applet; indicates the active keyboard group. The applet shows you which group you are currently using. Aside from the standard applet popup menu functions, the &applet; applet popup menu allows you to launch the applet Preferences tool and to switch between language groups.

To add &applet; to a panel, right-click on the panel, then choose Add to Panel. Select &applet; in the Add to the panel dialog, then click OK.

To open the Keyboard Preferences dialog, choose Open Keyboard Preferences in the applet popup menu. You may need to go to this dialog to be able to configure the keyboard (choose model, layouts, options, etc.). To view the help for Keyboard Preferences, see Configuring Keyboard Preferences.

## Switching Language

First, you must know that a group is a set of characters, whether it be for a language or non-language-related set of characters, like a dvorak. Each language may have more than one subset, and each subset is called a group. There are many ways you can switch the group that you are using on your keyboard.

Mouse Click

- You can switch between groups with a single click on the applet's panel icon. The groups switch in a cycle determined by the current configuration.

Popup Menu

- To pick a specific group, select Groups from the popup menu. From there, choose the group you want to switch to.

Keyboard

- In Keyboard Preferences, you can set which key that you would like to use to switch groups on your keyboard. To bring up the Keyboard Preferences dialog, choose Open Keyboard Preferences in the applet popup menu. For more information about Keyboard Preferences, see Configuring Keyboard Preferences.

## Customizing Behavior

To customize the behavior of the &applet; applet, select Preferences in the popup menu to bring up the Keyboard Indicator Preferences dialog. All the settings made in the Preferences tool become active in the applet immediately after the Close button is pressed.

### Availability of Options

All settings from the Keyboard Preferences work even without the applet, but all the settings in the applet Keyboard Indicator Preferences are only working when the applet is running.

Default group

- This drop-down box sets the group that will be used on the creation of a new application window. You can also choose the entry Not Used, which means new windows will use the currently active group.

Separate group for each window

- Selecting this option makes the applet keep and process the active group independently for each application window on the screen. Note that this option is only available when the applet is on the panel.

Save/restore indicators with group

- Selecting this option allows the applet to keep/process an independent set of keyboard indicators (Caps Lock, Num Lock, Scroll Lock, etc.) for each application window on the screen. For example, if your CapsLock is active in the OpenOffice window and not active in the Evolution window, it is automatically restored when you switch between these windows -- to the "On" state in the OpenOffice window and to the "Off" state in the Evolution window. This setting is only enabled when you have Separate group for each window checked.

  The above option can interfere with settings assigning indicators to groups. For example, in the Layout Options tab, there are options allowing to use NumLock as indicator of group #2. So even if you have Save/restore indicators unchecked (and Separate group for each window checked), the NumLock will be restored along with the group anyway.

Exclude from keyboard switching

- This option keeps you from switching off of the selected group from the keyboard. The number of entries corresponds to the number of the groups enabled, so you can exclude each group separately.

## Plugins

To open the Keyboard Indicator Plugins dialog, select Plugins from the popup menu. Your current plugins are shown in the Active plugins area.

Adding a New Plugin

- Click Add. In the Add Plugin window, select one of the plugins in the Available plugins area and click the OK button.

Removing a Plugin

- Select the plugin in the Active plugins area that you do not want anymore and click Remove.

Moving Items in the Plugin List

- To move items up and down the plugin list in the Active plugins area, select the plugin you want to move, and click Up or Down. You can use the arrows on the keyboard to move the selection point up and down.

Changing the Properties of a Plugin

- To change the properties of the plugins, select the plugin you want and click Properties. The properties vary for each plugin.