This article will explain how you can turn your English-only keyboard into a dual English-Korean keyboard in a reversible manner so that you can type Korean characters on a computer.
Alternatives to Language Bar for Mac, Web, iPhone, Windows, Android and more. Filter by license to discover only free or Open Source alternatives. This list contains a total of 25+ apps similar to Language Bar. List updated: 8/12/2020 1:00:00 PM. Please go to System Preferences in the top menu bar. (click the Apple icon in the top menu bar) Step 02. Click on Language & Region. Click on the keyboard Preferences button to add a new language. Click on the Plus + button. Select the language that you would like to add and Click Add.
Before We Begin
The latest version of Language Bar is 1.2 on Mac Informer. It is a perfect match for Languages in the Education category. The app is developed by com.abix and its user rating is 5 out of 5.
• If you only want to read Korean (documents or Websites), you don’t need to do anything. The Windows and Mac operating systems have basic Korean fonts activated by default, which will display Korean texts.
• This article is for those who wish to input Korean characters occasionally, while keeping the primary language of the computer as English. Converting your computer’s entire user interface into Korean involves a different procedure, which will not be covered by this article.
The Windows and Mac operating systems offer a Korean keyboard option, which you can implement in a few simple steps. With this feature activated, you can switch back and forth between English and Korean as you type, even at mid-sentence. Implementing this option changes little in your computer’s user interface (the only difference you will notice is a tiny icon showing up in your taskbar), and you can deactivate the feature at any time.
In the Korean mode, your keyboard will work as shown in the large figure at the top of this article. All the consonants are entered by the left hand; all the vowels (except the one colored red in the figure) are entered by the right hand. The shift keys are used only for five compound consonants (shift + Q, W, E, R and T keys) and two compound vowels (shift + O and P keys).
If your operating system is Windows 10, stay on this page -- the implementation steps are shown below. For other operating systems, make a selection in the box to move to the appropriate page.
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Language Bar For Macbook
1) Click the Windows Start button (located in the lower left corner of your desktop), and click the gear icon (the Settings button).
2) Select “Time & Language”.
3) In the left panel, select “Language”.
Note: The current illustration is made with the May 2019 release of Windows 10 (version 1903, build 18362). If your Windows 10 is an earlier release, the interface may differ slightly. For example, the left panel may have “Region & Language” rather than a separate “Language” entry.
4) Click the + sign next to “Add a preferred language”. Adding Korean as a “preferred” language by following the steps below will not make Korean preferred over the existing default language (English). Unless you make the extra efforts of manually moving the newly added language to a position higher than English (which this article will not show), Korean will be placed at a position less “preferred” than English, and the Korean keyboard will only perform auxiliary functions.
5) In the search box, type “Korean”, and hit the Enter key of your keyboard. The Korean language option will appear below the search box. Click “Next”.
6) There are 3 features that most of the readers of this article would never need. Uncheck the options indicated in the picture (Install Language Pack; Text-to-speech; Handwriting).
7) Make sure that the top 4 features are unchecked. You are going to install only the bottom 2 features (Basic typing and Optical character recognition), which are by default preselected and grayed out -- apparently obligatory installation requirements under this option. Click “Install”. Installation takes about a minute. During this installation step, it appears that some additional Korean fonts are also downloaded. (When you purchase a computer, the Windows operating system already comes with an adequate number of basic Korean fonts. In this step, it appears that more Korean fonts are downloaded to give you a longer list of available Korean fonts.)
8) The implementation is now complete. You will notice a tiny new icon (“ENG”) appearing in your taskbar, next to the clock. That icon is a toggle switch you will use to move back and forth between the English-Only mode and the Korean-Enabled mode of your keyboard. How to use this switch is explained in the following section.
How to Alternate Between the English and Korean Keyboards
Open an application that will give you a space to type something onto. For example, open Notepad, MS Word, Excel or a browser window showing an actual input field such as a Google search window. (If the space where your cursor is placed on has no input space available, the language icon will not behave as illustrated here.)
As long as the language icon next to the clock is displayed as “ENG”, your keyboard is locked in the English-Only mode and typing Korean is not possible. If you click the language icon, it will let you choose between two options: 'ENG' and (Korean).
Select the second entry (Korean Microsoft IME; IME stands for 'input method editor'). The third line is a preference bar, which most readers of this article need not be concerned with.
In the image shown below, the language icon now changes to , and you will see yet another status indicator (“A”). Can you type Korean now? Not yet. The icon indicates that the keyboard has been freed from the English-Only mode and your keyboard is now in the Korean-English dual mode. But the “A” indicator shows that the keyboard language at the moment happens to be English (symbolized by “A”, the first letter of the English alphabet). In other words, the Korean keyboard is not engaged.
Whenever you are ready to type Korean, click the “A” symbol, which will then change to a Korean letter '가' . While the symbol is shown as '가', the keyboard is in the Korean mode and you can type Korean.
You can hit the symbol again at any time to change it back to “A” to type English.
If you prefer, you can also hit the ALT key to alternate between 'A' and '가'. (A keyboard has two ATL keys, but only the ALT key on the right side will work for this purpose.)
To lock the keyboard stably in the English-Only mode, move out of the dual mode by clicking and choosing the top line ('ENG').
When writing Korean on paper, you need to arrange the consonants and vowels into square-shaped clusters (each square being a syllable). But on a computer keyboard, you can simply type them in linear sequence. The computer will automatically assemble them into syllabic clusters.
Let's type the Korean word for 'summer', which looks like this:
여름
This 2-syllable word contains 5 phonetic elements:
ㅇㅕㄹㅡㅁ
Before typing, make sure your language mode is in the mode and you have converted the 'A' symbol to the '가' symbol.
Now, type the 5 necessary elements one at a time. You will see that the computer uses the first 2 elements to form the first cluster and the rest 3 to make the second.
For another example, let's type the Korean word for 'fruit', which looks like this:
열매
Like 'summer', this word has 2 syllables and 5 phonetic elements:
ㅇㅕㄹㅁㅐ
Type the 5 elements. You will see that, this time, the computer uses the first 3 elements to construct the first syllable, and the rest 2 to make the second. But you don't need to concern yourself with the rules behind it. It is done automatically by the computer. If you wish to learn more about how the Korean consonants and vowels are put together into syllabic clusters, you may find our 'Korean Alphabet Made Easy' article helpful.
Make your Mac invincible
Without a doubt, the menu bar is one of Mac’s great features. It’s condensed, easy to tap into on the fly, and displays much-needed information in real time.
Language Bar For Mac
But, with every new icon app added, things become a little more cluttered and usability takes another hit. Fortunately, it’s possible to edit the menu bar to rearrange and remove icons so that it’s able to suit your needs at any given moment. Read on for the best ways to make the menu bar on Mac truly yours.
A tool that perfects menu bar
Rethink the menu bar with this app. Bartender customizes one of the main parts of Mac's interface, efficiently.
How to rearrange items in menu bar
How much freedom you have to rearrange items in menu bar depends on which version of macOS you’re running. The users of macOS Sierra and later definitely have more creative license here than others. And if you are not there yet, it’s time to upgrade to the newest macOS anyway.
Rearranging menu items in macOS
To move an icon in the menu bar, hold Command (cmd), then click and hold the icon to drag it across the bar. Simple.
There are no restrictions here — feel free to move icons anywhere you see fit. Don’t like the clock all the way over there on the right-hand side? Drag it to somewhere more suitable. Want to place the Setapp icon over to the area of the bar once reserved for first-party apps? Do it!
The only icon that cannot be tampered with is the Notification Center. Apple has decided this must remain in the far right corner of the menu, which is fair enough — it looks good there.
Rearranging menu items in OS X versions (El Capitan and older)
Movement of icons in old versions of macOS is reserved for selected apps only: Bluetooth, audio, Time Machine, WiFi, battery, clock, and user switching. Spotlight and Notification Center must stay put, as must all third-party apps.
To move icons around within the designated area, once again hold Command, then click and hold the icon to drag it.
How to remove icons from the top bar on Mac
If there are items in the menu bar that you feel don’t belong there, hold Command, click on the icon, and drag it outside of the menu bar.
Note: this only works for first-party icons.
It is possible to remove third-party icons from the top bar on Mac by clicking on them and selecting “Quit” or “Close,” but this will stop the app from working until you reopen it.
Language Bar Macbook Pro
Some apps give the option to remove icons from the top bar on Mac in their settings: [chosen app] > Preferences. However, a lot of apps won’t. To fully customize which icons appear in the menu bar, you should use a third-party app like Bartender.
If you’ve removed the first-party app and you’d like it back on the menu, it can be re-enabled in System Preferences.
How to add icons to the top bar on Mac
If you’re missing a specific system icon in the Mac’s menu bar, you can add it through System Preferences. For instance, to enable the Language icon, select Language & Region in the preference pane, click Input Sources, and check the box next to “Show Input menu in menu bar.”
Add menu bar extras
Because the menu options like Clock and Ink can’t be found in System Preferences, you might need to use the System folder as well:
- Open Finder.
- Select Go > Go to Folder from the menu bar.
- Type a path: /System/Library/CoreServices/Menu Extras.
- Double-click an item and it will instantly appear in your menu bar.
You can easily remove any of the icons by holding Command and dragging it outside of the menu bar as described above.
How to customize and tidy Mac menu bar
It’s possible to change the look of the default menu bar items in System Preferences and third-party apps’ ones in their respective preferences. Most of the time, you’ll be able to at least switch the color to black and white.
Change how the date and time are displayed in the menu bar
In the right corner of your menu bar, click on date and time to Open Date & Time Preferences. Go to the Clock tab and unlock the preferences by entering your administrator password, so that you can make changes. To customize the look of the clock, choose between two different time display options: Digital or Analog. You can also tick the boxes for “Show date” and “Show the day of the week.”
To instantly toggle between different display options, click on date and time in the menu bar and choose “View as Analog” or “View as Digital.”
How to use your battery status on Mac
Keeping track of your battery life from the menu bar takes a few simple actions and yet is vital to Mac’s performance.
Click on the battery icon and tick Show percentage to see how much battery power you have left. In the same drop-down menu, you can check the programs that are using significant power in case your battery is draining too fast. To optimize battery usage, select “Open Energy Saver Preferences” and adjust sleep settings.
Toggle between fast user switching icons
There are three different options on how the Fast User Switching menu can be displayed in your Mac’s top bar – as a full name, account name or icon. Here’s how you do the customization:
- Click on the icon and open Users & Groups Preferences.
- Enter your password to unlock.
- Select Login Options in the bottom left corner of the Users & Groups.
- Go to “Show fast user switching menu” and pick one of the options.
- Untick the box if you prefer to remove the icon from the menu bar.
Show Wi-Fi status in the menu bar
To enable the Wi-Fi icon in your Mac’s top bar, go to System Preferences and select Network. Tick the box next to “Show Wi-Fi status in menu bar.”
How to replace menu bar app icons
If you want to have custom icons in your Mac’s menu bar, there’s a way to replace the default ones. To change the icon of a third-party app, find it in Applications, right-click to open a context menu, and choose “Show Package Contents.” Go to Resources folder to find the defaults – these can be used as templates for the new icons. Once you have a custom icon ready, simply copy it into the same Resources folder.
The same works for system icons, except you won’t find all of them in Applications. Here’s the path for you to take: Hard Disk > System > Library > CoreServices > Menu Extras. Once you’ve found the item you need, click on “Show Package Contents” and navigate to the icon via [MENUITEM.menu] > Contents > Resources.
In both cases, it’s a good idea to create backups of the default icons before replacing them – just in case you’ll need them later.
Hide menu bar items
One low-key feature on Mac is the ability to auto-hide menu bar. To do this, open System Preferences > General. Check the option to “Automatically hide and show the menu bar” and the menu bar will immediately disappear.
To get the menu bar to show up again, simply move the cursor to the top of the screen and hold it there for a second. Now you can access the menu whenever you need it and enjoy an extra bit of screen real estate when you don’t.
Customizing the menu bar with Bartender
If you want more control over how the menu bar looks and what it does, you should consider using the Bartender app.
Bartender lets you hide icons without quitting and rearrange icons in a way that better suits how you use the menu bar — something particularly useful if you’re running an older version of macOS.
App icons can be displayed when updating, shown in the Bartender Bar only, or hidden completely and accessed easily using a built-in search function. It’s even possible to toggle through and activate items using keyboard navigation.
If you’re someone that prefers a minimalist look, the app gives you the option to remove the Bartender menu item, leaving you with a crisp, clean menu bar.
Overall, the Mac menu bar is there to help you improve your productivity by giving you quick access to the apps and tools you need. Using the tips above, you can customize the menu bar in a way that works for you. Best of all, you can get full access to Bartender and over 150 more high-quality macOS apps on Setapp, with a 7-day free trial to get you started. So why not get your menu bar organized now?
Meantime, prepare for all the awesome things you can do with Setapp.
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