How can I switch keyboard language from VB code.

[Yuvigi]

I am writing an MS Access application. Text in some controls on forms must be
typed in Cyrillic, in others - in English. How can I change keyboard language
from code upon entering certain control?

[Max Kudrenko]

Yuvigi,

Check the ActivateKeyboardLayout function. Here's a good example of
its use at the bottom: http://allapi.mentalis.org/apilist/ActivateKeyboardLayout.shtml

Hope this helps,

Max Kudrenko
Brainbench MVP Program for Visual Basic
www.brainbench.com

[Yuvigi]

Thanks Max.

Although I had already solved my problem, the information on the site in
your post was pretty helpful as it contained most of the information needed
to write a procedure to do the job. Thanks and good luck.

Best regards,
Rado Christov (Yuvigi)
:)

[DesignStudio]

Dear Yuvigi,
Could you please share with us how you solved your problem?

[Yuvigi]

Dear DesignStudio,

It's pretty easy once you've grasped the logic. The bulk of time wasted is
to namely understand the logic. The rest is simple.

Here is a little function I wrote, which can be called from any event in my
programme. It changes the keyboard layout to the desired one, provided it is
installed. If the desired layout has not been installed, the function
displays a message to the user.

I use this code in a MSAccess application. It utilises a table called
"Locales" that stores information about different locales and languages.
Below is and excerp from the table:

LCID Locale Language LCName Tag
CP_ANSI acPLID

&H0402 Bulgarian (Bulgaria) Bulgarian bg-BG Cyrl 1251
4
&H0407 German (Germany) German de-DE Latn 1252 9
&H0409 English (United States) English en-US Latn 1252
11

And here is the code:

Public Function Lang_Keyboard_Change(Optional ByVal sArg As String =
"&H0409", _
Optional ByVal sArgType As String =
"LCID" _
) As Boolean

'This function changes the keyboard language to the desired one.
'It assumes that the system default language is English(Primary language
code = 0x09.
'and that its hex code is passed by default.
'If another locale argument's value is passed as an argument, then
'the function looks up the LCID value in the Locales table.
'If the language is installed, its layout is activated.
'Else a message is displayed to the user and current language
'layout is kept.

Dim sA As String, sB As String, sC As String
Dim lA As Long, lB As Long, lC As Long

On Error GoTo Err_1

If sArgType = "LCID" Then
lB = Val(Replace(sArg, "0x", "&H"))
Else
sA = sArgType & "='" & sArg & "'"
sB = Nz(DLookup("LCID", "Locales", sA))
If sB = "" Then
'Unsupported or wrong locale.
' MsgBox SM(6571) & vbCr & sArgType & "='" & sArg & "'"
MsgBox "Wrong or unsupported regional settings." & vbCr _
& sArgType & "='" & sArg & "'"
Exit Function
End If
sB = Replace(sB, "0x", "&H")
lB = Val(sB)
End If

'Extract language code and save it to a variable.
lB = lB And &HFFFF&

'lB is the Target KB value.

If lB = 0 Then
'Target KB Language is the system language, so go to true exit.
GoTo Exit_True
End If

'Get initial/current layout name.
lA = GetKeyboardLayout(0)

'Exit if GetKeyboardLayout function failed.
If lA = 0 Then
Exit Function
End If

'Extract language code and save it to a variable.
lA = lA And &HFFFF&

'lA is the Initial KB value.

'Check if this is the desired language code.
If lA = lB Then
'Language is the same, so go to true exit.
GoTo Exit_True
End If

'Activate the previous keyboard layout.
lC = ActivateKeyboardLayout(HKL_PREV, KLF_ACTIVATE)
'Get layout.
lC = GetKeyboardLayout(0)
'Extract language code.
lC = lC And &HFFFF&

'Loop through installed keyboard layouts
'until the desired language is loaded or
'loop completes a full cycle.
Do
If lC = lB Then
'This is the needed language, so exit
'loop and go to true exit.
GoTo Exit_True
End If

'Activate the previous keyboard layout.
lC = ActivateKeyboardLayout(HKL_PREV, KLF_ACTIVATE)
'Get layout.
lC = GetKeyboardLayout(0)
'Extract language code.
lC = lC And &HFFFF&
Loop While lC <> lA

'The desired keyboard layout is not installed on the system.
'Display a message to the user.
If sArgType = "LCID" Then
sA = sArgType & "='" & Replace(sArg, "0x", "&H") & "'"
Else
sA = sArgType & "='" & sArg & "'"
End If
sB = Nz(DLookup("Locale", "Locales", sA))
MsgBox sB & vbCrLf & "The desired keyboard layout is not installed on
the system." _
& "Install it first from Control Panel > " _
& "Regional and Language Options.", vbInformation, sAppTitle
Exit_False:
Exit Function

Exit_True:
Lang_Keyboard_Change = True

Exit_1:
Exit Function

Err_1:
MsgBox Err.Description, vbExclamation, sAppTitle
Resume Exit_1

End Function

I hope you find this post usefull. It works fine for me.
Good luck.
Best wishes from Bulgaria!

[DesignStudio]

Dear Yuvigi,

Thanks for your help. I'll try that and let you know if it didn't work.

By the way I am a scuba diver and I have read about the Bulgarian Black Sea
coast. I really would love to dive there in the future.
This is my email tara...@hotmail.com.

Thanks a lot.

[Yuvigi]

Hello "DesignStudio",

Although I live by the sea I've only dived once in my life. It was a very
enjoyable experience, I decompressed alright and everything but for the next
couple of months I had problems with my right ear. So I stick to swimming on
the surface :)
My e-mail is yuv...@hotmail.com and you're welcome to BG any time.

Best regards