Sometimes it is necessary to enter a special character when writing a text, especially if it is in a foreign language. For example, some languages use characters that are not included in the currently enabled keyboard. In these cases, characters can only be entered into the document using the? Insert symbols? Option, which can be a bit cumbersome and waste a lot of time, especially in longer texts. Keep it simple: it's much easier to change the keyboard in Windows 10..
Obviously, we can only change the language of the Windows 10 keyboard if we have previously installed the language in question. Depending on the country where the Windows version was purchased, sometimes only the national language is pre-installed, so we will have to manually download all the other language packs that we want to use. Microsoft makes them available to us on its website.
Not all keyboard languages are pre-installed in Windows 10. If you want to add a new one, just follow these steps:
On the taskbar, next to the time, is the abbreviation for the currently enabled keyboard . For example, if the Spanish keyboard is used, "ESP" will appear. If you click on this abbreviation, a list is displayed showing all available keyboard languages. The last option is setup, which you can click to automatically open the Windows language setup menu..
If you want to install other language features as well, instead of just the keyboard, you can add another preferred language after the third step. To do this, select the option? Add a preferred language? in the "Language" menu.
Select the language you want to install and click? Next ?
You can also set the corresponding language as the display language..
Attention : if you set the display language, the system language will be changed, which means that all menus, options and descriptions will be displayed in the new language. For example, if you select English as your display language, Windows 10 will communicate with you in English from then on. If, on the other hand, you only select the keyboard or language pack without checking the box for? Set as display language ?, you will only change the keyboard settings.
There is also the option to change keyboard settings from Word. To do this, open the tab? Review? and select? Language ?. There you can choose the keyboards of the installed languages to create and edit documents. The current version of Word is part of Microsoft 365.
If you have installed more than one keyboard language, you can simply switch from one to another. Windows 10 offers several ways to do it.
The abbreviation in the information area of the taskbar , next to the time, allows you to change the keyboard in Windows 10 with just two clicks. For example,? ESP? indicates that the Spanish keyboard is enabled. If you hover over the abbreviation, more information about the currently enabled keyboard is displayed. If you left-click, a list of all available keyboards is displayed . Click on the keyboard language you want to enable it. Each of the languages has two lines: the display language is on the first line, while the keyboard settings are on the second line.
There are several key combinations that allow you to switch keyboard languages quickly. If you hover your mouse over the language option on the taskbar, one of them already appears. There are basically three keyboard shortcuts to change the keyboard in Windows 10.
[Windows] + [space] - This is the new keyboard shortcut that Windows 10 offers for changing keyboard settings and it should work as long as more than one language is installed. Hold down the Windows key and press the space bar. If you press it repeatedly, the different available keyboard languages will be selected.
[Alt] + [Shift] : the classic keyboard shortcut for switching languages. In some versions of Windows 10, this key combination only provides information about the currently enabled keyboard.
[Ctrl] and [Shift] : An alternative keyboard shortcut to [Alt] + [Shift].
If you change the keyboard configuration, the characters printed on the keys may no longer correspond to those assigned by the system. A good example of this is the Z and Y keys on the German and Spanish keyboards : while the Z is in the center of the top row of the German keyboard, this key is the Y on the Spanish keyboard. For this reason, you should also bear in mind that changing the language in Windows 10 could cause errors when entering passwords.
In another article, we explain how to change the keyboard language in Windows 8 and Windows 7.
