Getting the Keyboard Menu

To get the keyboard menu to appear on U.S. systems, you have to edit the system resources. This is relatively Big Magic, so be careful, and if you mess up your system, forget where you read this.

  1. Get a copy of ResEdit if you don't already have it. (It's free!)
  2. Quit all applications, so only the Finder appears in the Application menu (at the top right corner of the screen.
  3. Launch ResEdit. Click on the logo to make it go away.
  4. Open the file called "System" inside the System Folder. ResEdit will give you a stern warning; pay it no attention.
  5. Double-click the "itlc" resource. A list will appear with one item (labelled "48" on my system). Double click that item.
  6. Scroll down a bit to an option called "Always show keyboard icon". The radio button next to it should be at 0 (zero).
  7. Change it to 1 (one).
  8. Save your changes (command-S).
  9. Quit ResEdit.
  10. Restart your computer.

That's it! You should now have a keyboard menu right between the balloon help and the application menu (see figure at right). It probably contains a long list of foreign keyboards, too. If you want to remove those, open the System file with the Finder (i.e., just double-click it like a folder), and drag the offensive keyboard layouts to the trash (or a backup directory, or whatever).