Understanding the macOS Input Source Actions
On macOS Sonoma (14.x), under the Keyboard Shortcuts > Input Sources, I have found two actions:
- Select the previous input source
- Select next source in Input menu
At a quick glance these look to be a pair of actions, right? But then, even if the actions are about selecting previous and next, they refer to two different things: “input source” and “source in Input menu” respectively.
The behavior of the shortcuts, the different UI elements involved, made this even more confusing to me.
I’ve started to look into it. And now that I went through quite a few links, I still cannot answer the questions are these referring to a pair of actions?, are there significant differences between the two?, why is there a need for a previous and next?
First, what is the Input menu?
Input menu
It is displayed in the Menu bar using an icon with letters indicating the current input language.
Next, how can I change the next source in Input Menu?
Use the Fn key or the Globe key key (if available on the keyboard)
You can set an option in Keyboard settings to change input sources by using the Fn key or Globe key. Choose Apple menu > System Settings, click Keyboard in the sidebar (you may need to scroll down), then set “Press Fn key to” or “Press Globe key to” to Change Input Source. Press the Fn key or Globe key to switch to the next input source and show all your input sources close to where you’re typing (displayed as characters or letters that represent each source). Continue pressing the key until the input source you want to switch to is selected.
Assigning a shortcut
You can set a shortcut for “Select next source in Input menu” using Apple menu > System Settings > Keyboard > Keyboard Shortcuts > Input Sources.
Use the Caps Lock key
This only works if you have a non-Latin input source in the list.
You can set an option in Input Sources settings to change between Latin and non-Latin input sources by using the Caps Lock key or a dedicated language switching key (for example, “中 / 英” on Chinese – Pinyin and Chinese – Zhuyin keyboards).
Now moving on to the first action: “Select the previous input source”. I am finding it quite a bit strange. Why? First, I could not find any documents covering “Select the previous input source”. Second, this first action is about selecting a previous item; which if you think about it, will not work when triggered on the first input source except a circular menu is in use. In which case the action could have been about selecting next item. Third, this is not an action like the Back in the browser that comes before Forward because the user already performed the forward action by clicking a link. So why would the first action be about previous?
After all the search and reading, I still cannot answer these questions:
- are these 2 actions supposed to be a pair of actions?
- if yes, why are they described differently? if not, why one is about next and the other about previous items?
Sources
- https://support.apple.com/guide/chinese-input-method/aside/glos52ed78a0/104/mac/14.0
- https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/change-input-sources-settings-mchl84525d76/mac