xkblayout-convert

A keyboard layout converter of a typed text between English (US) and Russian. Can be useful when the text is written in the wrong layout to convert it to the correct one, e.g.:

Руддщ   -(select the text and press shortcut)->  Hello
Ghbdtn                                           Привет

This script mostly repeats the keyboard switch behaviour of the Punto Switcher utility.

Requirements

• xclip
• xdotool
• xkblayout-state
• xkb-switch

xkblayout-state and xkb-switch have to be available under the PATH.
Tested mostly on Xubuntu 20.04 LTS with XIM keyboard input method system (usually it is a default).

Installation

Automatically by using make

• Make sure that make and docker are available on your machine: sudo apt-get install docker.io make
• Run make install

Shortcuts setup after install:

Shortcut	Command
Pause	xkblayout-convert word
Shift+Alt+Pause	xkblayout-convert line
Shift+Pause	xkblayout-convert selected

Manually

• Install requirements.
• Create an application keyboard shortcut to call file xkblayout-convert.sh with needed argument (see the arguments list below). You can do it in GUI preferences or by the following command:

  # On XFCE:
  xfconf-query -n -c xfce4-keyboard-shortcuts -p '/commands/custom/<Shift>Pause' -t string -s 'xkblayout-convert selected'

  This will bind Shift+Pause to call xkblayout-convert selected.

Arguments and usage scenarios

xkblayout-convert selected

Converts the already selected text.
So when you have typed a text in a wrong layout, select the text and press the keyboard shortcut you have set up to call the script with selected argument. After a small delay (which is given to let you release all keys pressed) it will convert the selected text to an opposite layout (us->ru, ru->us) and switch a keyboard layout. The source text is copied by emulating Ctrl+Insert press and then being read from the clipboard. Characters that are not under source keyboard layout are copied without any change.

xkblayout-convert word

Converts the word before the cursor.
Selecting is done by emulating Ctrl+Shift+Left press.

xkblayout-convert line

Converts all words before the cursor in current line.
Selecting is done by emulating Shift+Home press.

Upstream

https://github.com/qusielle/xkblayout-convert

License

The source code is licensed under the MIT license, which you can find in the LICENSE file.