Layin

A floating keyboard layout indicator

Switching between more than two active keyboard layouts can become really annoying - you discover that you're on a wrong layout when you already started typing and have to remove what's typed and carefully check the system tray while switching again to make sure the next time you choose the correct one.

Layin shows the currently active layout as an indicator floating next to the mouse pointer. This indicator is permanently visible when the cursor is hovering over any input field (has the I-beam shape). Outside input fields the indicator pops up for a short time when the layout is switched.

This is a simplistic alternative to apps like Aml Maple, Mouse Flying Indicator and langcursor.

Setup

1. You can either download a prebuilt executable from the Releases section or build it yourself. To build an executable you will need AutoHotkey installed. Download the source .ahk file, right-click it and choose Compile Script. This will create an executable in the directory of the source file by default.
2. Download and drop the example .ini file in the same directory and tweak it as desired (see below for more info).
3. Run the executable and have fun.

Configuration

The tool is configured via an INI file that must reside in the same directory and have the same name as the executable, e.g. layin.ini.

The following parameters are supported in the [Indicator] section:

Parameter	Description	Example value
width	width of the indicator in pixels	30
height	height of the indicator in pixels	20
fontColor	indicator font color in hex (rrggbb)	ffffff
fontSize	indicator font size in points	12
transparency	level of transparency of the indicator, from 0 (invisible) to 255 (non-transparent)	180
layoutScanPeriodMs	current layout checking time interval in milliseconds	100

The [Languages] section allows to customize indicator text and the background color for any keyboard layout available in your OS. It should contain records in the following format:

<display-text> = <layout-code>;<background-color>

where

• <display-text> is the text that will be displayed in the indicator, e.g. EN for the English layout
• <layout-code> - the code of the corresponding layout in decimal, e.g. 1033 for the English layout. The list of the language codes can be found for example at https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/openspecs/office_standards/ms-oe376/6c085406-a698-4e12-9d4d-c3b0ee3dbc4a .
• <background-color> - the indicator background color in hex for this layout, e.g. 00bb00

Here's an example of what the layout configuration might looks like:

[Languages]
EN = 1033;00bb00
ES = 1034;ff6666
HE = 1037;5555ff

License

MIT

Free Software, Hell Yeah!