The road to hell is paved with good intentions, and programmers will be the first to tell you.
For example, in an effort to make the Mac more “world-ready,” Apple endowed the Keyboard control panel with a quick-switch feature, in which pressing a special keystroke instantly changes the keyboard from one layout — or language — to another.
That was terrific for businesspeople who regularly traveled between Holland and America and who needed to change keyboard layouts regularly. But for everyone else this handy feature turned out to be a nightmare. The layout-switching keystroke Apple chose was, unfortunately, Command-Option-Space bar — a keystroke already in use by many programs. The result: All over America, people’s word processors suddenly began producing gibberish when they typed normally, and nobody knew what was going on. (There’s no visual or audible cue that you’ve changed anything.)
Crimson-faced, Apple made the layout-switching keystroke optional in the very next version of the Keyboard control panel.
If you have the older control panel and you’re experiencing the language-switching problem, open your System file and trash all the layouts except the one you plan to use. That’s the only workaround.
