Multilingual typing often requires multilingual input, in particular, when languages use non-lating character sets. In MacOS switching between input sources is supported by both click-and-rush and keyboard shortcuts. The active input source can then be displayed by in the menu bar.
Before the update to MacOS 12.4 the respective input sources would be visualised by displaying a tiny flag symbol, e.g. a german flag for German keyboard layout, an US flag for US layout etc. Now these flag symbols have disappeared from MacOS, and - bug or feature - I find this annoying.
Thanks to Ukelele, an open source tool, this problem can be solved: just create your own keyboard layouts and attach any symbols you want to them. The resulting .bundle files can then be installed in a system folder, and after a reboot you can replace the flag-less system layouts with your own copies.That's what I've done, and now the flags are back. If you want this for yourself, you can download the layouts I have created and install them:
- US Layout (derived from Apple's original US layout)
- German Layout (derived from Apple's original DE layout)
- Ukrainian (QWERTY) Layout
- Russian (QWERTY) Layout (derived from Apple's original RU QUERTY layout)
In order to install them, copy the bundles from the zip file to /Library/Keyboard Layouts (you will have to unlock using password or finger print since this is a system folder), reboot your machine and then go to "Keyboard" / "Input Sources" in your System Preferences app where you can now replace Apple's iconless original layouts by the ones with flag icons.
