[LR2 - SOLUTION] Using Lightroom in english with a non-english keyboard layout

[Samoreen]

Hi,

Many of us, non native english speaking LR users, are using LT in english on a system having a non-US keyboard layout. The consequence of this is that we can't reach a lot of keyboard shortcuts because LR doesn't offer any interface for configuring them.

However, there's a workaround. I'll explain here what I did for the french language but you can apply this to your own language.

For the non english languages, the keyboard shortcuts are defined in C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop Lightroom
2\Resources\<language>\TranslatedStrings.txt. If you are using LR in english, this file is not used and there's no similar file in C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2\Resources\en.

But you can create one containing only the shortcuts that you need.

Moderator:

I have created a new TranslatedStrings.txt file containing only the keyboard shortcuts defined for the french version. I did this by copying only the lines containing the following sequences:

....Key=...
....KeyShifted=...
...AgPanel/LeftPanelShortcut...
...AgPanel/RightPanelShortcut...
...MenuShortcut/DecreaseRating=
...MenuShortcut/IncreaseRating=

(french users can find this file here:
[COLOR=#''''ff]http://www.mainsoft.fr/Files/LR/TranslatedStrings.txt[/COLOR] .

Copy this file to C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2\Resources\en and relaunch Lightroom.

Now you have the same keyboard shortcuts as when using LR in french.
Interestingly enough, if you hit ctrl + < , the LR keyboard shortcut
panel is displayed and it shows your new shortcuts.

Again, you can do the same for your own language by copying the
specified strings from the relevant folder.

Hope this helps.

--
Patrick

Moderator Comment:
This has been moved here as it seems appropriate but there are no confirmations of the workability of the tip at this point


Update:
Thanks to Manfred mjs7352 for the updated Vista information:
"I saved the file to C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2\Resources\en\TranslatedStrings.txt

Then the overridden shortcuts did NOT work as expected. Reason was: Windows Vista stored the file in its "virtual store" at C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2\Resources\en\TranslatedStrings.txt

After I moved the file manually from the "virtual store" to the original folder, all worked fine."