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Change the Keyboard Icon in the Menubar
by Michael Coyle, 11-16-1999

With the launch of MacOS 9, I have had several readers ask for a way to change the US Flag that the Keyboard control panel displays in the menubar. The following edit shows you how to create new keyboard icons, or edit existing ones.

If you open the Keyboard control panel, and have more than one layout checked, you will get an additional icon in the menubar representing the current keyboard. Command-option-space will cycle you through the layouts, changing the icon in the menubar. Remember, if you have only one keyboard layout checked, you will not get an icon in the menubar.

These icons are stored as kcs# (black and white) and kcs4 (4 bit icon) resources. Unfortunately, the is no editor assigned to them, but the format is identical to the standard ics# and ics4 icons. Our trick will be to use those small icon editors to create the keyboard icons.

In this example, I will create a new icon for a custom keyboard layout I made based on a previous edit that disabled the CAPS LOCK key.

First, let's create the new icon, then we can figure out how to get it assigned to the keyboard.

Open a copy of the System suitcase. Find the ics4 resources and open them with a double-click.

From the Resource menu, select Create New Resource...

This will automatically open the icon editor with an ID of 128.

Create you new 4 bit icon, and then copy it into the ics# and small Mask boxes. There is no need to make the large icons or the ics8 version. One you have finished creating the icon, close the icon editor.

Reopen your new 4 bit icon, not with a double-click, but with the following menu command: Resource > Open Using Hex editor.

That will bring up a window similar to the one on the left. Select All of the contents and copy it to the Clipboard.

Next, we need to find the ID number of the layout icon we wish to change. There are two ways to do this. If you want to change an Apple supplied layout, open the ksc4 resources and get the ID number from the list in there, OR if you have a custom made layout, as in my case, open the KCHR resources to get the number.

In my example, my "No Caps Lock" keyboard layout has an ID of 128. When I installed MacOS 9, I opened the System suitcase and deleted all the international layouts, that's why my window only lists two ID's. Yours my list quite a few more.

For those of you wishing to replace Old Glory, the US Flag, the ID is 0.

Close the KCHR resources one you have your ID number.

Remember, we have on the clipboard the HEX data from our ics4 creation. It's now time to paste it into the appropriate ksc4 resource.

Find the ksc4 resources open them with a double-click.

These ID numbers match the layout number in the KCHR resources.

Since I created my own custom layout, I will have to create a new ID. From the Resource menu, select Create New Resource, and the program will create ID 128.

Open ID 128 with a double-click. Select All the existing HEX , remove it by hitting the delete key, and paste in the code from the Clipboard.

If your goal was to change the US Flag, open ID 0 and after deleting the contents, paste in the HEX for your new icon.

Repeat the process for the kcs# resource ID: copy the ics# HEX to the Clipboard, and paste it into the appropriate kcs# resource ID.

When you are finished, save your work and quit ResEdit.

Replace the old System with the modified one and restart the computer.

Open the Keyboard control panel to see the new icon or rotate through the keyboard layouts by typing command-option-space.

Enjoy your new icon!

Regarding the recent Keyboard layout icon edit, Dale Craddock sent this diamond icon that for you to paste into the Keyboard control panel to replace the default US Flag. While I don't remember because I never used the function, it apparent is the same as the default icon used in previous MacOS versions.