
In KMail under SuSE 7.3, I am using a standard 101-key keyboard set up with English (US) and US-ascii in the Kmail setup. Frequently I need to use diacritical marks (Swedish and German). In Win98 it is easy (ALT+---). I can change the Keyboard to Swedish or German using YAST and get the characters I want but that is not convienent.. Can anyone give me the proper keystrokes and/or procedure to do this?? Have checked Unicode and Evertype to no avail. Regards, Bob

On Thu, 2002-01-03 at 11:07, Robert Thyberg wrote:
Bob, What you need to look into is the "dead keys" setting. In the KDE Control Center (if you are using KDE, I'm assuming that you are), go to Peripherals -> Keyboard and ensure that "Disable keyboard Layouts" is not checked. The scenario that I use is that "U.S. English" is my Primary Layout, but I also have "U.S. English w/ deadkeys" checked. You will now notice a new icon in your KPanel Tray that resembles an itty bitty little flag with US emblazoned on it. If you left click on this icon, you'll see a noticable change in the background flag. When it is a standard US "Stars and Stripes" flag, your keyboard will act as normal... but when it is on the other type of flag, you're keyboard will act a little differently. Here is the secret -- if you press the apostrophe "'" key once (with or without the shift key held down to get a double quote), you'll notice that nothing types. This is a "toggle" key - which toggles the accents on and off. Now just type a vowel - like an a, which becomes "á" and with the shift key held down, it becomes "ä". The standard e becomes "é" and with shift becomes "ë". So you are basically typing ' then a or " then a, depending on which accent you would like above the vowel. If you want an apostrophe or a double quote, just press the key twice. This works for all of the vowels, á, é, í, ó, ú and sometimes ý (ä, ë, ï, ö, ü and sometimes ÿ too! :-)) I like this system much better than the alt+numbers Window's system, because it's more logically thought out and much easier to remember, as pretty much everything in KDE is. So there you have it -- Steve's somewhat complex guide to fun and Diacritical Marks / Vowel Accents. Have a great day! -Steven

On Thu, 2002-01-03 at 16:48, Kevin Donnelly wrote:
It probably is -- if you go to the SuSE LinuKS site, you should upgrade to the latest KDE packages. This site is at: http://www.suse.de/us/support/download/linuks/i386/ just follow the links from there for you distribution. Have some fun :) -Steven

On Thu, 3 Jan 2002, Kevin Donnelly wrote:
I'm on stock SuSE 7.3, and I don't have such a check-box. Is it KDE-version dependent?
I use KDE 2.2.1 (and SuSE 7.3) and I operate with multiple keyboards without a problem. I don't recall if the option was available in earlier versions.
-- Ragnar Steingrimsson | Department of Cognitive Sciences UC-Irvine, SSPA 3151 | Email: ragnar@uci.edu Irvine, CA 92697 | Small Green Men

A month or so ago, I asked a similar question, and this was the answer I received: On Saturday 24 November 2001 01:01, you wrote:
Hi, I'm sending this off-list because I wrote about this at least three times in the past year. But I saw that no one else answered your question, so let me try once again. Special characters can be typed using the so-called Compose key. This may be the windows key next to the right Alt key (7.2 and 7.3) or the right Control key (before 7.2). Just try it out. To type an ø, for example, press the Compose key, then type o/ or /o (or you can even type o and / simultaneously). Do not keep the 'Compose key' pressed down when typing o/ or /o. ------------------------------------------------------------ If you cannot find the Compose key, or you would like to use another key for it, run the command xev If you press the key that you want to use as the Compose key, one of the many things you see is the 'key code'. Suppose, for example, that the key code is 109. Then in ~/.Xmodmap add the line keycode 109 = Multi_key After restarting X your new Compose key should work. ------------------------------------------------------------ The two characters needed for a special character can be found in the file /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/locale/iso8859-1/Compose (in SuSE 7.1 anyway. If you cannot find it, do a locate Compose (mind the capital C)). So for these special characters type the Compose key (or 'Multi-key') followed by these two characters:
German: A-umlaut, upper and lower case
A" a" (remember, the order does not matter, so instead of a" you could type "a etc.).
O-umlaut, ditto
O" o"
U-umlaut, ditto
U" u"
ess-tset
ss
Spanish: Upside-down question mark
??
Upside-down exclamation point
!!
Forward accent a, e, i, o, u, upper and lower case
A' a' E' e' I' i' O' o' U' u'
n with ~ upper and lower case
N~ n~
Italian: a,e,i,o,u backward accent, upper and lower case
A` a` E` e` I` i` O` o` U` u`
the Lira symbol (Maybe same as Pound?)
cannot find the Lira symbol. Perhaps another character set than ISO 8859-1? Don't know if it's the same as the Pound.
British: The Pound symbol
L=
European: The Euro symbol (Yes my computer maybe can't, don't know)
Don't know enough about this one yet. It seems that you need ISO 8859-15 for this instead of ISO 8859-1. I've heard some rumours about the latest versions of KDE supporting it. I've got Wordperfect Office 2000 for Linux supporting it. StarOffice probably supports it.
Miscellaneous: the plus/minus symbol
You guessed it: +-
The greater than or equal symbol
>=
the less than or equal symbol
<=
the degree symbol (small circle above the line)
0^ (zero ^)
the left and right quotation marks that some Europeans use, (under DOS, ALT 174 and ALT 175)
Haven't found this one. Perhaps supported by software such as StarOffice and WP? Regards, SH At 12:56 01/03/2002 -0500, Steven Hatfield wrote:
Also check the FAQ at http://www.suse.com/support/faq and the archives at http://lists.suse.com

On Thursday, 03 January 2002 11:07 am, Robert Thyberg wrote:
Bob, Assuming you're using KDE... Go to Control Center, Peripherals, Keyboard. On the right side panel, Keyboard Model should be showing Generic 101-key PC. On the line below, Primary layout probably is showing U.S. English. Click on the small arrow at the right. You have two choices: U.S. English w/deadkeys and U.S. English w/ISO9995-3. Both will achieve the same result, in different ways. I don't like "w/deadkeys" because when I want quotes or apostrophe (" ", it's) it requires the key to be pressed twice, and I keep forgetting that... The "w/ISO9995-3" works this way: if you want quotes (whether ' or ") you simply press the key; when you want öüñçáè you have a three-step procedure: hold Alt, press the accent (or the comma for ç) and then the letter. You even get ¿¡ which are necessary for Spanish! Disclaimer: since I don't have a 101-key keyboard, I don't know whether it's *either* Alt or *only* R-Alt. Regards, gr, in sunny, warm Florida. **"When it comes to war, it counts not who's right, but who's left."** /Dear Abby/

On Thu, 2002-01-03 at 11:07, Robert Thyberg wrote:
Bob, What you need to look into is the "dead keys" setting. In the KDE Control Center (if you are using KDE, I'm assuming that you are), go to Peripherals -> Keyboard and ensure that "Disable keyboard Layouts" is not checked. The scenario that I use is that "U.S. English" is my Primary Layout, but I also have "U.S. English w/ deadkeys" checked. You will now notice a new icon in your KPanel Tray that resembles an itty bitty little flag with US emblazoned on it. If you left click on this icon, you'll see a noticable change in the background flag. When it is a standard US "Stars and Stripes" flag, your keyboard will act as normal... but when it is on the other type of flag, you're keyboard will act a little differently. Here is the secret -- if you press the apostrophe "'" key once (with or without the shift key held down to get a double quote), you'll notice that nothing types. This is a "toggle" key - which toggles the accents on and off. Now just type a vowel - like an a, which becomes "á" and with the shift key held down, it becomes "ä". The standard e becomes "é" and with shift becomes "ë". So you are basically typing ' then a or " then a, depending on which accent you would like above the vowel. If you want an apostrophe or a double quote, just press the key twice. This works for all of the vowels, á, é, í, ó, ú and sometimes ý (ä, ë, ï, ö, ü and sometimes ÿ too! :-)) I like this system much better than the alt+numbers Window's system, because it's more logically thought out and much easier to remember, as pretty much everything in KDE is. So there you have it -- Steve's somewhat complex guide to fun and Diacritical Marks / Vowel Accents. Have a great day! -Steven

On Thu, 2002-01-03 at 16:48, Kevin Donnelly wrote:
It probably is -- if you go to the SuSE LinuKS site, you should upgrade to the latest KDE packages. This site is at: http://www.suse.de/us/support/download/linuks/i386/ just follow the links from there for you distribution. Have some fun :) -Steven

On Thu, 3 Jan 2002, Kevin Donnelly wrote:
I'm on stock SuSE 7.3, and I don't have such a check-box. Is it KDE-version dependent?
I use KDE 2.2.1 (and SuSE 7.3) and I operate with multiple keyboards without a problem. I don't recall if the option was available in earlier versions.
-- Ragnar Steingrimsson | Department of Cognitive Sciences UC-Irvine, SSPA 3151 | Email: ragnar@uci.edu Irvine, CA 92697 | Small Green Men

A month or so ago, I asked a similar question, and this was the answer I received: On Saturday 24 November 2001 01:01, you wrote:
Hi, I'm sending this off-list because I wrote about this at least three times in the past year. But I saw that no one else answered your question, so let me try once again. Special characters can be typed using the so-called Compose key. This may be the windows key next to the right Alt key (7.2 and 7.3) or the right Control key (before 7.2). Just try it out. To type an ø, for example, press the Compose key, then type o/ or /o (or you can even type o and / simultaneously). Do not keep the 'Compose key' pressed down when typing o/ or /o. ------------------------------------------------------------ If you cannot find the Compose key, or you would like to use another key for it, run the command xev If you press the key that you want to use as the Compose key, one of the many things you see is the 'key code'. Suppose, for example, that the key code is 109. Then in ~/.Xmodmap add the line keycode 109 = Multi_key After restarting X your new Compose key should work. ------------------------------------------------------------ The two characters needed for a special character can be found in the file /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/locale/iso8859-1/Compose (in SuSE 7.1 anyway. If you cannot find it, do a locate Compose (mind the capital C)). So for these special characters type the Compose key (or 'Multi-key') followed by these two characters:
German: A-umlaut, upper and lower case
A" a" (remember, the order does not matter, so instead of a" you could type "a etc.).
O-umlaut, ditto
O" o"
U-umlaut, ditto
U" u"
ess-tset
ss
Spanish: Upside-down question mark
??
Upside-down exclamation point
!!
Forward accent a, e, i, o, u, upper and lower case
A' a' E' e' I' i' O' o' U' u'
n with ~ upper and lower case
N~ n~
Italian: a,e,i,o,u backward accent, upper and lower case
A` a` E` e` I` i` O` o` U` u`
the Lira symbol (Maybe same as Pound?)
cannot find the Lira symbol. Perhaps another character set than ISO 8859-1? Don't know if it's the same as the Pound.
British: The Pound symbol
L=
European: The Euro symbol (Yes my computer maybe can't, don't know)
Don't know enough about this one yet. It seems that you need ISO 8859-15 for this instead of ISO 8859-1. I've heard some rumours about the latest versions of KDE supporting it. I've got Wordperfect Office 2000 for Linux supporting it. StarOffice probably supports it.
Miscellaneous: the plus/minus symbol
You guessed it: +-
The greater than or equal symbol
>=
the less than or equal symbol
<=
the degree symbol (small circle above the line)
0^ (zero ^)
the left and right quotation marks that some Europeans use, (under DOS, ALT 174 and ALT 175)
Haven't found this one. Perhaps supported by software such as StarOffice and WP? Regards, SH At 12:56 01/03/2002 -0500, Steven Hatfield wrote:
Also check the FAQ at http://www.suse.com/support/faq and the archives at http://lists.suse.com

On Thursday, 03 January 2002 11:07 am, Robert Thyberg wrote:
Bob, Assuming you're using KDE... Go to Control Center, Peripherals, Keyboard. On the right side panel, Keyboard Model should be showing Generic 101-key PC. On the line below, Primary layout probably is showing U.S. English. Click on the small arrow at the right. You have two choices: U.S. English w/deadkeys and U.S. English w/ISO9995-3. Both will achieve the same result, in different ways. I don't like "w/deadkeys" because when I want quotes or apostrophe (" ", it's) it requires the key to be pressed twice, and I keep forgetting that... The "w/ISO9995-3" works this way: if you want quotes (whether ' or ") you simply press the key; when you want öüñçáè you have a three-step procedure: hold Alt, press the accent (or the comma for ç) and then the letter. You even get ¿¡ which are necessary for Spanish! Disclaimer: since I don't have a 101-key keyboard, I don't know whether it's *either* Alt or *only* R-Alt. Regards, gr, in sunny, warm Florida. **"When it comes to war, it counts not who's right, but who's left."** /Dear Abby/
participants (6)
-
Doug McGarrett
-
gilson redrick
-
Kevin Donnelly
-
Ragnar Steingrimsson
-
Robert Thyberg
-
Steven Hatfield