Hi,
I have seen multiple old posts on how to type accented characters using a QWERTY keyboard, but I was unable to applied the proposed solution in Opensuse 12.1. I need to type french characters on a system set with US regional settings. In the Windows world, these characters would be accessible using ALT+4digits.
Would anybody have some suggestions?
I found a few interesting links, but I think you have to change your keyboard setup for these to work:
http://wiki.linuxquestions.org/wiki/Accented_Characters
http://wiki.linuxquestions.org/wiki/Configuring_keyboards
AltGr key - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
You can also get the special characters into something and copy them out one at a time I guess:
ç ģ ķ ļ ņ ŗ ş Ç Ģ Ķ Ļ Ŗ Ş
č ď ľ ň ř š ť ž Č Ď Ľ Ň Ř Š Ť Ž
ą ę į ų Ą Ę Į Ų
ă Ă
å Å
ā ē ī ō ū Ā Ē Ī Ō Ū
ḃ ċ ḋ ė ḟ ġ ṁ ṗ ṫ ż Ḃ Ċ Ḋ Ė Ḟ Ġ Ṁ Ṗ Ṫ Ż
Thank You,
There is a compose key (combination). At my system (using KDE) it is Shift-RightCtrl, but I guess you can configure it After I type this I can type one 'dead 'key, followed with another key ad they will combine. I do not have an extensive list of them, but fot most of them follow your intuition:
'e makes é
=e makes €
"O makes Ö
,c makes ç
^1 makes ¹
ss makes ß
etc.
On 2012-01-28 14:56, pomchip wrote:
>
> Hi,
>
> I have seen multiple old posts on how to type accented characters using
> a QWERTY keyboard, but I was unable to applied the proposed solution in
> Opensuse 12.1. I need to type french characters on a system set with US
> regional settings.
You have to use the international keyboard. It is an USA keyboard with the
-’- char reused as accent, and a few mappings more.
Another possibility is the meta key (I’m unsure of the name). For example,
the combination right shift + right control, release, then 'a produces á.
There are many combinations to produce ç,ñ à, ä, ¿, etc. Just use your
imagination and try 
> In the Windows world, these characters would be
> accessible using ALT+4digits.
And here too, but with different numbers. In my gnome it doesn’t work now
(last time I tried was probably years ago), but in text mode it works.
And in Windows you also have the international keyboard.
–
Cheers / Saludos,
Carlos E. R.
(from 11.4 x86_64 “Celadon” at Telcontar)
Thanks. I was looking for this compose key. It is supposed to be configurable but I did not find anything under Configure Desktop > Locale or Shortcut and gestures. Anyways, shift + right ctrl works for me.
Thanks
If you can type on a French (AZERTY) keyboard, you can add a French keyboard layout under System settings>Regional and language.and all the French characters will be there. A country flag will appear in the system tray to indicate you are using the French keyboard layout. An alternative is to install the Polish layout which is a QWERTY layout with all the French and German accents (other than the cedilla) as dead keys accessed with Alt-Gr.
Another factor is whether you will be using one program for all your French texts; if so, then setting up keyboard shortcuts for that program only may be a better option; one problem with global shortcuts set up for KDE as a whole is that they may conflict with existing shortcuts set up by the authors of a program.
But you have a number of suggestions above; it may be worth trying different ones and finding the one that works best for you.
On 2012-01-28 16:46, pomchip wrote:
> Thanks. I was looking for this compose key. It is supposed to be
> configurable but I did not find anything under Configure Desktop >
> Locale or Shortcut and gestures. Anyways, shift + right ctrl works for
> me.
Right, compose was the name, not meta.
In gnome 2, gnome-control-center, keyboard layout. Choose country “United
States”, Variants “USA Alternative international”. That layout is easier
than the compose key.
In KDE there will be an equivalent, but I can not try it now.
–
Cheers / Saludos,
Carlos E. R.
(from 11.4 x86_64 “Celadon” at Telcontar)
If you are using the characters in LibreOffice or Open Office just download the extension “accentuate”
accentuate | OpenOffice.org repository for Extensions
I put the macro onto a function key and now I can type French, German, Spanish etc characters by typing the accent (`~^’,) after the letter and press the function key.
Uli