Date: Sat, 12 Mar 2011 15:57:31 -0600 From: Antonio Olivares <olivares14031@gmail.com> To: Polytropon <freebsd@edvax.de> Cc: FreeBSD Questions <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org> Subject: Re: Character shortcuts Message-ID: <AANLkTi=MB9Qb12mSseUADMz4eMObFqBFJGPvo9NVwjxi@mail.gmail.com> In-Reply-To: <20110312224336.ade79718.freebsd@edvax.de> References: <AANLkTimEHuVq_menbHAQkw09%2Bf7bAHMR=Xn-Y6gnzuFi@mail.gmail.com> <20110312224336.ade79718.freebsd@edvax.de>
next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
On Sat, Mar 12, 2011 at 3:43 PM, Polytropon <freebsd@edvax.de> wrote: > On Sat, 12 Mar 2011 14:07:59 -0600, Antonio Olivares <olivares14031@gmail.com> wrote: >> Dear FreeBSD experts, >> >> There has been something that I find hard to do, I would like to find >> a CTRL + KEY combination, or ALT + KEY combination to input special >> characters like (ñ) [ALT + 164 or ALT + 0241 in Mr. Gates OS]. >> >> http://www.forlang.wsu.edu/help/keyboards.asp >> >> accents other symbols like copyright, euro, etc. I would like to do >> the same(have a special key combination) to get the characters in >> FreeBSD too, but googling have not found something that works. I even >> tried to run a litte program in the shell to generate the characters >> to use for cutting + pasting to no avial. > > Depending on your keyboard and language settings, many > characters can be generated by Alt+Letter. There is also > a COMPOSE key on some keyboards - and those that don't > have it can be told to do so by xmodmap. Using the > COMPOSE approach, you combine a letter with an accent > or any other symbol, and if there is a matching result > in your character set (or font), it will be displayed. > > Here are some examples: > > Compose a a -> å (svedish a-circle) > Compose s s -> ß (german Eszett ligature) > Compose U " -> Ü (german U Umlaut, capital) > Compose L / -> Ł (polish L-stroke, capital) > Compose a , -> ą (polish a-comma) > Compose o / -> ø (danish o-stroke) > Compose k k -> ĸ (greek kappa) > Compose n ' -> ń (n with accent grave) > > And of course: Compose n ~ -> ñ. > > Depending on how characters like `, ´, ^ or ~ are handled > (single character immediately output, or combination > character that waits for the next letter to automatically > construct a new one), Compose may be needed or not. On the > default german keyboard setting, 'e gives é, ~n gives ñ > and ^a gives â immediately without using Compose. > > My ~/.xmodmaprc contains (along with other lines): > > add mod4 = Multi_key > keycode 117 = Multi_key > > You can find out the keycodes using the "xev" program. > > Your keyboard settings maybe sets other characters than > can be created with Alt+letter or AltGr+letter (the > german keyboard's right Alt key is labeled AltGr, or > Alt Graph on my Sun keyboard), e. g. ¬¹²³¼½¬{[]}\ > @ł€¶ŧ←↓→øþþ¨ æßðđŋħjĸł˝^ «»¢“”nµ·, and with Shift > ¬¡⅛£¤⅜⅝⅞™±°¿¿˛ ΩŁ€®Ŧ¥↑ıØÞ˚ ƧЪŊĦJ&Ł˝ˇ ¦<>©‘’Nº×÷. > > So instead of memorizing arbitrary numbers as in MICROS~1 > land, you can see a relation between the letter and the > key you need to press in order to generate it. You can > also rearrange them if you feel a need for that. :-) > > > > -- > Polytropon > Magdeburg, Germany > Happy FreeBSD user since 4.0 > Andra moi ennepe, Mousa, ... Thanks Frank & Polytropon for your input. I have students that bug me with how to put the characters on their responses to their instructors on the web pages via email. I tell them to open OpenOffice and insert Special Character and then select the n with the tilde for the Spanish work. But they wanted an easier way sort of the way BILL GATES OS has it. And I told them I would ask so they could do it also in FreeBSD and Linux land. One student told me that it mattered which ISO Header were used? ISO 8*? but I told him you gotta be kidding me. There has to be an easier way. The keyboards are standard US all using English keyboards. I know how to do it in \LaTeX{} or \TeX{}, \~n, \' but it does not matter for me, it is for them. They have to write to their spanish instructors in dual enrollment credit. I tell them then to open another page with the special letter and highlight them and copy+paste them and they boo my answer :( Regards, Antonio
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?AANLkTi=MB9Qb12mSseUADMz4eMObFqBFJGPvo9NVwjxi>