Inputting accented characters under xfce

wizardhat · 03-19-2009, 12:23 AM

I've recently switched my WM from kde to xfce. I'm loving it so far, but I'm not sure how to input accents (that is, for foreign characters).

Under KDE there was an option in the control centre to allocate a key on the keyboard (such as alt-gr) to be used in such a way as to select an accent and apply it to the next key pressed. For example, holding down alt-gr and pressing ' would make the next character have an acute accent. There's a term for this, but I'm having trouble remembering... it's right on the tip of my tongue.

I hope I haven't confused too many people. I am just having a hard time conversing with foreigners because I can not find the option to enable this. If anyone is able to point me int he right direction, I would be very thankful.

Cheers!

bathory · 03-19-2009, 03:50 AM

You can edit /etc/X11/xorg.conf and add the following line in the keyboard section

Code:

Option "XkbOptions" "lv3:ralt_switch"

wizardhat · 03-19-2009, 04:02 AM

Thanks for your help, but that doesn't seem to have done anything

bathory · 03-19-2009, 05:08 AM

The xkb Options in your keyboard section should look like this:

Code:

Section "InputDevice"
        ...
       Option      "XkbVariant"   "altgr-intl"
       Option      "XkbLayout"    "us"
       Option      "XkbOptions"  "lv3:ralt_switch"
EndSection

Su-Shee · 03-19-2009, 05:55 AM

As with all Gtk application, you can simply enter the character directly with pressing ctrl-shift-u <unicode codepoint> - which is my preferred method for entering french accents or a spanish ~ on n or the turkish i without dot and so on.

Works also with everything else like japanese or chinese or klingon.

larryhaja · 03-19-2009, 12:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wizardhat

For example, holding down alt-gr and pressing ' would make the next character have an acute accent. There's a term for this, but I'm having trouble remembering... it's right on the tip of my tongue.

I believe it is called an ague.
I know this doesn't help with the OP issue with Xfce, but for those interested in using accented characters in KDE there is a small tutorial on linuxjournal.com for this issue.
http://www.linuxjournal.com/video/ac...characters-kde

wizardhat · 03-19-2009, 03:30 PM

Thanks Bathory, it works now!