Accent marks

[prr]

Is there a quick way to insert accent marks on the keyboard? For example, I'd like to put the single quotation mark on top of certain vowels that do get accent marks. I suppose I could make a macro, but is there a keyboard shortcut for this? I don't just want to display the accent mark--I want to insert it on top of a letter. Even using the special character window, I still was unable to insert it on top of a letter--it either went before or after. I didn't see anything in the OO3 user guide for Writer about this.

[floris v]

Try this: viewtopic.php?f=5&t=867#p3477

If this solves your problem, please edit the first post in this thread and add [Solved] to the title bar.

[prr]

It appears that the solution you are recommending is to change my keyboard to French. I'd rather not do this, as this is the type of solution that I would soon forget, and then possibly have problems with later on when using my keyboard.... I also saw that you can use the Alt+ keyboard combinations. I was hoping that there would be some method like simply typing in some keyboard combo that is easy, like Ctrl+ the key for it.

[franx]

Hi,
have a look at →
Compose Special Characters
Version 2.0.4 / 2010-03-29: Composing unicode characters functionality added.

[floris v]

The easiest way is to change the keyboard to US (international); that will allow you to use the dead keys. I thought that that change was mentioned in the thread I linked to as well. You may have to delete all other keyboard definitions, because Windows may start swapping between them on its own (or maybe guided by OOo).

[RoryOF]

One can enter accented characters by using sequences on the Numeric Keypad of the form ALT 0xxx; a Post-it note stuck to the monitor edge can serve as an aide-memoire for the number sequences at first, until these become instinctive.

[floris v]

One can enter accented characters by using sequences on the Numeric Keypad of the form ALT 0xxx; a Post-it note stuck to the monitor edge can serve as an aide-memoire for the number sequences at first, until these become instinctive.

Yes! Back to the Palaeolithic. Sorry, couldn't restrain myself.

[RoryOF]

I use it to enter the occasional character using an accent. The Post-it note remembers the sequences for e acute and grave, a acute and c cedilla. Anything else I look up in Insert Special Characters. If one were using accented characters all day every day I admit that one might prefer another method.

[prr]

The easiest way is to change the keyboard to US (international); that will allow you to use the dead keys. I thought that that change was mentioned in the thread I linked to as well. You may have to delete all other keyboard definitions, because Windows may start swapping between them on its own (or maybe guided by OOo).

Not sure what you mean by "dead keys." I followed the instructions, and changed instead of french, to US international keyboard, but still didn't get the characters to display.

It looks like that that extension linked to above can do this, but if I can simply work within the US International keyboard I'd prefer that. If not, then I'll go with the extension.

[floris v]

Dead keys are ', ", `, ^, ~. You type "e to get ë, 'c for ç, etc.

[Jon]

Changing to another keyboard is not as bad as it sounds. You can add (as opposed to exchange) another keyboard from the XP control panel (regional and language settings, language tab, details button). Just add whatever foreign language (French?) you need to type words into occasionally, but keep your current keyboard as the default. Click on the "language bar" button in the same dialog and uncheck everything you are allowed to uncheck. You will end up with an icon (really a 2-letter code) next to the system tray. It should be showing your default language. Just click on it and choose the alternative keyboard when you need an accented character, then switch back. You will need to figure out where the accents are, but probably you will find them in the upper right part of your keyboard.

[floris v]

That may or may not work. It didn't work for me a few years ago. No matter what I did, as soon as I started to type Dutch text in a Writer(?) document, Windows would switch to the Dutch keyboard, and I don't know the Dutch keyboard bindings; " for instance is on the 2 key, and there are more annoying differences. I ended up with uninstalling Dutch keyboard support as the only way to kill it. No when I get a new computer I routinely kill any other keyboard before I even start a word processor.

[Jon]

I understand your frustration. This happened to me the other day on a new install of Windows 7 and I never could figure out how to resolve it. But now I have it operating this way with no problem at all on both an XP and a Windows 7 machine.

The ideal would be for the user, who only needed accents occasionally, to be able to remap the keyboard in OpenOffice to be able to hit a key combination that would insert the accented character. For example Ctrl-o could be remapped to give an ó and Ctrl-Shift-o would give the capital Ó. The keyboard in OpenOffice can be customized, but it appears to me that the only way to actually map accented characters is to create a macro (using the alt+ code to give the character), then map these "mini-macros" to the keyboard. I'm not sure you can even record a macro like that!

Because I work 80% of the time in Portuguese, I either use a Portuguese keyboard and just got used to its layout (and, yes, I touch type) so that I use the Portuguese layout in both English and Portuguese, or I use an American keyboard but with a Portuguese keyboard filter and have learned where things are different. I also once made little tiny labels on label stock and stuck them next to the letters/numbers on the American keyboard to remind me where things were occasionally or to help Portuguese friends using my computer.

[franx]

(1)
A visualization for the keyboard approach:

(2)
Regarding some issues with keyboard switching and language settings
→ Re: messing up languagues
.

[prr]

The US-International keyboard isn't working. It keeps flopping back to US English, and I can't really make any sense of the characters--I can sometimes get an acute accent, but not always, depending on which vowel I am pressing....

The Compose Special Characters extension shows promise, but in addition to typing in the characters, you need to set up a keyboard shortcut as well. At least I know this can be done....

Not sure what is so complicated with having Writer take Ctrl+: and turning that into an umlaut over the next vowel, but maybe it's just me....

[floris v]

The US-International keyboard isn't working. It keeps flopping back to US English

That's why I kill all other keyboards. I don't know what program causes the switching - if it's OOo, then that's a good reason to file a bug report about that.

[prr]

No floris I had this problem on other laptops w/out OpenOffice. I think its a Windows (XP, at least) issue.

[prr]

OK--Floris the simplest thing for me is to simply use the US International keyboard. I've figured out how to use it now.

I read that with the US-International, you will have to press the space bar after these accent signs (" '', etc.) to get them to appear. That's an acceptable trade-off, as the keyboard inserts quotation marks if the character isn't umlautabled (e.g., if you want to type "The , you just hit quotation mark and the T, and they appear, because the keyboard knows you can't put an umlaut over the T. Nice.) Also, you hit the space bar after a sentence anyways, so using quotation marks at the end is also a breeze.

OK, I gotta ask--is there any other downside to removing the US English keyboard (Dvorak) that I was using before?

[prr]

Forget using US International. I had no idea how often I use quotation marks--and it is a bit irritating having to pause and think about what is being typed. I'll use one of the two extensions with teh traditional US English keyboard, and make my keyboard shortcuts for those international symbols. I guess the answer to my original question is, "No, there is no quick way to do this." That's a shame, b/c MS Word lets you do this without a second thought. I'll have to assign keyboard shortcuts for every umlauted vowel, as well as vowels with accents and of course the enye in Spanish.

[Jon]

No floris I had this problem on other laptops w/out OpenOffice. I think its a Windows (XP, at least) issue.

I've never had this problem in XP and I go back and forth between two languages all the time. The only time I had this problem was with one installation (of 3) of Windows 7. I suspect it has to do with the way the keyboard is set up in the regional settings in Windows or perhaps a combination of Windows and OOo language settings, but I still haven't figured it out either. I did have that problem with XP and a different word processing program once, but I can't remember which program. I killed the program pretty quick.

[PGAGA]

Friday, April 30, 2010

Windows XP permits one to set multiple keyboard languages. The setting is in the Control Panel somewhere. You have the option of even have an icon in the toolbar so that you can quickly switch between layouts.

Phil

[jrkrideau]

The US-International keyboard isn't working. It keeps flopping back to US English, and I can't really make any sense of the characters--I can sometimes get an acute accent, but not always, depending on which vowel I am pressing....

The Compose Special Characters extension shows promise, but in addition to typing in the characters, you need to set up a keyboard shortcut as well. At least I know this can be done....

Not sure what is so complicated with having Writer take Ctrl+: and turning that into an umlaut over the next vowel, but maybe it's just me....

AltChars http://allchars.zwolnet.com is pretty handy and works in most or all Windows programs.

If you want to consider changing keyboards have a look at the French Canadian one. The keyboard layout is virtually identical to the US or Canadian English one. I used one for years and found it only took a day or so to get used to it.

[floris v]

You have the option of even have an icon in the toolbar so that you can quickly switch between layouts.

The problem was that something switched back for me - as soon as I'd start typing in Dutch, the keyboard setting would switch to Dutch, and I wanted it to stay as US International.