Apache OpenOffice Community Forum

I have to type documents in both Spanish and German, so I need to use a lot of special character keys; rather than inserting them all from a menu, I would like to be able to assign keyboard shortcuts. I've installed the international keyboard on my computer, but it doesn't seem to be working in Open Office (although it does work in other programs). Is there anything I can do to fix or get around this problem? Thanks!

Operating system? In Windows, I can install several keyboards from the Control Panel/ Regional and Languages/ Languages/ Details. They are then available in all software including OpenOffice. I toggle quickly from one to the other from the task manager.

David.

Does it also help: French accents with a Dell SK-8135?

Thanks to add '[Solved]' in your first post title (edit button) if your issue has been fixed.

I'm sorry, I should clarify. I have already added the international keyboard correctly and it's working in Microsoft office (I'm transitioning at the moment) but not in Open Office. It works here as well; when I type Shift+" and a vowel, it gives me ä,ë, ö, etc. When I do it in Open Office, I just get an apostrophe and a vowel. I was just wondering if this has come up before, or if there's some setting I need to change in Open Office to get it working. If not, it's not clear to me whether I can customize shortcut keys for special characters--in the "customize keyboard" menus special characters don't come up individually, nor is there an option in the "insert special character" box to assign a shortcut, so I'm not sure what to do.

eldeal wrote:I'm sorry, I should clarify. I have already added the international keyboard correctly and it's working in Microsoft office (I'm transitioning at the moment) but not in Open Office. It works here as well; when I type Shift+" and a vowel, it gives me ä,ë, ö, etc. When I do it in Open Office, I just get an apostrophe and a vowel. I was just wondering if this has come up before, or if there's some setting I need to change in Open Office to get it working.

I've not come across this issue before. The US International and my own customised keyboards work fine in OpenOffice.

If not, it's not clear to me whether I can customize shortcut keys for special characters--in the "customize keyboard" menus special characters don't come up individually, nor is there an option in the "insert special character" box to assign a shortcut, so I'm not sure what to do.

That is explained in my linked tutorial. You have to record a macro, and assign that to a shortcut key. Not the easiest method, but it has the advantage that you can insert entire words (or paragraphs) with one shortcut if you wish.

You don't tell us which OS you're using or which OpenOffice version. Please put this information in your signature. No one can help unless they can reproduce the issue, and if they're using a different version of Windows or Oo, then their results may not apply.

Check the language bar in the system tray and make sure that you're not switching keyboards with Left +Alt + Shift. Turning off that shortcut in Control Panel is best, as it is easy to do accidentally. If all else fails, try a repair of OpenOffice.

I just get an apostrophe and a vowel

Are you holding the shift key? One doesn't normally get an apostrophe on a US keyboard with shift held down, one should get inch marks, which will change to “ double open quote with Autocorrect. With the International keyboard installed and functional, it will produce umlaut vowels. It is working for me on Windows XP Home, and Oo 2.3.1.

We are use 4 different languages in documents. I was added hot key to keyboard layouts (Ctrl+Shift+1/2/3/4). Input Languages -> Key Settings -> Change Key Sequence

If you have several keyboard settings you must be careful that Win XP or maybe Word has a way of changing the keyboard setting. It would do that on my computer - whenever I started typing Dutch text (I do that a lot ) it would turn on the Dutch keyboard (and I don't know the Dutch keyboard), so I ended up by removing the Dutch keyboard in the Windows settings. Windows may play the same trick on you in OOo. And in that case it will, of course, type 'o instead of ó, because the accents will then be coded on other keys.

Sometimes I need to write Cyrillic keyboard, which is totally different from my Hungarian,I use on winXP onscreen-keyboard for short text input. This can be found On the Start menu: All Programs>Accessories>Accessibility>On-Screen Keyboard.
When you change between languages this will show all changes.