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luri
Asked: 2011-01-27 03:14:56 +0800 CST

Ways to enter special characters? Is Alt+Numpad possible?

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I know there's this question How can I type special characters like ë?, but I'd like to know if there is any possibility to configure the keyboard to use windowish style to insert special characters (Alt+Code in numpad). I know it can be done with Ctr+Shift+U+Code but...

  1. I have to enable ibus and don't know how to leave it enabled by default
  2. Hex codes are longer than decimal ones Ctrl+Shift+U+Hex codes combos are longer than the Alt+Decimal code ones
  3. As an ex-Windows(TM) user, I'm so used to it....

Two examples of characters I use a lot, comparing win style and gnome-style

Tilde (~) character
Windows -> Alt+1-2-6
gnome -> Ctrl+Shift+U+7-e

Superscript 2 - square (²) character
Windows -> Alt+2-5-3
gnome -> Ctrl+Shift+u+b-e

If you try those 'key combos', the windows style is easier to type (not being subjective: less fingers used simultaneously, less keys pressed).

As I don't want to put it in some subjective way, my question would be it I can configure the keyboard to use Alt+Numpad style, or if I need to stick to the Ctrl+Shift+U combo (or the compose key alternative)

keyboard

2 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    You can use compose sequences which are more usable than the Alt+num method in Windows. For more see https://help.ubuntu.com/community/GtkComposeTable

    For example, Compose + t + m = ™

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  2. Ctrl + Shift + U works fine (under XUbuntu 15.10 and most likely under many other X11-based versions). In contrast to the compose-key method it allows the input of any UTF-8 character. E.g., Ctrl + Shift + U 263a +Space yields ☺.

    Of course, I use the compose-key method whenever applicable.

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