1 Jani says...

Looks like typing letters with the umlaut (diaeresis) has been made particularly easy for those of us using a keyboard with Finnish keys and layout: compose isn't needed at all, and typing in the umlaut doesn't require a modifier key. So even if ä and ö didn't have their own keys, I could get away with just two keypresses: the diaeresis followed by an a or an o. In fact, it's pretty useful from time to time, for typing ü (diaresis + u), which isn't part of our own alphabet and thus isn't present on the keyboard, but is still pretty common e.g. in German names.

Posted at 1:05 a.m. on September 1, 2008

2 Lornix says...

ä <= compose, ", a ö <= compose, ", o å <= compose, o, a

Ä <= compose, ", A Ö <= compose, ", O Å <= compose, o, A

Order is important, as is case. Almost anything is generatable:

? € ¥ ¢ … ¿ ¡

all are preceeded by {compose}

(=L)(=e)(=Y)(|c)(..)(??)(!!)

Posted at 4:28 a.m. on September 1, 2008

3 Leif says...

On my Norwegian keyboard, the diaeresis is easily accessible, like on Jani's Finnish one. It's one of the few keys that doesn't advance the cursor, along with the tilde, circumflex and backtick (aka accent grave). It's probably the same on UK keyboards, so just try pressing AltGr+[, release, and then press a or o.

By the way, good luck with the Kalevala. Hyvä päivä!

Posted at 4:30 a.m. on September 1, 2008

4 Ciaran McCreesh says...

On a UK keyboard you do alt-gr+[ followed by a to get ä. You don't need the control key at all.

Posted at 5:02 p.m. on September 1, 2008

5 Toni says...

Hi,

You might want to add an xkb keymap. Make backups before you begin ;) And sorry about formatting.

in /usr/share/X11/xkb/symbols/gb, after "intl", add this:

partial alphanumeric_keys xkb_symbols "intl_fi" {

// Greetings from Finland

include "gb(intl)" name[Group1]="United Kingdom - International (with dead keys and ä & ö)";

key <AC01> { [ a, A, adiaeresis, Adiaeresis ] }; key <AD09> { [ o, O, diaeresis, Odiaeresis ] };

};

And declare your new variant in /usr/share/X11/xkb/rules/xfree86.xml. Excerpt:

<layout> <configItem> <name>gb</name> <shortDescription>GBr</shortDescription> <description>United Kingdom</description> <languageList><iso639Id>eng</iso639Id></languageList> </configItem>

<variantList> <variant> <configItem> <name>intl</name> <description>International (with dead keys)</description> </configItem> </variant>

<variant> <configItem> <name>intl_fi</name> <description>International (with dead keys and ä and ö)</description> </configItem> </variant>

After you select this new variant in Gnome settings, you should have ä and ö available with AltGR + a/o (also with shift). Have fun!

Best regards, Toni

Posted at 6:05 p.m. on September 1, 2008

6 Jinks says...

I am from Germany but i use an US-layout keyboard since that's a lot easier for most my programming needs.

Now, having to also write the occassional german letter or email if ound this little gem somewhere around the internet.

Just put the following code into your ~/.Xmodmap and modify to your needs:

! German Umlauts on US Keyboard

keycode 66 = Mode_switch Multi_key

keycode 39 = s S ssharp

keycode 38 = a A adiaeresis Adiaeresis

keycode 30 = u U udiaeresis Udiaeresis

keycode 32 = o O odiaeresis Odiaeresis

keycode 14 = 5 percent ssharp degree

keycode 26 = e E egrave Egrave

keycode 28 = t T EuroSign EuroSign

keycode 27 = r R ecircumflex Ecircumflex

keycode 25 = w W eacute Eacute

keycode 31 = i I idiaeresis Idiaeresis

keycode 21 = equal plus plusminus notsign

keycode 57 = n N ntilde Ntilde

keycode 58 = m M Multi_key

keycode 15 = 6 asciicircum dead_acute dead_circumflex

keycode 19 = 0 parenright degree masculine

keycode 10 = 1 exclam exclamdown onehalf

keycode 54 = c C ccedilla Ccedilla

keycode 24 = q Q copyright registered

this changes CapsLock (the most useless key in computing history if you ask me :)) to be a modifier key used for all the following codes. So with CapsLock+a I get ä, Capslock+Shift+a renders Ä, the normal CapsLock functionality is also still available via Shift+Capslock.

Hope that helps, I for once do really like it.

Posted at 7:05 p.m. on September 1, 2008

7 andylockran says...

In ubuntu, I do ctrl, and the functions to the right of my keyboard for extra characters.

Such as: alt gr + ; + e for é

I'll post more tomorrow if you want them!

Posted at 11:24 p.m. on September 1, 2008

8 Zeth says...

Thanks everyone for your different solutions, absolutely fantastic. I have tried them all. The one from Ciaran McCreesh was the one I was subconsciously groping for.

Posted at 11:32 p.m. on September 1, 2008

9 Matteo says...

Well, you could also just switch the whole layout to the standard Finnish one only when you need to write in Finnish.

Have a look at the "keyboard layout indicator" applet for GNOME.

You can set up shortcuts to do this easily when needed (for example, I press both shift keys at the same time and I loop through the group of layouts I have defined there).

I find this better than modifying one self's layout because it forces you to learn how to use another country's keyboard and that might save you money if you'll ever visit those places and their internet cafes :-)

(I am from Italy so forgive my English)

Posted at 12:41 p.m. on September 20, 2008