tip-compose key

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Compose key

Many languages need special keys for their own alphabets. This is easy if you have a dedicated keyboard but, what happens if you want to write those foregin languages with your keyboards? Linux uses the Compose Key for that purpose. Let’s see how to easily configure it with Lubuntu.

First step: right click at he keyboard “flag” icon on your panel and choose “settings”

Second step: go to “Advanced xkbdmap Options” and place the string “compose:” (without quotes) followed by the key you want to use. These are the available keys (in te example below I chose the Right Win key)::

compose:ralt  Right Alt
compose:lwin  Left Win
compose:rwin  Right Win
compose:menu  Menu
compose:lctrl     Left Ctrl
compose:rctrl Right Ctrl
compose:caps Caps Lock
compose:paus Pause
compose:prsc PrtSc
compose:sclk Scroll Lock

This Wikipedia page shows how many combinations of the Compose Key are available.

Third step: now ensure to click at the “save” icon next to the text you’ve just intruduced and close this dialog. You can start using it right now, without restart!

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