"Key switches keyboard layout while pressed" -- how?

[Luka Renko]

On Thursday 25. of January 2007 12:46:00 Urtzi Jauregi wrote:
> On Thursday 25 January 2007 12:34, you wrote:
> > > 	Thank you for your help, but I was looking for a way to do it via KDE.
> > > Besides, I use OpenOffice often, and it looks like the method you
> > > suggest clashes with it.
> >
> > Hi, I am not sure what you mean by "do it via KDE" -- I am sure I
> > misunderstand you.
>
> 	With "do it via KDE" I mean that temporary layout switches should work
> just checking the approppriate checkbox in the KDE Control Center ->
> Regional & Language -> Keyboard Layout -> Xkb Options. They don't and that
> bugs me (pun intended).
>

Exactly the same thing bothered me for some time (I am using English and 
Slovene and use slovene only occasionally). Then I have found the 
great "Compose" function.

You just need to assign "Compose" function (sometimes also named Multi_key) to 
one of the keys on your keyboard. You can do this in:
 1. System Settings -> Regional & Language -> Keyboard Layout -> Xkb Options
 2. Set "Enable xkb options"
 3. Under "Options", find and select "Compose Key Position"
 4. Select one of the available key mappings (I use "Menu is Compose")

Now you can use Compose key to generate accented letters - for example:
<Compose> c c   => č
<Compose> c s   => š
<Compose> c z   => ž
<Compose> s s   => ß
 
For a list of Compose combinations you can look 
into /usr/share/X11/locale/en_US.UTF-8/Compose file.

Regards,
Luka