Macros in OpenOffice 2

[David M]

Karl Auer wrote:
> In Microsoft word, it's possible to attach macros to keypress sequences.
> I used this feature to set up some special characters . I put u-umlaut
> on CTL-;-u, for example. This lets me insert some German characters that
> I don't have on my US keyboard.
> 
> I want to do the same thing (or at least similar) under OpenOffice, so
> that I don't have to go Insert->Special character and select the desired
> character every time.

Here's a possible solution:

As you say that you're using a US keyboard (as am I, PC UK keyboards are
a #@$%ing mess, I guess Aus probably inherited our layout?), you want to 
be sure that your keyboard layout is set to (in GNOME [1], at least) just 
plain "US English" keyboard (not the "with dead keys" variant).

[1] I actually use KDE (but use apps from both), which has similar, but 
not identical, keyboard layout names. I found a little bit of fighting
was sometimes required with both control panels to get both environments
agreeing on my keyboard layout.


Then, in 'Layout Options', choose your preferred 'compose' key.
(I used right-prison, err, right-window, since it's not doing anything
else useful other than glowering at me in a most uncloverleaf fashion ;-)

You can then enter accented (and other) characters by pressing (and 
releasing) the compose key, and then keying the letter followed by the 
appropriate accent, *releasing each key as it is typed in turn*.

This technique should work in pretty much every application [2], not just 
in OpenOffice.

[2] that is aware of the existence of the western world outwith the USA,
ie, supports the ISO-Latin1 character set


The following keys act as accents *after the compose key has been pressed*:

' = acute, eg e + ' = é
` = grave, eg a + ` = Ã 
^ = circumflex, eg a + ^ = â
, = cedilla, eg c + , = ç

~ = tilde, eg n + ~ = ñ

" = umlaut, eg u + " = ü 
(" = <shift>-' on any sensible keyboard layout (eg, US) ;-)

Scandinavian letters are as follows:

a + a = å
o + / = ø
a + e = æ

Should you ever need to use our Pommie currency, it can be entered on a
US keyboard configured as above as: <compose> + l + - = £  ;-)

(Strangely, this one no longer seems to work in OpenOffice (Breezy
version))

Also:

y + = = ¥
^ + 0 = ° (degrees)
o + _ = º (numero (number (m))
a + _ = ª (number (f))
c + o = ©
^ + 2 = ²
: + - = ÷
etc, etc..

As you can see, most of these key pairs mimic the shape (or sound) of the 
characters that they represent, so it soon becomes easy to remember
them.

I haven't yet sussed out how to type µ, nor € using this technique (so I
still have to resort to pasting these in). The latter symbol has its own
issues, character-set-wise, of course, which is far too big an issue to
go into here.. :-(

Hope this helps,

Viel Spaß!



David.


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