User:John3-16/Compose key

Compose key

A compose key, also known as a "multi key", can be assigned to quickly produce certain characters from a keyboard, such as a letter with an accent, such as é, or with a diacritic, or symbols and emojis such as ☺, etc, to be entered into the currently opened application, such as in a text editor, a shell, or inside various other packages. For example, if one were to assign the <AltGr> key as the compose key in one's installation, depending on the configuration method chosen, one may obtain the character "é" by pressing the following three characters one after another:

` `` <AltGr> + <'> + <e> = é ` ``

Other examples may include:

` `` <AltGr> + <,> + <c> = ç <AltGr> + <c> + <c> = č <AltGr> + <=> + <E> = € <AltGr> + <-> + <L> = £ <AltGr> + <a> + <e> = æ ` ``

Note also that you may need to "hold" the <Shift> key with the next character in order to produce some characters, depending on your chosen keyboard layout. For example, on some keyboards where the colon appears over the semi-colon:

` `` Hold<Shift>+<;> = <:> ` ``

Therefore, consider the following example:

` `` <AltGr> + <:> + <)> = ☺ ` `` Depending on your layout, since additionally the left bracket (')) on some layouts is called by shifting the "zero" key, one may need to do as follows: ` `` <AltGr> + Hold<Shift>+<;> + Hold<Shift>+<0> = ☺ ` ``

Note that under some environments, one may obtain an umlaut/diaeresis (¨) by employing the colon symbol (:). Alternatively, depending on your configuration, you may need to obtain the umlaut by using the double-quotes ("). For example:

<AltGr> + <"> + <a> = ä

Consider additionally that, depending on the keyboard configuration, double-quotes are sometimes composed as Hold<shift>+<'>. Therefore, depending on the keyboard configured, one might need to obtain that "ä" as follows:

<AltGr> + Hold<Shift>+<'> + <a> = ä

Consider a listing of combinations under Xorg.

Assign the compose key

Todo: {{ * Elaborate on alternative methods. * Document assigning the compose key for all users. Contributors welcome.}}

Decide what compose key you will choose. Then, you may need to refer to it in the instructions below by its technical term, which may be listed here as follows:-

<LWIN> or <Left Windows> key a.k.a. the 'Windows' or 'Logo' key on the left: 'lwin'
<RWIN> or <Right Windows> key (it exists on some keyboards and is not to be confused with the 'Windows' key on the left): 'rwin'
<AltGr> key a.k.a. the <Alt> key on the right: 'ralt'
<Alt> key on the left: 'lalt'
<Menu> key a.k.a. the application key, typically used to open context menus, as when right-clicking from a mouse, displaying a right-click menu and pointer, often found between the <Right Alt> and <Right Control> keys (not to be confused with the the 'Logo'/'lwin' key): 'menu'
<Caps Lock> key: 'caps'
<Pause> key: 'paus'
<Print Scrn> key: 'prsc'
<Scroll Lock> key: 'sclk'
<Right Control> key: 'rctrl'
<Left Control> key: 'lctrl'

In desktop environments

If the desktop environment is installed via `setup-desktop`, one could seek to assign the compose key through one of the desktop's 'Settings' modules and then, specifically, those relating to 'Keyboard' or similar:

Gnome

Activities (on toolbar) \ type the word "Settings" \ Settings icon \ Keyboard \ enable "Compose Key" \ select the Compose Key

'gnome', 'xfce', 'mate', 'sway', 'lxqt' or 'none')

XFCE

Applications \ Settings \ Settings Editor \ Channel "keyboard-layout" \ XkbOptions \ Compose \ type `compose:ralt` or otherwise for your preferred compose key

Mate

System \ Control Centre \ Keyboard \ Layout \ Options \ Position of Compose Key clcik on triangle \ Select your compose key

Sway

Check your input settings first:

$ swaymsg -t get_inputs

If your preferred compose key is not stated, then open your configuration file (`~/.config/sway/config`) with your preferred text editor, and in order to specify that the <AltGr> key/'right alt' key is your compose key, consider entering the following `xkb_options` line inside the `input "type:keyboard"` stanza, as follows (without the `[...]`):

input "type:keyboard" {

  [...]
  xkb_options compose:ralt

}

LXQt
- Under XOrg: Consider following the passage below for 'XOrg window sessions', installing setxkbmap first, and then applying the autostart instruction by going to:

Preferences \ LXQt Settings \ Session Settings \ Autostart \ Add

Add a line with your chosen compose key setting, such as:

/usr/bin/setxkbmap -option compose:ralt &

- Under Wayland: Consider applying the guide below, Under Wayland

If Plasma desktop environment is installed:

Plasma

System Settings \ Hardware \ Input Devices \ Keyboard \ Advanced \ tick "Configure keyboard options" \ tick "Position of Compose key" \ tick selection

The desktop environment's man pages may give more detailed configurations for the compose key. The following section may also be additionally be useful e.g. where one drops into a tty environment or when switching into a different window manager/compositor than those listed above.

Without set desktop environments

From the following examples, consider the model where the <AltGr> key ('ralt' key) could be assigned for the user only. If a different key is preferred, consider substituting with the key's technical term listed above.

Under XOrg

There are various methods. Consider installing setxkbmap.

``` doas apk add setxkbmap ```

For XOrg window sessions:-

In your window manager's autostart file, consider entering the following:

``` /usr/bin/setxkbmap -option compose:ralt & ```

If there is no austostart file, consider adding that instruction in `~/.xinitrc` before the last line(s) being used to launch any window session.

That instruction can also be entered from a shell in order to assign the compose key so as to be in effect only during the login session.

For tty/windowless sessions:-

The same setxkbmap instruction could be used at the tty.

To autostart this setting for future sessions:-

- Consider adding it to a session autostart file; or

- If there is no autostart file, consider adding it, as proposed directly above for XOrg window sessions, to `~/.xinitrc`; or

- If there is no `~/.xinitrc`, consider executing the following:

Create the file (adding the line to `~/.profile` instead may be poor practice);

touch ~/.xinitrc

Make `~/.xinitrc` executable and read-and-write only by the user:

doas chmod 700 ~/.xinitrc

Then, add the setxkbmap instruction above.

Further documentation: man xkeyboard-config

Under Wayland

Consider [various approaches](https://superuser.com/questions/1160777/make-special-characters-available-on-us-keyboard-an-wayland); Sway's method suggested above should be considered for that compositor.

Option with `~/.profile`: Open the file (creating the file first if it doesn't exist), and consider adding:

``` export XKB_DEFAULT_OPTIONS="compose:ralt" ```

References for this X Keyboard Extension (XKB) include:-

- Xorg - XKB configuration.
- Archwiki - X Keyboard extension.

Option using gsettings:-

Install gsettings-desktop-schemas, if not currently installed:

$ doas apk install gsettings-desktop-schemas-