Warner White <warnercwh...@yahoo.com> writes: > I have lost the use of the combination Alt+four numbers to get special > characters. For example, Alt+0151 (on the keypad with NumLock on) to get an > em dash. Now when I do it, nothing happens. It's > working on Windows with Firefox, with OpenOffice, etc., but not on my two > Ubuntu machines. > > I think it was working until recently, but I'm new enough to Ubuntu that I > can't be certain. > > Any ideas?
That is something unique to Windows. But, 'nix has a better alternative… You'll want to make use of the 'Compose' key. Which key this is mapped to on your keyboard varies, but (under Gnome), can be set in Panel > System > Preferences > Keyboard > [tab:]Layouts > [button:]Layout Options > [expander:]Compose key position. I have it mapped to the right "Menu" key on my Windows-layout 104-key keyboard. The idea with Compose is that you first hit the compose key, then a variable-length sequence of characters in order to affect a single composed key. For instance, I'd hit <Compose> <'> <e> to get é, or <Compose> <"> <o> to get my heavy-metal ümulats like sö. But that's just the beginning of the fun! There's all sorts of awesome Unicode characters this allows you to enter. For instance, you might talk about the √∞°² (sqrt infinity degrees squared), or want to try out ½ of the vulgar fractions. Maybe you dislike :), and would rather ☺. Or don't like hearts like <3, and would rather use ♥. Like talking about ∿ waves? Or need to talk about how things might be ≥ and ≤ others? What about the null set ∅. Or how things are cold ± a few degrees? The <https://help.ubuntu.com/community/ComposeKey> link already posted is very good, except for their bad instruction about creating a ~/.XCompose file by copying one out of /usr/share … Instead, just add [[[ include "%L" ]]] as the first line of ~/.XCompose, and the current default file for the locale will be loaded first, then you can override things to your heart's content. I've attached my ~/.XCompose to give you some ideas. But also, take a look at </usr/share/X11/locale/en_US.UTF-8/Compose> to see what's already defined. Also the Panel > Applications > Accessories > Character Map is great for finding the details of unicode characters.
include "%L" <Multi_key> <less> <3> <w> : "♡" U2661 # white heart suit <Multi_key> <less> <3> <b> : "♥" U2665 # black heart suit <Multi_key> <colon> <parenright> : "☺" # :) <Multi_key> <colon> <parenleft> : "☹" # :( <Multi_key> <period> <period> <period> : "…" <Multi_key> <exclam> <question> : "‽" # interrobang‽ <Multi_key> <question> <exclam> : "‽" # 2007-12-10, jsled: <Multi_key> <0> <slash> : "∅" U2205 # empty set <Multi_key> <slash> <0> : "∅" U2205 # empty set <Multi_key> <A> <A> : "∀" U2200 # forall <Multi_key> <E> <E> : "∃" U2203 # there exists # "⊂" U2282 # subset of # "⊃" U2283 # superset of # "⊄" U2284 # not subset # "⊅" U2285 # not superset <Multi_key> <1> <3> : "⅓" U2153 # vulgar fraction one third <Multi_key> <2> <3> : "⅔" U2154 # vulgar fraction two thirds <Multi_key> <1> <5> : "⅕" U2155 # 1/5 <Multi_key> <2> <5> : "⅖" U2156 # 2/5 <Multi_key> <3> <5> : "⅗" U2157 # 3/5 <Multi_key> <4> <5> : "⅘" U2158 # 4/5 <Multi_key> <1> <6> : "⅙" U2159 # 1/6 <Multi_key> <5> <6> : "⅚" U215A # 5/6 <Multi_key> <1> <8> : "⅛" U215B # 1/8 <Multi_key> <3> <8> : "⅜" U215C # 3/8 <Multi_key> <5> <8> : "⅝" U215D # 5/8 <Multi_key> <7> <8> : "⅞" U215E # 7/8 # 2007-12-16, jsled <Multi_key> <p> <i> : "π" U03C0 # pi! # 2008-01-03, jsled <Multi_key> <backslash> <slash> : "ƛ" U19B # lambda. # 2008-01-22, jsled # 2008-07-11, jsled: whoops: square root conflicted with lambda. <Multi_key> <comma> <slash> : "√" U221A # square rt <Multi_key> <3> <slash> : "∛" U221B # cube root <Multi_key> <8> <8> : "∞" U221E # infinity # left/right/up/down/double arrows... # 2008-01-22, jsled: added <Multi_key> <less> <minus> : "←" U2190 # leftwards arrow <Multi_key> <carret> <bar> : "↑" U2191 # up arrow. <Multi_key> <minus> <greater> : "→" U2191 # right arrow <Multi_key> <bar> <v> : "↓" U2192 # down arrow # 2008-01-22, jsled: random... <Multi_key> <~> <=> : "≅" U2245 # approx equal to. <Multi_key> <~> <~> : "≅" U2248 # almost equal to. <Multi_key> <s> <i> <n> : "≅" U223F # sine wave # 2008-01-28, jsled: travesty! <Multi_key> <less> <equal> : U2264 <Multi_key> <equal> <less> : U2264 <Multi_key> <greater> <equal> : U2265 <Multi_key> <equal> <greater> : U2265 # 2008-05-12, jsled: questionable. <Multi_key> <equal> <question> : "≟" U225F # questioned equal to <Multi_key> <question> <equal> : "≟" U225F # questioned equal to # 2008-10-22, jsled: where did this go? <Multi_key> <slash> <u> : "µ" U00B5 # micro sign
Cheers… -- ...jsled http://asynchronous.org/ - a=jsled; b=asynchronous.org; echo $...@${b}
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