(SOLVED) Application for typing german Umlauts

ganbatte · 2016-05-10 16:58:04

Hello dear Arch community,

before I have made the switch from Win 10 to Arch I have used a application called ac'tivAid, allowing me to type the german Umlauts (ä,ö,ü,ß) by pressing a,o,u,s multiple times.
Does someone know of a similar application for Linux? I have searched with pacman and yaourt, but wasn't able to find one.

Last edited by ganbatte (2016-05-16 09:56:04)

Vain · 2016-05-10 17:36:31

IMHO, the easiest way to do stuff like this is to use a compose key:

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Ke … ompose_key

This way, you can type all sorts of accented characters, not only Umlauts. For example, a "ö" can be entered by typing <compose><"><o> or a "ñ" is <compose><~><n>.

Mika79 · 2016-05-10 19:22:13

Yes like Vain said, and for the easy way you can just choose US International with dead keys in your desktop environment as keyboard layout, and pressing " + a o u will get your Umlaute (lots of other chars gain points on them too, like if you wanna write the dutch word "cliënt", aso). Thats without extra keypresses besides ", and when you actually wanna write " or ' or any other key that modifies characters just press space after it, so to write " you need to press shift+' and then space. That actually works under Windows too (just called "US International" there) if you need to write something there in the future

I got a US layout keyboard while living in Germany and I won't go back to using a German layout ever again.

Last edited by Mika79 (2016-05-10 19:24:37)

ganbatte · 2016-05-10 20:06:41

Thanks to both of you for your suggestions. I didn't know that there is such an easy way to type these chars on both OS, especially since I already use the US International layout anyway.

Mika79 wrote:

I got a US layout keyboard while living in Germany and I won't go back to using a German layout ever again.

I use a Russian keyboard for training purposes and it seems to have the US International layout...didn't think about how Russians type latin letters when I ordered this, but they definitely chose smarter than Germans. No real benefit from having all these different layouts in Central Europe from my point of view.

frostschutz · 2016-05-10 20:22:32

+1 for the Compose Key. It gives you a lot more characters than dead keys ever would, without the annoyance of having to hit dead keys several times to get the original character (which you might need regularly too, if you're a programmer).

I think there is also a combined US+German layout, I've never tried it myself though. It puts umlauts where they would be on a German keyboard, not sure where it moves the US keys though... that way you have a difference of only 4 keys (ä ö ü ß) to re-learn. If you need tons of umlauts all the time I guess it could be useful... Compose Key is great but it's a three key sequence after all (Compose + " + a).

Mika79 · 2016-05-10 20:38:27

Thats true, that extra space key might be hindering for a while. But that layout works on all desktop OS in use now, virtually the same. One just needs to figure out how its called. Im using it for years now and don't think about pressing space after " and ' anymore (fine motor memory I guess).

But when one uses just one OS it might make sense to choose and train the specific layout that needs the least keypresses to write anything.

Steef435 · 2016-05-10 22:50:04

I set the following keyboard layout in my .xinitrc:

setxkbmap us altgr-intl

This way you can place accents and umlauts by holding the right alt key. For example: hold right alt, press " (shift + '), release alt, press u. This will produce: ü. Pressing right alt + s produces ß. It's basically all the features you have when using Mika79's solution, but you won't have to type that annoying space every time you just want " or ', which is totally awesome if you do any programming or just like quotes in my opinion. This is from a Dutch perspective though, I know German has a lot more accents so having to hold the right alt every time may actually be more tiresome than having to type that annoying space.

I think it's not as powerful as a separate compose key, but it doesn't cost you a key either so that's a plus.

ganbatte · 2016-05-16 09:55:37

Steef435 wrote:

I set the following keyboard layout in my .xinitrc:
setxkbmap us altgr-intl
This way you can place accents and umlauts by holding the right alt key. For example: hold right alt, press " (shift + '), release alt, press u. This will produce: ü. Pressing right alt + s produces ß. It's basically all the features you have when using Mika79's solution, but you won't have to type that annoying space every time you just want " or ', which is totally awesome if you do any programming or just like quotes in my opinion. This is from a Dutch perspective though, I know German has a lot more accents so having to hold the right alt every time may actually be more tiresome than having to type that annoying space.
I think it's not as powerful as a separate compose key, but it doesn't cost you a key either so that's a plus.

This is exactly what I need, thank you very much! I needed to press AltGr, Shift and P for Ö, though. O delivers Ó (french?).
Learning four new combinations is reasonable for me, everything more complicated would slow me down too much in my writing.

Steef435 · 2016-05-16 12:24:34

You can also press:
AltGr Shift ' (the key next to ; if you have a QWERTY keyboard) and then O

So you hold Alt and shift at the same time, then press ' and then release alt and shift and then press o to get ö. You basically use the altgr + an accent like ', " or ` to "queue up" the accent, then you release everything and press the letter you want to put the accent on (hold shift if you want Ö instead of ö). You have to hold shift and altgr both this time because you need shift to type " (two dots), which is what you want on top of the o. On the other hand, if you only need four you can probably also use what you're doing right now.

Happy I could help!

Arch Linux

#1 2016-05-10 16:58:04

(SOLVED) Application for typing german Umlauts

#2 2016-05-10 17:36:31

Re: (SOLVED) Application for typing german Umlauts

#3 2016-05-10 19:22:13

Re: (SOLVED) Application for typing german Umlauts

#4 2016-05-10 20:06:41

Re: (SOLVED) Application for typing german Umlauts

#5 2016-05-10 20:22:32

Re: (SOLVED) Application for typing german Umlauts

#6 2016-05-10 20:38:27

Re: (SOLVED) Application for typing german Umlauts

#7 2016-05-10 22:50:04

Re: (SOLVED) Application for typing german Umlauts

#8 2016-05-16 09:55:37

Re: (SOLVED) Application for typing german Umlauts

#9 2016-05-16 12:24:34

Re: (SOLVED) Application for typing german Umlauts

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