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I am using mainly an English keyboard layout for convenience while programming, but my main language has some letters that aren't available in that layout. Since using two different layouts is really confusing to me I decided to always use the English layout if possible. If the letter I want to type doesn't exist in the English layout I switch the layout for that one letter only.

Currently I am doing that using a keyboard shortcut to switch the layout (see here: How to switch language keyboard combination?)

So what I do is:

switch layout

hit desired key

switch layout back to English

It would be much more convenient to have the layout switch back after one keystroke automatically.

Does anyone have an idea how I could do that?

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kyra
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  • Unicode might be easier and it is uniform. (control shift u {unicode} enter. – Rinzwind Mar 05 '15 at 14:46
  • What other language? Also I assume this is a laptop so using a different keyboard is not an option, right? – user3169 Mar 05 '15 at 18:36
  • @Rinzwind I hadn't thought of that yet. At first it seemed helpful but the I realized, that it would save me only one keystroke (and only if I count ctrl+shift as one stroke, but ctrl+space as two). But I had to remember 7 2-digit hex codes. Therefore it is still pretty inconvenient for me ... – kyra Mar 05 '15 at 20:32
  • @user3169 Its German. It is indeed a laptop. I am already using a (physical) German keyboard layout. I just tell ubuntu to interpret it as an English keyboard (the printed letters on the keys don't match the actual output on the screen). I am quite happy with that solution. The only problem is, that I forget to switch back the layout to English after I typed an umlaut. It would be much more convenient to have that done automatically. – kyra Mar 05 '15 at 20:33
  • does anybody have an idea? – kyra Mar 06 '15 at 14:58

1 Answers1

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Ja, natürlich! ;-)

Just use the English (US Alternative International) keyboard … Most Western-European (including German) letters except some really funny characters like ß, Æ, å, ø, and þ can be typed this way by using "dead" keys: to type ü just type " and u and it will result in ü. The only disadvantage is that while programming you'll have to type "" and '' and go back with ← to then fill in the strings.

This is because if you try to type "a string", it will result in ä string" …

You'll get used to this within a week or immediately depending on how you type strings already! ;-)

äëïÿöüçéè, … will pose no problems whatsoever!

Fabby
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  • Don't thank me! ;-) If you like my answer, just click the little grey ☑ under the "0" now turning it into beautiful green. If you do not like my answer, click on the little grey down-arrow below the 0, and if you really like my answer, click on the little grey checkmark and the little up-arrow... If you have any further questions, go to http://askubuntu.com/questions/ask – Fabby Mar 11 '15 at 02:12
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    The us altgr international is a better option, I think. You won't have the double quote issue and you can type ßÆåøþ as well. – imolit Mar 14 '17 at 13:11