Ubuntu Wiki

• Keymap quirks (http://people.freedesktop.org/~hughsient/quirk/quirk-keymap-index.html)

Customizing Keyboard Compose Key Settings

The USA International keyboard layout is helpful for people who wish to use a USA keyboard with US English, but need to type in another language. However, since this is a general purpose layout, it doesn't include all key symbols that a given language needs, and it includes other symbols you probably don't want. There's a few ways to configure around this problem:

- Use a keyboard map that supports compose sequences but doesn't use deadkeys by default - e.g., USA Alternative international (former us_intl) or USA International (AltGr dead keys).

- Enable multiple keyboard layouts for the different use cases using the System -> Preferences -> Keyboard -> Layouts list and switch between them, using the GNOME keyboard applet or a layout-switching hotkey.

- override the standard compose map by creating a .XCompose file in your home directory, changing the maps that you want to be have differently. e.g.:

<dead_acute> <l>                        : "'l"
<dead_acute> <L>                       : "'L"
<dead_acute> <m>                      : "'m"

Otherwise, get used to typing a space after every ' if you want it to be rendered as an apostrophe, since this is what the use of "dead keys" implies.