unable to type accented characters in kde apps

[http]

hello kubuntu experts,

i cannot type certain characters in kde textboxes. instead of displaying the character typed two boxes are shown. it used to behave correctly before.

the two boxes made me first believe that this is an unicode-related problem, but copy-pasting these characters will display them correctly in the same textboxes. then i thought i just messed up my keyboard layout, but typing these characters works fine in gtk apps.
also, some accent characters can be typed correctly in kde textboxes, like these: €, ő, ű, Đ
however only the boxes are displayed when typing these: á, ö, é

i have tried to restart x, login to kde with a fresh user, reboot whole system, updating x and kde related packages. the problem is still there.

i would say i did not mess with the configuration, but i know it turns out in the end that i did.

anyone had this weird problem already?

thx,
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[groenem]

Re: unable to type accented characters in kde apps

Try the following:

Press and hold down the [Alt] key while pressing [:] and then the [e] separately.

Play around using the [Alt] key together with all the other keys in that part of the keyboard and any vocal letter, example:
[Alt] + ["] + [i]

Unfortunately I am not in front of my Linux PC and am not sure if I had used the [Ctlr] button as well. But play around with the button anyway.

[http]

Re: unable to type accented characters in kde apps

hello groenem,

i am already using dead keys a lot. it is a very nice feature, as i often have to type in different languages. however it does not matter if i type an accented character using dead keys or using a keyboard layout that supports the accented character directly.

also, consider these points:

1. there is no problem with typing accented chars in GTK applications, only KDE apps are affected.
2. there is no problem displaying accented chars in KDE apps (type in gtk app, then copy to kde app, or display webpage in konqueror with those chars just works fine)

right now i type in konqueror. therefore i only get "Gr����en" instead of "Grüßen". i typed the first one and i got the second one typing into my firefox search box then copy-pasting to konqueror.

this is very strange stuff... any ideas?

thx anyway
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[Nirvana]

Re: unable to type accented characters in kde apps

Maybe you need to install some language packs? << just throwing out the possiblity

[groenem]

Re: unable to type accented characters in kde apps

I played around again at home. It must be the [Alt Gr] key (right side of spacebar) and not the [Alt key] key (left side of spacebar).

It still is a bit tricky, I must say.

Luckily OpenOfice.org has a Insert - Special Character option in its menu to insert the accented characters in a document.