German Umlauts on an English keyboard

I switched to the American keyboard layout mainly because I find it easier to program that way. But for other applications I sometimes need umlauts.

I tried using the US international layout but the position for the umlauts is just strange and it wasn't as good for programming as well.

Can I configure my i3wm to have custom keyboard shortcuts for that? Something like holding o or pressing alt+o will yield ö.

3 Answers

The ArchLinux wiki has an answer that worked for me with i3. You can use the compose key to achieve typing any kind of Unicode character. I have a UK layout, but often need to type German characters. With the compose key, I can type CapsLock then " then a to get ä.

First, find which compose options are available

grep "compose:" /usr/share/X11/xkb/rules/base.lst

This should give you something along the lines of:

...
compose:menu Menu
compose:caps Caps Lock
...

Then set your compose key to the preferred key. I'm using caps lock for that.

setxkbmap -option compose:caps

If you can't find a suitable pre-defined configuration for the compose key, I think you'll have to set up your own xmodmap configuration.

I suggest you to install the autokey app:

sudo apt-get install autokey-gtk

and configure your shortcuts for the umlauts. For the initial configuration you can copy them manually from the characters app.

You can enable a compose key. After having done so, you can for instance type ö by pressing this sequence:

Compose followed by " followed by o