I'm practicing French and want to type accented characters, such as é, by combining an apostrophe-like key with e. At the moment, pressing those keys produces separate characters instead of a single accented letter. How can I configure my keyboard to use dead keys or another convenient method for entering accents?
3 Answers
Another option is to configure a Compose key. After enabling it in your desktop or window-manager settings, you can combine key sequences to enter accented characters while keeping your usual keyboard layout. The exact sequence depends on the configured Compose rules, but this is useful if you want apostrophe and other punctuation keys to keep their normal behavior.
You can also select an international or multilingual keyboard layout designed for typing several languages. Variants such as an English International layout or Canadian Multilingual Standard layout provide convenient access to French accents without requiring a full French keyboard arrangement.
Choose a keyboard layout or layout variant that supports dead keys instead of one marked “nodeadkeys.” On many desktop environments, this can be changed in the keyboard settings. With the appropriate layout, pressing the accent key and then e will produce é.
If you normally type with an English keyboard, an international or extended English layout may be easier than switching completely to a French AZERTY layout.