Xfce Forum

wrh1728

Member

Registered: 2020-12-15

Posts: 43

Displaying inverted question mark

I am running Xfce 4.16 under Slackware 15.0. I occasionally have the need to type accented letters and other non-ASCII characters at some applications - mostly my Thunderbird email client, browsers and terminal emulators. The thing is, I have a US keyboard, where such characters are not present.

The way I have managed this in the past is the following:

1. Using the following keyboard settings:

    $ setxkbymap us_intl

2. Create a file named .xmodmaprc in my home directory with the following contents:

    keycode 134 = Multi_key

and load it with

    $ xmodmap .xmodmaprc

With this, I can type accented characters and characters with other diacritical signs without any problem. For example, for an inverted exclamation mark ¡ I would do Multi_key + LeftShift + ! and 1, where Multi_key is the key with a Windows label on it, just to the right if the right Alt key, and ! and 1 is the key labeled ! and 1.

The thing is, this does not work for the inverted question mark, which I should get with Multi_key + RightShift + ? and /. When I do that get a sequence of six normal question marks, each over an inverse video diamond. I get exactly the same output in the three applications that I described above.

Anybody got a foolproof configuration that enables one to do what I want with a combination of keystrokes similar to the ones described, and with the kind of keyboard that I using? I am aware of a number of alternatives that consist of using an intermediate application to print out the character desired, and then just copy and paste it. That's not what I am looking for.

StJimmy

Member

From: De Lage Landen

Registered: 2022-06-27

Posts: 7

Re: Displaying inverted question mark

I'm Dutch, and have a US Intl keyboard as well.  You should be able to type inverted exclamation marks with Alt Gr + 1 when you use this layout. The same goes for the inverted question mark (Alt Gr. + /, and Alt Gr. + S for ß).

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Nanos gigantum humeris insidentes.

KBar

Member

Registered: 2021-11-05

Posts: 689

Re: Displaying inverted question mark

The foolproof method that I know of is using Ctrl+Shift+U to enter Unicode characters. To type in an inverted question mark you would type that key combination, an underlined u will appear, then you type in its Unicode code, which seems to be 00BF. It's inconvenient and impractical, but I have memorized the codes of a few characters that I sometimes need to enter.

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wrh1728

Member

Registered: 2020-12-15

Posts: 43

Re: Displaying inverted question mark

I'm Dutch, and have a US Intl keyboard as well.  You should be able to type inverted exclamation marks with Alt Gr + 1 when you use this layout. The same goes for the inverted question mark (Alt Gr. + /, and Alt Gr. + S for ß).

That's what I find intriguing - it should work that way, but it does not. And it seems to be just for this particular character among those I have tried - like I said, I can type in the inverted exclamation mark without any problems. It's got something to do with the way things are configured in my X server, but I am at a loss as what it could be.

wrh1728

Member

Registered: 2020-12-15

Posts: 43

Re: Displaying inverted question mark

The foolproof method that I know of is using Ctrl+Shift+U to enter Unicode characters. To type in an inverted question mark you would type that key combination, an underlined u will appear, then you type in its Unicode code, which seems to be 00BF. It's inconvenient and impractical, but I have memorized the codes of a few characters that I sometimes need to enter.

Thanks. That's what I am reduced to using. Like you said, it's inconvenient and impractical, but it is better than the alternative.