Compose key is being ignored

users
#1

Hi all,

Recently I moved from using the version of LibreOffice supplied by my
package manager (aptitude) to the one provided on the LibreOffice
website (currently I am running 3.5.4). So far all is well, but I
noticed one difference that I'd really like to change.

I've set up Capslock to be used as the compose key on my system (Debian
GNU/Linux with KDE). That works just fine for all applications, but not
so anymore for the version of LibreOffice I've installed outside of the
package manager. There it seems the compose key is ignored completely.

If I type Stra<CAPSLOCK>sse I get the intended Straße in all apps, but
LibreOffice gives me Strae.

Can anyone advise me on how to fix this behavior? I use a lot of special
characters when writing and I write a lot for my work, so it would
really make a difference for me if I can use the compose key again in
LibreOffice. But I'd prefer to not go back to the version provided by
the package manager, because I need some recently added features that
are not in there.

Your help would be appreciated.

Grx HdV

#2

I could not reproduce your issue. I am using Debian testing, amd64, KDE 4.8.4.
I have installed LO 3.5.5 downloaded from LO page, run it and compose key
(which is right-Ctrl here) is working fine.
If this is not architecture/LO version dependent (you did not provide
information about it), then:
how did you map your compose key? In KDE system settings or through
dpkg-reconfigure keyboard-configuration command?
I have set mine through dpkg-reconfigure. I did not touch any KDE settings.

#3

Hi all,

Recently I moved from using the version of LibreOffice supplied by my
package manager (aptitude) to the one provided on the LibreOffice
website (currently I am running 3.5.4). So far all is well, but I
noticed one difference that I'd really like to change.

I've set up Capslock to be used as the compose key on my system (Debian
GNU/Linux with KDE). That works just fine for all applications, but not
so anymore for the version of LibreOffice I've installed outside of the
package manager. There it seems the compose key is ignored completely.

I can not reproduce the problem, but I use another operating system
(Ubuntu 10.10) and an older LibreOffice (3.3.4), the LibreOffice
website version. Maybe this is a LibreOffice 3.5.4 problem? I would
try to install the most recent stable version, which seems to be 3.5.5
at the moment.

If you can't make it work, an obvious workaround would be to use the
Auto correction feature in LibreOffice. I think ”Straße” is already in
the list if you set the character language style to German. If not,
you can easily add it yourself in whatever language you want.

But really, it should work. I use Caps Lock for compose, just like
you, and it worked fine in LibreOffice Calc 3.3.4. I will install a
more recent version soon and try, I've just been lazy lately, or maybe
busy (I'm in the middle of my vacation right now)…

Kind regards

Johnny Rosenberg
ジョニー・ローゼンバーグ

#4

I can not reproduce the problem, but I use another operating system
(Ubuntu 10.10) and an older LibreOffice (3.3.4), the LibreOffice
website version. Maybe this is a LibreOffice 3.5.4 problem? I would
try to install the most recent stable version, which seems to be 3.5.5
at the moment.

If you can't make it work, an obvious workaround would be to use the
Auto correction feature in LibreOffice. I think ”Straße” is already in
the list if you set the character language style to German. If not,
you can easily add it yourself in whatever language you want.

I thought of that, but that works if you only have a couple of words
with non-standard characters. I write a lot in Swedish and German (among
other languages), both languages with lots of those characters. So I'll
probably loose more time building replacement lists than just making a
row of the most occurring charters in vim and copying that to each
document after opening it. From that row I copy the characters needed
when writing. It is cumbersome, but as a temporary measure it is workable.

But really, it should work. I use Caps Lock for compose, just like
you, and it worked fine in LibreOffice Calc 3.3.4. I will install a
more recent version soon and try, I've just been lazy lately, or maybe
busy (I'm in the middle of my vacation right now)…

I've used both KDE and dpkg-reconfigure to map the compose key to
Capslock and in *all* other applications that works just fine. But
somehow it doesn't in LibreOffice (it does in the version provided by
aptitude).

Grx HdV

#5

Hi :slight_smile:
Would it help to add the dictionaries of the other languages?

Sorry, i'm sure someone else has thought of this idea too but i often find the simplest "waggle the wires" type of answers get overlooked. 
Regards from
Tom :slight_smile:

#6

I could not reproduce your issue. I am using Debian testing, amd64, KDE 4.8.4.
I have installed LO 3.5.5 downloaded from LO page, run it and compose key
(which is right-Ctrl here) is working fine.
If this is not architecture/LO version dependent (you did not provide
information about it), then:

This is on a Intel 32-bits platform, using an up-to-date Debian
GNU/Linux testing with KDE 4.8.4 and LibreOffice 3.5.4 downloaded from
the website.

how did you map your compose key? In KDE system settings or through
dpkg-reconfigure keyboard-configuration command?
I have set mine through dpkg-reconfigure. I did not touch any KDE settings.

I used both KDE and dpkg-reconfigure to map the compose key to Capslock
and in *all* other applications (both GTK and QT based) that works just
fine. But somehow it doesn't in LibreOffice. It does in the version
provided by aptitude, just not in the "official" version downloaded from
the website.

Thanks for trying to help.

Grx HdV

#7

Hi :slight_smile:
Would it help to add the dictionaries of the other languages?

After installation I always immediately add the dictionaries for the 5
languages I regularly use. So sadly, no. That doesn't change things.

Sorry, i'm sure someone else has thought of this idea too but i often find the simplest "waggle the wires" type of answers get overlooked.

In my experience you're right. Often it is the simplest things that get
overlooked and that later on prove to be the solution. It'll probably be
likewise in this case. I've just not thought of the proper simple thing
yet...

Thanks for thinking with me.

Grx HdV

#8

I can not reproduce the problem, but I use another operating system
(Ubuntu 10.10) and an older LibreOffice (3.3.4), the LibreOffice
website version. Maybe this is a LibreOffice 3.5.4 problem? I would
try to install the most recent stable version, which seems to be 3.5.5
at the moment.

If you can't make it work, an obvious workaround would be to use the
Auto correction feature in LibreOffice. I think ”Straße” is already in
the list if you set the character language style to German. If not,
you can easily add it yourself in whatever language you want.

I thought of that, but that works if you only have a couple of words
with non-standard characters. I write a lot in Swedish and German (among
other languages), both languages with lots of those characters.

I see, so you need ßåäöÅÄÖüÜ and maybe more, and you use a US keyboard
or at least not a German or a Swedish one?
I don't use KDE myself and I have a Swedish keyboard (since I write
almost everything in Swedish – that explains my poor English…). I use
a lot special characters, except those Swedish ones, so I just created
my own keyboard layout (called Swedish – Johnny Rosenberg), so I can
easily type characters, such as ”… – — ℃ π ℗”, using the AltGr key
(”Right Alt key” on some keyboards), but I guess that's probably not
the easiest way out of this problem…

So I'll
probably loose more time building replacement lists than just making a
row of the most occurring charters in vim and copying that to each
document after opening it. From that row I copy the characters needed
when writing. It is cumbersome, but as a temporary measure it is workable.

But really, it should work. I use Caps Lock for compose, just like
you, and it worked fine in LibreOffice Calc 3.3.4. I will install a
more recent version soon and try, I've just been lazy lately, or maybe
busy (I'm in the middle of my vacation right now)…

I installed 3.5.5 from the http://www.libreoffice.org/ web page and my
compose key works perfectly in both LibreOffice Writer and LibreOffice
Calc. Try to update and see what happens, maybe this is a 3.5.4 issue.
That's what I would do, anyway.

Kind regards

Johnny Rosenberg
ジョニー・ローゼンバーグ

#9

I see.

You could also try on fresh user profile. Run something like this from command
line:
/opt/path/to/soffice -env:UserInstallation=file:///tmp/lo/
(Please note that this is "file://" protocol and then absolute path to
directory)
If it works, then we will at least know that this is something in your LO
profile and not package problem.

What GUI (Qt, GTK, X11) did you use? On my test, I have tried pure X11
(I didn't bother to install desktop integration packages).
You can use different GUI than default with OOO_FORCE_DESKTOP variable.

As far as I remember, GTK uses different, hardcoded in source code Xcompose
sequences. This can be changed by GTK_IM_MODULE environment variable. I have
set it to "xim" to ensure that GTK apps uses the same sequences as other apps.
But if that's a case, then LO from repository should also be affected, which
you claim is not. So perhaps it won't help, but you can give it a try anyway.

Apart from these three things, I am out of ideas.

#10

I see.

You could also try on fresh user profile. Run something like this from command
line:
/opt/path/to/soffice -env:UserInstallation=file:///tmp/lo/
(Please note that this is "file://" protocol and then absolute path to
directory)
If it works, then we will at least know that this is something in your LO
profile and not package problem.

Good suggestion. Tried it, but I am sorry to say it change things. Just
to be sure I also tried with a complete new user on the system. Same result.

What GUI (Qt, GTK, X11) did you use?

I am running KDE (thus Qt) with the GTK+ Appearance package on top of it.

On my test, I have tried pure X11
(I didn't bother to install desktop integration packages).
You can use different GUI than default with OOO_FORCE_DESKTOP variable.

I use SAL_USE_VCLPLUGIN=gen to get the same effect.

As far as I remember, GTK uses different, hardcoded in source code Xcompose
sequences. This can be changed by GTK_IM_MODULE environment variable. I have
set it to "xim" to ensure that GTK apps uses the same sequences as other apps.
But if that's a case, then LO from repository should also be affected, which
you claim is not. So perhaps it won't help, but you can give it a try anyway.

Just to be sure I did try it anyway. Alas, no show.

Thanks for the suggestions!

Grx HdV

#11

I see, so you need ßåäöÅÄÖüÜ and maybe more, and you use a US keyboard
or at least not a German or a Swedish one?

Exactly. I use a US Intl keyboard.

I don't use KDE myself and I have a Swedish keyboard (since I write
almost everything in Swedish – that explains my poor English…). I use
a lot special characters, except those Swedish ones, so I just created
my own keyboard layout (called Swedish – Johnny Rosenberg), so I can
easily type characters, such as ”… – — ℃ π ℗”, using the AltGr key
(”Right Alt key” on some keyboards), but I guess that's probably not
the easiest way out of this problem…

Not really, but it is an improvement over what I have now.

But really, it should work. I use Caps Lock for compose, just like
you, and it worked fine in LibreOffice Calc 3.3.4. I will install a
more recent version soon and try, I've just been lazy lately, or maybe
busy (I'm in the middle of my vacation right now)…

I installed 3.5.5 from the http://www.libreoffice.org/ web page and my
compose key works perfectly in both LibreOffice Writer and LibreOffice
Calc. Try to update and see what happens, maybe this is a 3.5.4 issue.
That's what I would do, anyway.

I updated my LO to the most recent version available at the moment, but
it didn't change things.

Grx HdV

#12

Well, it seems you are on the right track here!

I tried changing my SAL_USE_VCLPLUGIN value from gen (generic X11) to
kde and gtk and voila the compose key has magically reappeared. Great!

However, now I am faced with another problem. This made me remember why
I choose "gen" in the first place. If I use either "kde" or "gtk" some
widgets (notably comboboxes and menu spearators) in the UI become very
coarse and ugly (which I could live with if necessary) and in some cases
even unusable (which is more problematic). Anyone else noticed this?

Grx HdV

#13

Hi :slight_smile:
The best place to find out where your "User Profile" really is, is to open LibreOffice and then try
Tools - Options - Paths
but to help you find what sort of thing you are looking for this wiki helps
http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Documentation/UserProfile
(hopefully helps anyway) as it gives the default location in the various operating systems
Windows pre-Vista
Windows Vista and beyond
Gnu&Linux (except, of course, 1 of them has to be different from the rest)
BSD (i think.  BSDers tend to be left to their own devices and tend to get help from other BSDers in a separate forum and stuff)

Of course the location had to change for 3.5.x as the standard changed for most operating systems in the interests of clarity (or something).  So, the wiki-guide tries to make a fairly confusing set-up a lot less confusing but probably misses.  Suggestions for the wiki-page are welcome (ish).

Regards from
Tom :slight_smile:

#14

Sorry for the typo in the previous message. I meant to say removing the
profile did not improve things. I tried this by moving my old profile
from .config/libreoffice/ and also by creating a new user on the system,
in both cases the problem persisted.

Miroslaw's idea of checking the environment variables did solve the
problem of the disfunctional compose key, but made another problem
reappear. Now I have a compose key, but also a GUI that is ugly and in
some cases broken (parts of comboboxes become unreadable).

Grx HdV

#15

Hi :slight_smile:
Ahh, so i guess that is something to do with "desktop integration"?  I think one of these 2 wiki's might help with that
http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Installing_in_parallel
http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Installing_LibreOffice_on_Linux

They aren't really designed for this purpose but they might contain useful pointers.  At last!  Wiki-pages that weren't edited by me at all!  They probably make a lot more sense but don't count on it.

Regards from
Tom :slight_smile:

#16

Hi :slight_smile:
Ahh, so i guess that is something to do with "desktop integration"?

Possibly. I think so.

I think one of these 2 wiki's might help with that
http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Installing_in_parallel
http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Installing_LibreOffice_on_Linux

They aren't really designed for this purpose but they might contain useful pointers. At last! Wiki-pages that weren't edited by me at all! They probably make a lot more sense but don't count on it.

Thanks. I've read them, but I haven't found anything there that solved
this problem.

Grx HdV

#17

I tried changing my SAL_USE_VCLPLUGIN value from gen (generic X11) to
kde and gtk and voila the compose key has magically reappeared. Great!

Glad I could help :slight_smile: .

However, now I am faced with another problem. This made me remember why
I choose "gen" in the first place. If I use either "kde" or "gtk" some
widgets (notably comboboxes and menu spearators) in the UI become very
coarse and ugly (which I could live with if necessary) and in some cases
even unusable (which is more problematic).

Could you post example screenshot (please note that this mailing list does not
allow attachments, so you must use some web page or FTP)?
Also, what Qt/KDE theme do you use? What color scheme?
As far as I know, LO really doesn't like dark color schemes.

Do you have similar issues on LO from repository (BTW, the are co-installable,
at least on Debian)?

#18

Well, for now I have solved the problem by reducing the font size. At
first I tried changing the widget set in the GTK+ Appearance plugin for
the KDE settings manager, but that didn't have any effect. Which was to
be expected if I had thought better about it, because LO uses its own
widgets. Now, with the reduced font size at least I have the compose key
and use usable interface. Its doesn't look pretty (it has a very coarse
GTK look about it), but it does work.

Thanks for helping me solve this thing.

Grx HdV

#19

Hi :slight_smile:
Congrats on solving all those side issues along with the main problem!  Nicely done! :slight_smile:

Good work from Mirosław (as usual) and others.  it's a great list to learn from.  Thanks all :slight_smile:
Regards from
Tom :slight_smile: