/capscent

Spanish accents with capslock with xmodmap

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capscent - Spanish accents with capslock with xmodmap

Capslock is useless, and I need to write in spanish.

Enter capscent, a script to enable accented letters and ñ using the caps lock key, via xmodmap.

prerequisites

  • xmodmap

  • If you don't already have a .Xmodmap file, create one:

    $ xmodmap -pke > ~/.Xmodmap

  • Make sure you're sourcing it somewhere. For example, in ~/.xinitrc:

    usermodmap=$HOME/.Xmodmap
if [ -f "$usermodmap" ]; then
  xmodmap "$usermodmap"
fi

Install

This will be a script. For now,

  1. Add this to the beginning of your ~/.Xmodmap:

    clear lock
clear control
add control = Caps_Lock Control_L Control_R
keycode  26 = e E eacute Eacute
keycode  30 = u U uacute Uacute
keycode  31 = i I iacute Iacute
keycode  32 = o O oacute Oacute
keycode  38 = a A aacute Aacute
keycode  57 = n N ntilde Ntilde
keycode  48 = apostrophe quotedbl dead_acute quotedbl
keycode  66 = Mode_switch Caps_Lock Caps_Lock Caps_Lock Caps_Lock Caps_Lock

    (adjust accordingly for keycodes depending on your lang/kb)

  2. Comment (add a ! at the beginning of each line) for each of the keycodes in previous step

Usage

  • capslock is now the "accent" trigger: hold capslock then press and release a vowel (or n): it will type it accented. For example, capslock+a types á.
  • The quote also received a special treatment. Now capslock+' "types" dead_acute. Ok it doesn't actually type anything, but the next key will have the accent. For example, capslock+' then a types á.
  • The default capslock feature can be accessed with shift+capslock.

NOTE: for capital letters, order matters: shift+caps+a sends a normal a, and then enables caps lock. Instead, to insert Á, type capslock+shift+a.

Refs

Arch Wiki