X File

Summary:

• Using Digraphs In X
• Creating PDFs With SO 5.2
• Accessing SSH Accounts With 'Konqueror'

Using Digraphs In X

(Contributed by Mandrake Linux user Stewart Midwinter)

I've long wondered how to get accented characters in Mandrake Linux, on my US keyboard. In Windows I was accustomed to typing "Alt-160" for á, for example. But clearly this doesn't work in Linux. So, for others who may be wondering, here are three separate ways to do it.

• Use the Character Picker panel applet (available in Gnome and KDE). This gives you one-click access to common accented characters. How to modify the selection it provides? Use file ascii.txt? or method 2 (below). The KDE applet allows configuration via the right-click context menu.
• Use the GKB Keyboard Switcher panel applet (works in Gnome). In KDE, use 'Peripherals - Keyboard' in the KDE Control Center (uncheck 'Disable keyboard layouts).
  In addition to your default keyboard, which may likely be "US 105 key keyboard (with Windows Keys)", you should select one like "US International kxb keymap". My keyboard appears to have only 104 keys but works on the 105-key map. When you want to enter some text that has international characters, click on the panel icon to switch keyboards, then follow these suggestions: type the accent key, then the letter that goes with it. The accent keys are <'> <"> <`> <~> and the combinations are the following:
• <' a> gives you á
• <` a> gives you à
• <" a> gives you ä
• <^ a> gives you â
• <~ a> gives you ã

• Use the file ascii.txt. Put a shortcut to it on your desktop and bind that shortcut to a text editor like 'gedit'. When you need an accented character, simply open the file ascii.txt, select and copy the desired character, then paste into your document.

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Creating PDFs With SO 5.2

OpenOffice have now a fairly good PDF export function. If you are interested how to use OpenOffice to do batch conversion to PDF please have a look to OpenOfficeCommandline for PDF on the fly.

(Contributed by Mandrake Linux user Nev Cobb)

Apart from the other methods of creating PDF files, there is another method that originally came into existence for ~StarOffice 5.0. I have managed to get it to work with ~StarOffice 5.2 under Mandrake 7.2GPL - here's how:

You need to get hold of a small script file called tclpdf? and (as 'root') place it in the 'program' directory where you installed ~StarOffice 5.2. Make it executable (chmod +x tclpdf)
Next you need to edit the 'Xpdefaults' file located in the 'share/xp3' directory where you installed ~StarOffice. For instance I installed ~StarOffice in the '/opt/office52' directory, and the file I need to edit is '/opt/office52/share/xp3/Xpdefaults'. You need to add the following lines to Xpdefaults: Under the

{devices}

pdf=GENERIC ~PostScript,pdf_queue

Under the

{ports}

pdf_queue=/opt/office52/program/tclpdf

Restart ~StarOffice and when you print, select the PDF printer and ~StarOffice will print for a while and then the following screen will pop up asking you to choose a destination directory and filename.

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Accessing SSH Accounts With 'Konqueror'

The kio_fish plugin allows Konqueror to browse and handle remote SSH accounts very much like FTP directories. Get the RPM, install it and point 'Konqueror' to your remote account like this:

fish://account@ssh_server

If you have loaded your SSH key into system memory, you won't even have to provide your password.

'kio_fish' will be part of KDE 3.1, to be released in fall this year.

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Related Resources:

Create PDFs on the Fly
A Method For Creating PDF Files in Linux

Revision / Modified: June 11, 2002
Author: Tom Berger and others

Legal: This page is covered by the GNU Free Documentation License. Standard disclaimers of warranty apply. Copyright LSTB and Mandrakesoft.