I know I can enter any character I need using the character-map applet, but that means grabbing the mouse/opening the "run" dialog, switching to another window, selecting the character, copying… you get the idea. Is there a quicker way to enter characters that are not available on the keyboard (and are not available as alt-gr combinations)? In my specific case I'm using a laptop with the Italian keyboard layout, but I suspect a general solution exists.
Ubuntu – quick way to enter uppercase accented characters
keyboardlocale
Related Solutions
Press CTRL+SHIFT while keeping them pressed, press and release U then type in 00BF, release CTRL+SHIFT, then you will have your ¿.
Source:W3
xmodmap -e "keycode 61 = U2152" # ⅒
Works for me.
Like ByteCommander said already the U stands for Unicode.
More Information are available in the man page of xmodmap.
Best Answer
Looks like I should have done my homework.
Plenty of informationon the ubuntu wiki. In my specific case probably the quickest way is Unicode composition since combinations with the acute accent are kind of difficult, the acute accent being an alt-gr combination itself in the italian keyboard layout.
Update: the simplest answer I found is to just turn on Caps Lock. When caps lock is on every accented character you enter is automagically uppercased.