Apostrophe in ASCII code on UK keyboard

Support & Help Requests
#1

Hello Community

I'm puzzled with a question which I would like to solve. I use a software that obviously needs data entered in ASCII, and I need the combination I have to press to get an Apostrophe.
Environment:
Entroware laptop
UK keyboard
Ubuntu Mate 20.04.4

A friend in France presses AltGr+g but he has got a French keyboard and uses a different distribution. My UK keyboard has no Apostrophe going through all the keys from 1 to /.

Many thanks in advance.

PS: I found several links in the internet how to change the keyboard, but none if them applies for UM. I would then use my Virtualbox to do the change rather than changing my main system. :slightly_smiling_face:

#2

Here is the layout of the UK keyboard:

UKkeyboard
UKkeyboard1368×486 88.5 KB

The apostrophe or single quote is between the semicolon ( ; ) and the octothorpe (#) so that should work.

You should not need any translation from UTF-8 (ubuntu native characterset) to ASCII
in ascii, apostrophe = hex 0x27 or dec 39
in utf-8, apostrophe = hex 0x27 or dec 39

If, for whatever reason, your apostrophe key is broken, you can enter the unicode directly:
Press and hold the Left Ctrl and Shift keys and hit the U key. You should see the underscored u under the cursor. Type then the Unicode code of the desired character and press Enter .

Another way is to use the charactermap from the menu.

If you really want to change the keyboardlayout, go to control-center and select 'keyboard'
There you can 'add' and 'delete' keyboardlayouts or define special keys under 'options'
One of those options is the possibility to define a 'compose key'

If what you need as apostrophe is not a single quote but a grave-symbol (not supported in ASCII) you can define a composekey in control center and then hold the composekey while typing a single quote twice.

If none of the above covers your usecase, then I urge you to provide much more detailed information regarding what you have done up to now, what you want exactly and what you actually get. :slight_smile:

#3

Hello tkn,

Many thanks for replying to me.
The ' apostrophe has always been at the same place on my UK keyboards since 2007 when I bought my first laptop after moving to the UK. That is not the question, I'm afraid.

What I'm looking for is to write an apostrophe in a blogging software where the widgets (like tags) don't keep the normal typed ', the one that we have underneath the @ sign.

If I press left Ctrl+Shift +U, I get a lower underlined u, but the underline disappears.

If I were in Windows, I could press Alt+0027, or if I were on a French Linux system, I press AltGr+g and I get a ' but what is this in a UK?
I pressed from AltGr+1 to ? everything, but there is no ' apostrophe.
I installed the French keyboard and still no ' when I press AltGr+g.

I would do all change in my virtualbox system ... never change a running main system :slight_smile:

#4

What I'm looking for is to write an apostrophe in a blogging software where the widgets (like tags) don't keep the normal typed ', the one that we have underneath the @ sign.

That could be a bug of "a blogging software". It is broken if it does not accept regular keystrokes.
But it also can be on purpose; to block HTML violating characters.
There is not much I can do about that.
OTOH, I have to confess that I never used "a blogging software".

Maybe "a blogging software" expects you to enter ' or '
A literal apostrophe, should never be found in a HTML document.

If I were in Windows, I could press Alt+0027, or if I were on a French Linux system, I press AltGr+g and I get a ' but what is this in a UK?

Technically, the AltGr+g is not identical to Alt+0027, it is a slightly different character with a completely different unicode (see the difference: ' vs ʼ ) but if it fits your usecase we'll treat it as identical.

According to the keyboardmap above, the French [AltGr][g] would be the english [AltGr][Shift][b].

If you don't have an [AltGr] key then you can set the right [Alt] key as [AltGr] in the keyboardsettings.

Alternatively you can define the right Alt key as the compose-key (which is completely different from the way that AltGr is defined) and disable the AltGr function.
This way you can hold [ Alt ] and type [ ' ] twice, that will give you your apostrophe.

I pressed from AltGr+1 to ? everything, but there is no ' apostrophe.
I installed the French keyboard and still no ' when I press AltGr+g.

Weird, some paragraphs earlier in this mail you mentioned: " if I were on a French Linux system, I press AltGr+g and I get a '"
When did it stop working ?

Anyway, if you already have AltGr but it doesn't work then you might want to activate it in your keyboardsettings. If your keyboardlayout should allow you to press AltGr+Shift+b to end up with an apostrophe, please change the setting of 'Key to choose 3rd level' in your keyboardsettings to 'Right Alt key' and disable the right alt key as compose key.

By the way, can you explain to me why "a blogging software" does accept alt-escapecodes but does not accept direct keyboard input ?
Text interpreting software that behaves that way seems dodgy to me except when it's programmed that way on purpose. In that case it is interesting to know why the authors of that app chose to do so. You might be subverting its purpose.

2 Likes
#5

Hello @tkn

You nailed it :slight_smile:

According to the keyboardmap above, the French [AltGr][g] would be the english [AltGr][Shift][b].

It is AltGr+Shift+b.

It's an excellent French blogging software and only alternative to Wordpress :slight_smile:

Thanks so much, made my day.

It was not the missing ' which I never noticed honestly, but I spent days looking in the internet about this.
Yes, it was my fault, it was not 0027, but 0146 what the Frenchman wrote... I got totally confused with all combinations :slight_smile:

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