How do you stop the menu key bringing up menus?

[ireneshusband]

I need to use my menu key as a compose key. The trouble is that the menu key brings up contextual menus. How do I stop it doing that?

[labinnsw]

Go to: System >> Preferences >> Keyboard Shortcuts

This part is correct. I will have another look and get back to you. Sorry I was too quick to reply.

Under Action: Scroll to the action you want to perform and click on it.
Press the key you want to perform the action (in this case the menu key)

[ireneshusband]

Thanks for replying, Labinnsw :)

I can't find an option relating to contextual menus in the keyboard shortcut preferences.

[labinnsw]

You won't need to a key relating to contextual menu. What you need to find is an Action that you want to perform. (I did not see compose action either, but I am not 100% sure what you meant)

Select that action and then press the menu key. This will make the menu key perform that action.

If you cannot find the action you want, then the easiest way I can think of to create it, is to install Keytouch and Keytouch Editor from Synaptic and use them to create the new action.

[ireneshusband]

You assign the compose keys in the keyboard preferences. The trouble is that you cannot enter any of the compose key combinations once the contextual menu has popped up. In other words, the problem is not assigning the menu key to be the compose key, but of disabling the menu key's menu function.

[labinnsw]

See the attachments below.

In the first one, I have assigned the action "Move to workspace 4" to the Menu key.

In the second, I have disable the action "Move to workspace 4"

106436 106437

To assign a new unlisted action to a key, or to disable the key, I am recommending using the tools Keytouch and Keytouch Editor.

Keytouch has extensive documentation, but if you need assistance using Keytouch I am still happy to help.

[ireneshusband]

Hi labinnsw. Do you know what the compose key is? Do you understand what it is supposed to do? I think we're getting our wires crossed here.

[labinnsw]

No I do not know what a compose key is. I thought I made it clear I was not sure what that was. I was hoping you would have explained that a bit earlier.

If I knew exactly what you were looking for, I would configure my menu key and provide you with the step by step of how I do it.

In any event, using Keytouch and Keytouch Editor, I can configure my keyboard to do many of the tasks that I could normally do with a GUI or from the command prompt. e.g. I can disable my Sleep key which I do not use, or I could configure it to start OpenOffice Writer.

Is this sounding any closer to what you are looking for?

[labinnsw]

Ok, I have looked it up and now I know what a compose key is and does. If anyone else would like to know what a compose key is, you may follow this link (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compose_key).

While looking for a command to initiate the compose key, I found some alternate ways of setting up the compose key. In my humble opinion the best of them is Create a Compose key in X.org. (http://soft.zoneo.net/Linux/compose_key.php) I would recommend this over the instructions I was giving here for assigning a compose key. As a result I have decided not to continue the how to. The Keytouch and Keytouch Editor applications are best suited to assigning other special keys e.g. Media, Internet, Screen saver. They are fairly straight forward and would be best suited for a seperate post.