How to insert a special character with a keyboard shortcut?

[silva.arapi]

I am trying to find a way to set a special character which is commonly used in my language, to a keyboard shortcut. For eg, I want my keyboard to be configured in such a way that when I press the “~ key”, then “ë” symbol should be displayed.
I tried the replace option of auto correct but that won’t work for symbols which need to be set in the middle of a word.

Does LibreOffice support this option?

Version: LibreOffice 5.3. We have it installed on Windows 10 machines for most of the users, but there are some machines with Windows 7 too.

[gabix]

a special character which is commonly used in my language

Why don’t you simply use a suitable keyboard layout?

[silva.arapi]

Because that would open some other issues. I need this fix for the place I work for, so we would need to change the keyboard layout for all users. This replace option was available in Ms Office and now that we are switching from that, we are trying to find the best possible solutions without affecting too much the daily work of end users.

[RGB-es]

I tried the replace option of auto correct but that won’t work for symbols which need to be set in the middle of a word.

There are two kinds of “autocorrect”: the normal ones that need a space and the “immediate” ones. That last kind of autocorrect are triggered by colons. For example, if you type :alpha: you’ll get α, or with :>: you’ll get as soon as you type the second colon. That means you can set :e: to be replaced by ë without a problem.

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**EDIT**: I'd just remembered that *I* defined the `:>:` autocorrect some time ago, it's not a standard autocorrect XD

[Sidewinder]

Or you can use the Addon Compose Special Characters.

https://extensions.openoffice.org/en/project/compose-special-characters

It still works on my LibreOffice 5.4.6.2, Windows 10.

[PaulaO]

Or you can use Google

https://tools.oratory.com/altcodes.html

Windows options:

Use Special Characters in Windows

Multi-system help:

Alt codes list ☺♥♪ keyboard symbols

[dajare]

Since this is “system wide”, and I assume the “ë” will be needed in other programs, what about using Microsoft Keyboard Layout Creator as suggest in this Q&A on Superuser.com.