Question

Goal: I want to use the function indent-region with the default shortcut C–M–\.

Problem: I use a German keyboard layout. To insert “\” I have to type either C–M–ß or AltGr–ß, because the “ß” is overloaded with “?” and “\” (see: QWERTZ layout in the upper right corner).

Question: Is it possible to to input the shortcut C–M–\ without tweaking emacs or the OS on a German keyboard?

If it is not I would just change the shortcut to something easily accessible. The main reason I want this to work is that it works out of the box on a default emacs installation.

Answer 1

I’ve experienced this problem and found the following info helpful from the "Alt Gr Key" page on emacswiki.org:-

Emacs keys may seem to be “hidden” (perhaps only) on MS Windows because AltGr + LeftControl + key is just AltGr + key.

Solution 1: Using the Right Control

But you can type those keys even on MS Windows! The trick is that you must type AltGr as the first key, and Ctrl must be the right control key, not the left one.

After experimenting on a German keyboard, I can execute C-M-\ like: AltGr+RCtrl+M+\, where RCtrl is my right-Ctrl key, M is my left/only Alt key and \ is my ß?\ key. (The value of w32-alt-is-meta is t.)

This key-chord is cumbersome so perhaps it’s better to define the C-M-ß combination as suggested by @OlegPavliv.