Input methods for accented letters in alphabetical scripts should satisfy a number of (not fully compatible) requirements. In particular, they should be easy to learn and to memorize, they should induce little mental and physical stress, and they should make a large number of characters accessible using few dedicated keys and short key sequences.

We describe a new input technique called "SITMO" (Single Iteratable Trailing Modifier), and compare it with traditional modifier (dead key) and compose input methods. SITMO uses one dedicated key. Typing replaces the character immediately before the cursor by another character derived from the same base character, for instance "a" by "a with diaeresis", "a with diaeresis" by "a with grave", and "a with grave" by "a with acute", so that, say, "a with grave" can obtained by typing .

(Further information can be found at http://www.mpi-sb.mpg.de/~uwe/paper/AccInput-bibl.html)