[Uim] UIM-latin: how does it work?

[Christian Fröbel]

Hey folks,

I'm not sure this is the right place for this issue:

I just installed kubuntu (dapper) with an English-only environment:
English language, English keyboard. Now I wanted to use scim/skim to input
all kinds of latin characters. I also installed the UIM-bridge (whatever
that means) and got an input engine named UIM-latin which sounds
promising. I activated it, but I still can only input what's on my
keyboard. I tried to find some docs for this particular input engine, but
had no success.

In general, skim/scim with UIM seems to work as I was able to input
Japanese Kanji and stuff using some other input engine.

Is UIM-latin doing what I think it should do? If so, how do I input latin
characters? Is there maybe some kind of escape key that boosts me into
some special input mode? Is there documentation for that engine somewhere?

Any help is appreciated.

Thanks for your time,
  Christian