In a number of KDE applications, also in Koffice, the '<' and '>' characters have a tendency to be unavailable. I mean that the key remains dead.

I have a suse 8.2 distribution with KDE 3.1x and QT 3.2, and a Belgian Keyboard. The problem key is the one on the bottom row, all the way left, next to the shift key. The problem seems to be only from time to time. I am willing to test this extensively and report it to the KDE people, but perhaps you have already encountered this problem?