Entering accents

We're delighted that so many of you are posting your answers, and also delighted that so many of you are so keen to be accurate and want to know how to enter accents on your posts.

I use a Mac and it's dead easy to enter accented characters using keystroke combinations. But on a PC I'm a bit lost. This site does offer lots of useful information but it takes a wee while to get through it all. Here's a wee summary.

You have three main options: 1. Install the International Keyboard; 2. Use the Character Map and copy and paste your accents, or 3. use the ALT+number combinations as explained below.

1. Installing the International Keyboard
There are full instructions for installing the International Keyboard on Windows XP on this site. Once you have it installed, you can use the keyboard shortcuts as explained here.

2. Use the Character Map
This is quite useful for inserting the odd accent or symbol here and there. On most systems you can find it by going to Start Menu > Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Character Map. Alternatively you can go to Start Menu > Run and then type charmap. Assuming your cursor is blinking within the text box, eg. on the comments page on the blog, then you can double click any accented character and it should appear at the correct place on the blog.

3. Use ALT+number combinations
This is possibly the most common way of using accented characters on a PC, but equally it's one of the trickiest. If your computer has a numeric keypad on the right of your keyboard (ie. the number keys are there as well as "above" the letters) then you can use this method. You need to hold down the ALT key and then press a combination of numbers and your accented character should appear. The list is below for French:

à 0224
â 0226
ç 0231
é 0233
è 0232
ê 0234
ë 0235
î 0238
ï 0239
ô 0244
ù 0249
û 0251

Capitals:

À 0192
 0194
Ç 0199
È 0200
É 0201
Ê 0202
Ë 0203
Î 0206
Ï 0207
Ô 0212
Ù 0217
Û 0219

« 0171 (opening French inverted commas)
» 0187 (closing French inverted commas)

For a full list for other languages, and for further discussion see this very useful site. I hope all of this helps!

Comments

[Vivien]

Interestingly this is a completely different list of numbers to the one I have. I use a Mac most of the time, but will go and switch on the PC and try this out!

[Vivien]

This is interesting, because both sets of numbers work - it's just remembering them that's the problem!

[Alison]

Mark and Vivien,

How would I do accents on an iMac? Is it the same as above?

Merci!

[Alison]

Mark and Vivien,

How would I do accents on an iMac? Is it the same as above?

Merci!

[Alison]

Mark and Vivien,

How would I do accents on an iMac? Is it the same as above?

Merci!

[Mark]

We're not sitting at the computer at all times ready to answer Alison... ;)

If you follow the link in this last post then you will see that the Mac accented characters are different. More details can be found at this site:

http://www.starr.net/is/type/kbh.html#mac

(it's the same link as the one at the top of this post).

[Alison]

Mark and Vivien,

How would I do accents on an iMac? Is it the same as above?

Merci!

[Alison]

I would obviously not think of emailing you 4 times in a row Mark. My computer has been malfunctioning.

Sorry!

[Mark]

No probs, Alison - hope you've got it sorted out now :)

[Kay]

Re mac accents and the instructions on the website.
Recent mac keyboards have renamed the"option" key "alt" - it's the same key and has the same function
Just in case anyone was puzzled!!

[dofus kamas]

I would obviously not think of emailing you 4 times in a row Mark. My computer has been malfunctioning.

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