VerbCast

Still want to keep going?

It's Saturday, day 11, and you're already on your way towards the end of the VERBcast. However, things have changed over the past few days: there haven't been nearly as many posts on the site with you offering your answers. Don't get me wrong: I know that there are many other things to think about, not least the exams other than French which will start at some point this coming weeki.

We'll keep sending the messages to those of you who have signed up for the sms features of the VERBcast, but you will need to reply to a text I've sent asking about your plans to continue. The thing is that the regular text messages do cost a fair bit of money, and we have to make sure that they're "value for money", so if anyone is doing the VERBcast, we really do need you to keep posting your answers on the website.

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!

Confusion!

This is my own doing! Last time round when we launched the VERBcast I was recording the programmes each day, so they weren't published until late in the evening. This meant that the natural time to send the sms exercises etc. was the following day. However, this time round since all the recordings are already done, it's proving really confusing to send sms messages the following day, especially when in most cases the episodes for that day are already published. And the really confusing thing for me is that I'm working two or three days in advance because all the VERBcast episodes and text messages are preprogrammed so that they are published automatically (and I don't actually need to get up at 6am to publish them!)

Anyway, what I've decided to do from tomorrow is send out sms messages relating to the episode released on the same day. This means that I'll send an extra sms tonight, and as from tomorrow, the verbs being tested in the sms will be those released in tomorrow's episode. Hope this makes sense and that it helps to solve lots of confusion, 99% of which has been cause by me!