Typing French Accented Letters

Higher ASCII characters (accented characters):

MACINTOSH

For Mac users, there is nothing to enable.You will just be using the option key in combination with other keys. See below for key sequences. You may choose to install another keyboard if you wish but this is not necessary.

WINDOWS 95, 98 or NT

You basically have two choices. From your normal (English) keyboard, you can use Alt key combinations (hold down the ALT key and type the number) or you can set an International keyboard. The Alt combinations (see below) are okay for a verb exercise or a short text but get cumbersome after a while.

Alt combinations from Standard Windows Keyboard
à Alt + 133
ä Alt + 132
â Alt + 131
ç Alt + 135
é Alt + 130
è Alt + 138
ê Alt + 136
ë Alt + 137
î Alt + 140
ï Alt + 139
ô Alt + 147
ù Alt + 151
û Alt + 150

International keyboard

You must install either the Portuguese (Brazilian) or US (International) keyboard and enable it to work correctly. To do this, go to the Start menu, then Settings, then Control Panel then Keyboard, Languages (or Input locales), Add, and choose Portuguese (Brazilian) or English (US International) from the popup menu. When you click apply (or OK), you may need to insert your Windows 95/98/NT CD-ROM to copy the appropriate files to the hard drive. Once you have done this, see below for key sequences. You need to install the keyboard once on your machine but will have to enable it each time if you do not set it as your default keyboard.

NOTES:
1. Machines on Campus. The labs in Craigie Hall (D328, E210 and E212) and The Tri-Fac Lab (SS018) already all have the keyboard installed. You simply need to enable it either on the Task Bar at the bottom of the screen (click on the EN) or through the Start menu as above. These machines also have the French Spell Checker installed as well. within Microsoft Word (Tools > Language > Set Language).
2. Tempting and logical as it seems, do NOT install the French (Standard = France) Keyboard. The letter keys are all in different places so typing q will get you k on screen, p will get you x, etc. The French (Canadian) keyboard is a little more manageable (all letters in the normal place - accents by playing with non letter keys / = é etc.) but not recommended unless you have already worked with it.

Character Type this (Win): Type this (Mac): Examples

^ (circonflexe) shift-6 followed by the character you want option-i followed by the character you want ô, Î

` (accent grave) grave accent key (the key beside the 1 and above the tab) followed by the character you want option-grave accent key (the key beside the 1 and above the tab) followed by the character you want à, è

´ (accent aigu) apostrophe followed by the character you want option-e followed by the character you want é

ç (cédille) apostrophe followed by 'c' option-c ç

¨ (diérèse or umlaut) a double quote followed by the character you want option-u followed by the character you want ë, ü

Character	Type this (Win):	Type this (Mac):	Examples
^ (circonflexe)	shift-6 followed by the character you want	option-i followed by the character you want	ô, Î
` (accent grave)	grave accent key (the key beside the 1 and above the tab) followed by the character you want	option-grave accent key (the key beside the 1 and above the tab) followed by the character you want	à, è
´ (accent aigu)	apostrophe followed by the character you want	option-e followed by the character you want	é
ç (cédille)	apostrophe followed by 'c'	option-c	ç
¨ (diérèse or umlaut)	a double quote followed by the character you want	option-u followed by the character you want	ë, ü

Dan Maher with thanks to Julian Wood (Advanced Media for Learning)

fr219

page créée le 27 octobre 1999
dernière mise à jour le 3 novembre 1999