Accents on Windows PCs
General Instructions:
To illustrate how accents may be produced on your PC, let us trace
through an example of how to produce the character, á.
Step 1: Look up the desired character in the table below.
Step 2: Note the key sequence that is neccessary to produce that character.
Step 3: Follow the model listed here for producing the à character, using that key sequence instead.
In this case, to produce à, one must use the sequence ( [Alt] + 133 ). In English, that means to say that you must hold (and continue to hold) the key labeled "Alt" while you then type in the numbers 1, 3, and 3 on your numeric keypad. Then, when you let go of the "Alt" key, the character à should appear.
NOTE 1: The numeric keypad is the group of keys arranged like a calculator on the right hand side of your keyboard. You must use these keys (and not the single row of keys above the "QWERTY..." keys) to produce accents. Since laptop computers do not generally have a separate numeric keypad, you will be unable to use this method on a portable computer. For an alternative suggestion, read the "technical" notes below.
NOTE 2: You must be sure that the "Num Lock" or "Number
Lock" function is active and/or lit. Generally, there is a "Num
Lock" key in the upper left hand corner of the numeric keypad. Usually,
pressing it will activate/deactivate an indicator light on the keyboard.
The indicator should be lit to indicate that Num Lock is on.
Table of Accented Characters
Here is a list of commonly used accented characters used in
Western European languages, and the key combinations necessary to reproduce
them
on the macintosh.
You may wish to print out this instruction sheet, for reference during your exam.
key combination letter key combination ( [Alt] + 133 ) ( [Alt] + 162 ) ( [Alt] + 131 ) ( [Alt] + 147 ) ( [Alt] + 160 ) ( [Alt] + 148 ) ( [Alt] + 132 ) ( [Alt] + 163 ) ( [Alt] + 138 ) ( [Alt] + 151 ) ( [Alt] + 136 ) ( [Alt] + 150 ) ( [Alt] + 130 ) ( [Alt] + 129 ) ( [Alt] + 137 ) ( [Alt] + 135 ) ( [Alt] + 161 ) ( [Alt] + 128 ) ( [Alt] + 140 ) ( [Alt] + 164 ) ( [Alt] + 139 ) ( [Alt] + 225 )
Try It!
What is this doing, technically?:
Technically, what you are doing is telling the computer the "extended ASCII" code for the character that you want. Because most text typewritten in the United States does not include accented characters, the U.S. keyboard layout does not include them. However, your operating system (Windows, for example) does have the ability to work with accented characters. As a matter of fact, for any given font, your computer is probably aware of more than 255 different characters. Accessing these characters can be somewhat tedious, as you may find out.
Globally, accent handling is not always this difficult or tedious. In France, for example, typists are not required to type ASCII codes to place accented characters on screen. In most cases, they are typing on a keyboard which has accents and special letters already on the keyboard. If your academic career will include a lot of typewritten work in a foreign language, it may be of interest to you to find more information about different keyboard layouts and how to use them with your computer. If interested, a good layout to learn is the "US-International Keyboard". One major benefit of the US-International keyboard is that it is compatible with laptop computers.
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