# Problèmes avec circonflexes.



## emma42

Bonsoir.  Quelquefois, quand je veux taper un o, e u circonflexe, je perds complètement le fil et mon poste.  C'est très ennuyeux.  J'utilise Alt +.  

Aucunes idées, mes amis?

Hello.  Sometimes when I want to type an o, e or u circumflex, I completely lose the thread and lose my post.  It's really annoying.  I use Alt +.  Any ideas?


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## winklepicker

It's a bit stone age, Emma, but you could copy and paste these into a document, keep it on your desktop and copy and paste at need. A bit laborious, I'll allow. I hope someone else will come up with something more refined!

â  ê  ô


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## cuchuflete

There is probably a PC equivalent to the Mac Character Map.  It's just a display of the alphabet, including accented letters.  You click the letter you want, such as ê, and then click "insert".  It's about as quick, or quicker, that Alt key + numeric combinations.


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## emma42

Thank you both.


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## cuchuflete

Thanks to Agnès E., you have yet another option:
http://french.typeit.org/
This allows you to type accented French (and other language) characters, then ctrl + C and Ctrl +V to insert them,
or use your browser edit buttons to copy/paste.


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## emma42

Thank you, cuchuflete.  I did wonder whether anyone else had this problem, but it doesn't look like it.


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## cuchuflete

Errrr, ummm, I don't know a terribly polite way to say this, but...
Now and then I press the left shift key, and my entire line of text just disappears into the ether.
It was driving me nuts.

Then, one bright and sunny day, I popped off the key cap, and found enough cookie residue and signs that I don't live in a smoke free zone to scare the health inspector.  After a thorough cleaning, I replaced the key cap, and the problem has not recurred.  In high tech terms, I suppose you could say that all the crud under the key cap somehow affected the keyboard mapping, so that Shift became Delete!  I trust this is strictly a U.S. phenomenon (Pecan Sandies are a favorite on this side of the puddle.) so you should feel free to ignore the possibility.


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## KaRiNe_Fr

Emma, la solution aux problèmes de caractères spéciaux sur  ce  genre de forum c'est abcTajpu avec Firefox, ainsi, plus besoin d'utiliser la touche ALT! 
Click! This is a related thread. Using the ALT + key could have other effects on your browser (short cuts), and you can also disable this functionality to avoid this issue. But try the abcTajpu plugin, it's really good, you won't regret it! (Feel free to PM me if any issue with abcTajpu, of course.)


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## Nunty

After I installed the Keymap French keyboard extender, which works  on both French and English keyboards, my problems were solved. *Ç*a marche même pour l'accentuation des lettres majuscules. Sr Claire *É*dith


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## Jana337

emma42 said:


> Thank you, cuchuflete.  I did wonder whether anyone else had this problem, but it doesn't look like it.


Really?  I'd say it is one of the most popular CS topics, right after_ I want a Chinese forum_, _where's my thread_ and _how about a literature forum_.


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## la reine victoria

I always use le notepad.  Thank you Agnès! 

LRV


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## emma42

cuchuflete said:


> Errrr, ummm, I don't know a terribly polite way to say this, but...
> Now and then I press the left* shit* key, and my entire line of text just disappears into the ether.
> It was driving me nuts.
> 
> Then, one bright and sunny day, I popped off the key cap, and found enough cookie residue and signs that I don't live in a smoke free zone to scare the health inspector.  After a thorough cleaning, I replaced the key cap, and the problem has not recurred.  In high tech terms, I suppose you could say that all the crud under the key cap somehow affected the keyboard mapping, so that Shift became Delete!  I trust this is strictly a U.S. phenomenon (Pecan Sandies are a favorite on this side of the puddle.) so you should feel free to ignore the possibility.


*
Well, Cuchuflete, you may well have a filthy keyboard, but I can assure you that I do not.  It may be possible that the fact you have a "shit" key, rather than the more usual "shift" key is contributing to your keyboard hygiene problem.  May I recommend a solution of carnation-scented ammonia?*


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## emma42

Thank you Karine and Nun for your suggestions.  May I just add that I think an Old Norse Forum is badly called for.  Sorry, Jana, I should have used "Search" first - mea culpa.


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## la reine victoria

emma42 said:


> *Well, Cuchuflete, you may well have a filthy keyboard, but I can assure you that I do not. It may be possible that the fact you have a "shit" key, rather than the more usual "shift" key is contributing to your keyboard hygiene problem. May I recommend a solution of carnation-scented ammonia?*


 

I would give it a good blow with a hairdryer (cool setting).  Safety goggles should be worn.

LRV


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## danielfranco

Sometimes I wonder if I'm the only bumpkin that dares use the "US English - International" keyboard setting on Windows. I set it up alongside the "regular" keyboard. This setting helps me to do all the acute and grave accent marks for capital and lower-case letters, and diereses, circumflexes and tildes, too, and even opening exclamation and question marks.
Look: á Á Ä ä à À ñ Ñ ç Ç ¿ ¡ Ô ô

Maybe this thread might be helpful, if you wanna give it a try.


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## Kelly B

That's my preferred method too, danielfranco. I found the instructions in Benjy's post #2 in this thread French accent tips (Windows/Mac OS) at the top of the French-English forum.


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## Nunty

I go an even simpler route. I have four "virtual" or "soft" keyboards installed, and I set keystroke combinations to switch among them: English-International, French, Hebrew and Arabic. It does require that you learn the keyboard layout for each language, but I since I touch type anyway, that was not insurmountable. (Though I'm still working on the Arabic one.)


EDIT: I'm using Windows XP Pro.


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## emma42

Thanks, forer@s.  The problem has just gone away of its own accord.  I will try out some ideas anyway.


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