# French accents on a laptop keyboard



## mayflyaway

My laptop does not have a 10-key pad, so the Alt+ selections do not work.  Is there another way to do the accents (Windows)?  I work frequently in Word and Excel.

Thanks!


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## brendan

you can change your keyboard settings to US International - see the sticky at the top of this forum for details of how to do this.


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## Tchesko

A good method is to copy and paste them from an existing document into yours.

If you can't, the following method should work, provided your Windows version enables keyboard switching:

Go to Start > Control Panel > Regional and linguistic options.
Click on the tab Languages and the button Details.

In the tab Settings, click on the button Add, choose French and French.
Click on OK every time you are asked for it.

Now in the system tray, you should have a new icon allowing you to switch your keyboard from English to French.

If you do this, you can find the accents where you usually have numbers:

1=&
2=é
3="
4='
5=(
6=-
7=è
8=_
9=ç
0=à
[=^ (or ¨ with shift)
'=ù

Warning! French keyboard is VERY different from the US keyboard so you might want to switch back to the American one after typing the accents...

Roman


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## Aupick

On most laptops, the numberpad is superimposed on a section of the keyboard. On mine it's over the right side. To activate it I hold down the 'fn' button while typing. (I know - 'fn' _plus_ 'alt' _plus_ the accent code, it all gets a bit much.) The system varies from laptop to laptop, but I've never seen one without it.

The keys correspond to the following numbers:
7 = 7  |  8 = 8  |  9 = 9  |  0 = *
U = 4  |  I = 5  |  O = 6  |  P = -
J = 1  |  K = 2  |  L = 3  |  ; = +
M = 0  |  > = .  |  / = /

A final tip: the laptop numberpads often have numberlocks which have to be turned on just like the normal numberpads.


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## mayflyaway

Um.  oops.  i guess those cant be used while on the internet.  Anyway, I said some stuff which Im not going to bother retyping, which sums up to, yeup my keyboard has those and thank you for pointing them out to me.  You're in Montpellier, I'm in Ales.  About 1.25 hours from Montpellier by train.  Howdy!


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## smallfast

yes there is a very easy way with microsoft word


first you go to the insert pull-down
then go to symbol
select unicode at the bottom right corner
then find the character that you want and insert it


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## Gordo

Try googling Shortkeys Lite. It's a free programme that lets you assign up to 15 different symbols . hash e =é for example. you assign the symbol you want to any hash + letter combination. I find it very easy to use. Gordo.


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## Tabac

_Fn_ button (between Ctrl and Alt) + F11 activivates the "numbers pad" on my laptop.  The numbers themselves are found on the keys m(0) j, k, l (1-3) u, i, o (4-6) and 7, 8, 9 (7-9).  You can barely see the numbers printed on the keys.   I hope this helps.


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## la reine victoria

Aupick said:
			
		

> On most laptops, the numberpad is superimposed on a section of the keyboard. On mine it's over the right side. To activate it I hold down the 'fn' button while typing. (I know - 'fn' _plus_ 'alt' _plus_ the accent code, it all gets a bit much.) The system varies from laptop to laptop, but I've never seen one without it.
> 
> The keys correspond to the following numbers:
> 7 = 7 | 8 = 8 | 9 = 9 | 0 = *
> U = 4 | I = 5 | O = 6 | P = -
> J = 1 | K = 2 | L = 3 | ; = +
> M = 0 | > = . | / = /
> 
> A final tip: the laptop numberpads often have numberlocks which have to be turned on just like the normal numberpads.


 
Dear Aupick,

You have been my saviour with the above information.  My keypads are getting bald from wear so I can't see some of the little symbols by the letters.  Luckily I'm a a touch typist, so from now on I should be OK with my accents.  On verra!

Have a good weekend.

Thanks again,

LRV


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## ElVagabundo

Dear Tchesko,

How about the other accents ?  How can you obtain them on the laptop, such as:-

ê,ô,...etc?

& ï  ?


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## gooopil

Another solution is to use MS Word shortcuts. You create a set of shortcuts (I did that for Spanish for instance) ex: alt+shift+e for é, alt+shift+i for ï...


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## ElVagabundo

Salut Gooopil,
Thanxx  for the tip.

Do you mean like to go actually  to  Microsoft Office Word , create shortcuts there ?

Could you please elaborate , I'm not that very talented with computers.

Thanxx again for your help.


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## PUEBLA

Dobri den, Tchesko et all,

Using a lap top, all these tricks are just a pain in your fingers. The only think that really work and help in a user tipe-writing friendly way is the one you all may find through this link: http : // french . type . org (I've added spaces because I'm not allowed to copy the URL until I've made 30 postes or more and this is my first one. Sorry.) 
It works with Czech, French, German, IPA English, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Romaninan, Spanish and Sweden for the time being.

You can even type in your document/message then copy and paste anywhere.


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## jann

hello mayflyaway 

We have a sticky on various methods to type French accents in the Fr-En forum.  The first post contains the ALT key shortcuts, but if you scroll past it, you will find more methods.  Perhaps some of these will be helpful for you 

If you can touch-type (without looking at the letters printed on the keys) then there is one more method:  

You can use the "Regional and Language Settings" dialogue box in the Control Panel on a Windows computer to enable switching between French (AZERTY) and English (QUERTY) keyboards.  When you have the AZERTY keyboard enabled, the letters printed on your keys will no longer be correct (e.g., when you press "a" you will get "q," when you press "2" you will get "é," etc.). ALT+left SHIFT allows you to toggle back and forth between the two keyboards.  I think you will find this method efficient once you are accustomed to it, provided that you only ever type on AZERTY in French and on QUERTY in English.   But obviously, there is a bit of a learning curve, and you have to be able to touch-type on the AZERTY keyboard, since those letters aren't printed on your keys! [EDIT: Oops! I have just realized that this is more or less what Tchesko desribed in post #3]


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