How do you type French characters (English keyboard)

[Digby Green]

Hello, I am an English guy.

I a have a personal project that involves me typing quite a few French paragraphs with an English Microsoft Word documents.

I am asking what techniques do you use to input French accents

Do you set up your own alt key combinations ?

If so, what system do you use? (especially for the accents on the letters a and e)

Or do you use the special characters on the number keyvoard

Or do you use the Insert symbols option?

Or would you switch to a French keyboard?

[George Hunt]

http://french.typeit.org/

This is the website I use. I simply copy and paste individual characters as I need them.

Other people  configure the keyboard on their computer directly. I do not know how to do that but I doubt it is very difficult.

It is also  possible to save the  characters you need to  notebook (or a  similar programme)  and copy the characters from there.

[Allan Rockett]

You can switch from the standard English UK keyboard to the UK extended keyboard. This allows key combinations to type the French accents. 

Alternatively, you can download the FREE Microsoft Keyboard Creator and add your own key combinations to type the accents. (There's a complete guide to using it online).

A third option is a programme called 'Wiz-Key' (not free unfortunately)  which also adds key combinations to type the accents on a standard keyboard.

Hope this helps.

2252

[George Hunt]

Thanks. Sounds like a few possibilities there..

[Stevo]

Hello everybody.

I am Stevo, I am a French native.

2 solutions are possible regarding this fluent problem for English people:

- If you need to write simply for a French penpal, don't worry. Anybody can read and understand all of your text without accent. It's useless to write them.

- If it's for an official translation, you could use the key combination of the Windows OS.
 All is explained over the link ( you have to interest you for the "extended ASCII characters" zone, at the right ) :

http://www.theasciicode.com.ar/extended-ascii-code/majuscule-c-cedi...

Here a simple example to understand : key “alt” + 128 ( written by the number pad ) = Ç

So, you just have to memorise only some comfortables combinations... ( that is to say, à ; é ; è ; ï ; ç ; Ç... )

- Finally, don't take care about uppercase letters when you are beginning a sentence. All french people use these ones without accent. Yes, it's completely wrong regarding the French grammar. But it's easier ! So, you could imitate this typical French habit. ;-) ( the only exception is the “Ç” because “Ca” means absolutely nothing. )

Here an example :

- à combien d'euros estimes-tu la valeur de l'objet ? -> ( With a lowercase letter to show you only. )

- À combien d'euros estimes-tu la valeur de l'objet ? -> ( That should be always written like this. )

- A combien d'euros estimes-tu la valeur de l'objet ? -> ( The usual French manner )

( To how much euros you estimate the object value ? )

See you later, and have more fun with the French language. ;-)

Stevo

Hello everybody.

I am Stevo, I am a French native.

2 solutions are possible regarding this fluent problem for English people:

- If you need to write simply for a French penpal, don't worry. Anybody can read and understand all of your text without accent. It's useless to write them.

- If it's for an official translation, you could use the key combination of the Windows OS.
 All is explained over the link ( you have to interest you for the "extended ASCII characters" zone, at the right ) :

http://www.theasciicode.com.ar/extended-ascii-code/majuscule-c-cedi...

Here a simple example to understand : key “alt” + 128 ( written by the number pad ) = Ç

So, you just have to memorise only some comfortables combinations... ( that is to say, à ; é ; è ; ï ; ç ; Ç... )

- Finally, don't take care about uppercase letters when you are beginning a sentence. All french people use these ones without accent. Yes, it's completely wrong regarding the French grammar. But it's easier ! So, you could imitate this typical French habit. ;-) ( the only exception is the “Ç” because “Ca” means absolutely nothing. )

Here an example :

- à combien d'euros estimes-tu la valeur de l'objet ? -> ( With a lowercase letter to show you only. )

- À combien d'euros estimes-tu la valeur de l'objet ? -> ( That should be always written like this. )

- A combien d'euros estimes-tu la valeur de l'objet ? -> ( The usual French manner )

( To how much euros you estimate the object value ? )

See you later, and have more fun with the French language. ;-)

Stevo

[Digby Green]

Hello

Merci to everyone.

I often use the Alt Key combinations, and I have also tried Typeit (which is very good)