A very
easy tool to use is Lexibar.
You
can drag the letters or double-click and paste them
with Ctrl-V.
Another
easy program to use is AX.
AX allows you to alter any character's accent always
using the same key. This applies to symbols as well.
For example 2 then F8 gives ², e then F8 gives
é, pressing F8 again gives ê and again
gives è and so on. There is no need to remember
any key combinations or use different keys for doing
what is basically the same thing for example à,
È « and ì are all created by typing
the base character then F8 as required.
At
home, I used AllChars
for many years. I highly recommend it as well. Here's
how it works. Type <Ctrl>, (but don't hold it
down). Then AllChars will take the next TWO characters
you type and substitute another in their place. For
example: type <Ctrl> (and release it !) followed
by <`> and <e> and you get an <è>.
Use the SHIFT key for the accents on the capital letters.
You can double-click on the icon in the systray (bottom
right) in order to view the sequence you have to use
to produce the accents.
The
most important keys are...
Ctrl
+ ` +
letter = è, à, ...
Ctrl + ’
+ letter =
é
Ctrl + ,
+ letter =
ç
Ctrl + "
+ letter =
ë, ï, ...
Ctrl + ^
+ letter =
ê, â, ... |
ONLINE
french.typeit.org
- This page allows you to easily type French accents
and other French characters without a French keyboard.
With Internet Explorer, Press Ctrl + Letter repeatedly
until you get the right symbol. For example, to
type ë, press Ctrl+E four times. Stop the mouse
over each button to see its keyboard shortcut. Hold
Shift for upper case: http://french.typeit.org/.
editez
- If you want a more complete online text editor
and you use Internet Explorer 5.5+ for Windows,
you can go to editez,
my online plain text editor. It has French buttons
as well that you can press when needed. When you're
finished with your text, use the save button to
save your file as text or HTML:
http://fslactivities.ca/editez/
OPTION
KEY (Mac)
It's
pretty easy on a Mac. Hold the Option key and type
the second character, release and then type the letter.
Use the SHIFT key for the accents on the capital letters:
à
= Option-` + a
â = Option-i + a
é = Option-e + e
è = Option-` + e
ê = Option-i + e
ë = Option-u + e
î = Option-i + i
ï = Option-u + i
ô = Option-i + o
ù = Option-` + u
û = Option-i + u
ç = Option-c |
À
= Option-` + Shift-a
Â= Option-i + Shift-a
É= Option-e + Shift-e
È= Option-` + Shift-e
Ê= Option-i + Shift-e
Ë= Option-u + Shift-e
Î= Option-i + Shift-i
Ï= Option-u + Shift-i
Ô= Option-i + Shift-o
Ù= Option-` + Shift-u
Û= Option-i + Shift-u
Ç= Option-Shift-c
|
United
States—International
The
precise technique for making this change differs for
different Microsoft Windows platforms. In Windows
XP, launch the Regional and Language Options applet
from Control Panel, then click on the Languages tab,
the Details button, and finally on Add. Check the
box labeled Keyboard layout/IME, select United States—International,
and click on OK. In the Default input language pane,
select English (United States)—United States
International. The process is similar in Windows 2000,
but you start by launching Keyboard from Control Panel,
clicking on Input Locales, and then clicking on Change.
In Windows 98 or Me, launch Keyboard from Control
Panel, click on the Language tab and then Properties,
then select the United States—International keyboard
layout.
With
the new keyboard layout active, the single quote,
double quote (representing the umlaut), back quote,
circumflex (^), and tilde characters become "dead
keys." When you type one of them, nothing happens.
If the next character is one that can accept the specified
accent, the accented character appears. If not, both
characters appear.
To
type one of the dead-key characters alone, you must
press the space key after it. To type a dead-key character
followed by a space, you type the character and two
spaces. In addition, the right-hand Alt key causes
many other keys to generate special characters. For
example Alt+c gets a copyright symbol ©, Alt+5
produces the euro sign ¤, and Alt+1 inserts
a Spanish-style upside-down exclamation point: ¡.
Good
luck!
