Adding common accent marks to text

[gwpriester]

My wife was doing her daily damning of Microsoft Work while trying to add an accent mark to a French word.

So I did a search and found a hack that also seems to work in Xara.

Say you want to add a tilde (~) to a word like Canon?

Hold key in Ca then hold down the Ctrl key and press the Shift + the Tilde character (next to the 1 on the standard keyboard) and you get Cañon. (This does not work in TalkGraphics.

The character under the Tilde is the aigu [I have no idea how this is spelled). You add this to the same way. And this applies to any character to which this accent can be applied. Such as dégagé except you don't hold down the Shift key.

For the opposite of the aigu Ctrl + Shift + ' (the apostrophe).

[Boy]

Hold key in Ca then hold down the Ctrl key and press the Shift + the Tilde character (next to the 1 on the standard keyboard) and you get Cañon. (This does not work in TalkGraphics.

Thanks for that tip, Gary. Up till now I always switched to a different keyboard layout (which I set up via 'Language Preferences' in 'Time & Language') when I needed to add diacritical marks, but that is not necessary at all!

It took me a while, though, to figure out your directions. Put simply: press Ctrl (+ Shift when the diacritical mark is in the upper key) + the diacritic you want. Release the keys and now press the letter you want to add it to (holding Shift if you need a capital).

[Chris M]

I usually use ALT Codes, is this method an alternative, or is it better in some way?

[Boy]

Not if you can remember all the ALT codes..... :-)

[Chris M]

Not if you can remember all the ALT codes..... :-)

I can't, but these guys can. Symbol Codes | ALT Codes for Windows (psu.edu)

[Boy]

So, you would have to look them up when needed. With Gary's method you wouldn't have to, so you save time each time.

[Chris M]

I can get the ã and à, but not é using Gary's method, and I can't work out the ! one at all It is an easier method to remember though.

My main ones are é, Ü and ° Those I remember, but any others I would have to look up.

[Acorn]

Microsoft recommends the Character Map App.

I have the Touch Keyboard at hand on my taskbar.
Open Touch > &123 > Ω > ç and all the diacritic symbols appear.
The clock face symbol retains your previous selections.

Acorn

[Boy]

I can get the ã and à, but not é using Gary's method, and I can't work out the ! one at all It is an easier method to remember though.

My main ones are é, Ü and ° Those I remember, but any others I would have to look up.

This doesn't work: Ctrl + ' + e ?

The Ü doesn't work for me either but try this: Ctrl + Shift + : + U. There's always a catch to easy solutions, isn't there.....

The ° is not a diacritic so that must me entered with an ALT code (as far as I know).

[Chris M]

This doesn't work: Ctrl + ' + e?

No. Using Ctrl+` then e, I get è not é. Ctrl+Shift+` gives me a plain old e. However, it looks like your ` is different to mine. We're talking about the ~ key, no?

The Ü comes out as lower case which, in my usage, would be perfectly fine. As you say, there's always a catch, but it's rather fun playing around and learning more things I'll probably forget when it comes time to use it.