French/Appendices/Typing characters
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[edit] International keyboard configuration
Commonly one memorises the alt-number code for inserting non-English characters (below), but there is a much better method. One can change their keyboard configuration from their previous setting to a US (Qwerty) International setting. See http://www.starr.net/kbh for more information.
In Windows XP:
1. Start -> Settings -> Control Panel 2. Regional and Language Options 3. Languages -> Details ... 4. Click Add. 5. Under Input language, choose your native language. 6. Under Keyboard layout/IME, choose United States-International.
Now to form accents, you prefix the letter with either ` ' " ~ or ^ So, to get è, one types ` and then e. To get Ë, one types " and then E.
These are examples of the alt-number code method: ù Alt+151 or Alt+0249 û Alt+150 or Alt+0251 ü Alt+129 or Alt+0252 The right Alt key may be required.
[edit] JLG extended keyboard layout for US
You can download the JLG Extended Keyboard Layout for US (freeware) on http://www.jlg-utilities.com. This layout does not modify the normal US Layout, but extends it. Thus the punctuation characters (', ", ^, etc.) are not dead keys and does not perturb the common user. Thousand of Unicode characters can be reached, included the French characters, generally with intuitive combinations, for instance:
é = CTRL + ' then e à = CTRL + ` then a Î = CTRL + ^ then I œ = ALTGR + o then e « = ALTGR + [ » = ALTGR + ] etc.
[edit] In Mac OS X
You could change your keyboard layout in System Preferences->International->Input Menu or with the default qwerty keyboard layout you can use meta keys to create the accents. For instance if you want to create an "`" accent you would press option+` then press the vowel you want to appear under the letter to create à, è, ì, ò, or ù. The keystrokes for the diffent accents are...
option + "`" = ` option + "e" = ´ option + "i" = ˆ option + "u" = ¨
[edit] Copy & paste
This method can be useful if you are just writing a short text (for example an e-mail) and don't have a computer where you can/want change language settings. Just try to pull up a web page or a document that contains the special characters and paste them into your text. For longer texts, however, this can become quite tedious.
[edit] Search & replace
If you are working with a text editor you have the option to search for text and replace it with other text. This feature can be used to 'type' special characters. The idea is to mark a character for becoming a special character, for example typing ~a when you mean à. After you have written your text you replace marked characters (the ~a) with special characters (the à). Of course you have to either type in the Alt number code or paste the character, but the point is that you only have to do it once for the whole text and not for every single à that you want to type.
[edit] Unix and the Compose key
If you are using Ubuntu Linux with Gnome you select the Compose key from System: Preferences: Keyboard then Layouts: Layout Options: Compose key position. You can select one of Right Alt key, Left Win-key, Right Win-key, Menu key, Right Ctrl key or Caps Lock key (for a USA keyboard layout). The Keyboard preferences dialog has an area you can use to test the settings. See below for how to use the Compose key. Ubuntu with a different window manager, such as KDE should have a similar keyboard preferences utility.
If you are using Unix or a derivative operating system (such as Linux) with XFree86, you can define a compose key by opening a terminal window and typing:
To use the Windows menu key (between the right Windows key and right Ctrl key: xmodmap -e "keysym Menu = Multi_key" To use the right Windows key: xmodmap -e "keysym R_Meta = Multi_key" To use the right Alt key: xmodmap -e "keysym Alt_Gr = Multi_key"
To use the Compose key, press and release the Compose key, then type two characters. Combinations useful for typing in French follow:
à Compose + a + ` â Compose + a + ^ ä Compose + a + " ç Compose + c + , è Compose + e + ` é Compose + e + ' ê Compose + e + ^ ë Compose + e + " É Compose + E + ' î Compose + i + ^ ï Compose + i + " ô Compose + o + ^ ö Compose + o + " ù Compose + u + ` û Compose + u + ^ ü Compose + u + "
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