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How to type French accents on a Intl English keyboard?

T

Taustin Powers

macrumors 6502
Original poster
I can see the accent keys, but I cannot get them to work right. Is there any way to type French accents without changing the keyboard layout to French?

This is the new, flat Apple keyboard, on the last white iMac model.
 
While you're typing, to get an é, you type alt e and you'll get a highlighted ´ then just type the e and it will slot in under the ´ like so é.

To get a ê, it's alt i followed by the letter you want to accent. For a ç, it's just alt c, and for an è, it's alt `followed by the letter you want to accent.

I've just done that on a British layout - it should work fine on yours.
 
Applespider said:
While you're typing, to get an é, you type alt e and you'll get a highlighted ´ then just type the e and it will slot in under the ´ like so é.

To get a ê, it's alt i followed by the letter you want to accent. For a ç, it's just alt c, and for an è, it's alt `followed by the letter you want to accent.

I've just done that on a British layout - it should work fine on yours.
Click to expand...

*learns something new*

thanks 🙂
 
I am too lazy to memorize the key combination shortcuts, so I usually get the French accents from the character palette. I added the usual suspects to my favorites list and keep the palette available, by minimizing the window but leaving it open.
 
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They're actually placed at a relatively logical position..

the é is placed under the e of "accent égue" (slightly mistreating the spelling)
the ç is placed under the c because it is a "c çedille"
the ü is under the u because it is a german "umlaut"

and lord knows why the circonflexe (î) is under the i :-/
 
Fisheke said:
and lord knows why the circonflexe (î) is under the i :-/
Click to expand...

Running out of vowels? 😀

The five basic accents of French are pretty easy to remember. Most of the accents are in sensible places. Like the ~ accent is on the n key for the frequent usage of that combination in Spanish, presumably.
 
Thank you for this!

There's another thread on here where someone asks how to do the same thing, and the responses are just terrible, hahah. thanks again for teaching me how to use my mac properly! I might make it through university, now..
 
These are good to know. I've studied enough French to the point that I hate typing re'sume'; I want real accents! 😀

Of course, this all leads to the million-dollar question: What about Vietnamese? Do we use several Option combos consecutively, then the vowel? Or must the Character Palette be used?

(Not that this would do me any good; I don't speak or read Vietnamese. I do, however, like Asian food, including Vietnamese.)
 
Taustin Powers said:
I can see the accent keys, but I cannot get them to work right. Is there any way to type French accents without changing the keyboard layout to French?

This is the new, flat Apple keyboard, on the last white iMac model.
Click to expand...

In MS Word (on a Mac) it works like this: for an acute accent, type OPTION e, then type letter you want the accent to appear over, i.e., for an a with an acute accent, type OPTION e a; for a cedilla, just type OPTION c and the cedilla appears beneath it (no need to type the 'c' again); for a character with a grave accent, type OPTION grave (upper left key, top row) followed by letter you want the accent over. Be sure to release the OPTION key before typing the second letter.
 
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You can also hold the key to get all of this

à á â ä æ ã å ā (this is holding A - you can do the same thing for the other letters)

ö è ê ę ç and so forth
 
What an interesting thread.

In general, I tend to use the 'character' palette, as @Caezar has mentioned above.

However, these are interesting short-cuts, and I'm most grateful to learn about them.
 
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