Typing accents on your computer
Adapted from a page created for the Colby College LRC website by Zach Chandler.
There are only two steps you need to take to start typing accents and diacritical marks on your computer.
1. Configure your keyboard
2. Use the proper keystrokes
Mac users can actually skip step 1. The keyboard input for diacritics is incorporated into the OS, although alternate international layouts are optional. Windows users, after setting their keyboard IME to US-International, need to use slightly different keystrokes depending on whether they are typing into a word processor, or online, such as on a forum or weblog. Again, Mac users are exempt, and have only one key sequence to deal with.
1. Configure your keyboard (Mac users can skip this step)
Windows 95/98/Me
1. click on the Start button
2. select Settings ... Control Panel
3. click on the Keyboard icon
4. in the new window, click on the Language tab
5. under Keyboard languages and layouts the default should be English (US)
6. click on the Properties button
7. select United States-International for keyboard layout from the drop-down menu
8. click OK
9. click Apply
10. Insert operating system disk if prompted
11. After update is finished, click OK
Windows 2000
1. click on the Start button
2. select Settings ... Control Panel
3. click on the Keyboard icon
4. in the new window, click on the Input Locales tab
5. the default should be English (US)
6. click on the Properties button
7. select United States-International for keyboard layout/IME from the drop-down menu
8. click OK
9. click Apply
10. Insert operating system disk if prompted
11. click OK
Windows XP
1. click on the Start button
2. click on Date, Time, Language, and Regional Options
3. click on Regional and Language Options
4. in the new window click on the Languages tab
5. click on the Details button
6. in the new window click on the Add button
7. default input language should be English
8. select United States-International for keyboard layout/IME from the drop-down menu
9. click Apply and OK.
2. Use the proper keystrokes
Click on the following links to see the keystrokes you will need to use.
Another input option is the ALT key +ASCII number codes for those who don't want to use the U.S.-International keyboard.