If you are typing in a Western-font language in MS Word, you may be happy simply to use the “insert symbol” function. However, there are a number of other ways to type characters with diacritics (ñ, à, ó, ç, etc.). There is a system of numeric codes (ASCII) to produce letters common in Western European languages. Or you can change the keyboard so that some keys function as accent keys or so that they are mapped to a different alphabet (Cyrillic, Arabic, Hebrew) or produce characters in Japanese, Chinese, or Korean. Click on one of the following three choices to explore these:
Changing and Accessing Windows Keyboards
If you are logged into a particular lab computer, you can add keyboards or character generation functions which become part of your profile on that computer. If you use the same computer again, you should be able to access these keyboards easily.
First, check the language and keyboard icons in the taskbar to see what keyboards are available. The icon in Windows 10 is usually just the letters EN, and if you open it up there is a list of preloaded keyboarding methods.
If the language or keyboard you want to use is not available, follow this path to add it:
EN taskbar icon
Language Preferences (Region and Language)
Add a Language
Choose the language!
If you need to add a different keyboard for typing, return to
Region and Language
Related Settings (Clock, Language, and Region)
Change Input Methods
Choose the language
Add an Input Method
Choose the keyboard!
Press Add
Check to be sure that keyboard has been added to your profile in the list that pops up when you click EN.
The Default Input Language should be English. Leave that alone. You can add languages and the appropriate keyboards by selecting from a list.
After adding the keyboards and accepting/applying/OK’ing all the settings, you can access the keyboard or IME using the keyboard icon on the taskbar, or you can left-click to see a special Language Bar which floats on top of the application. You may need to change the keyboard selection for each program you open, and select an appropriate font for typing in the language involved.
Japanese and Chinese IMEs
To type Japanese or Chinese, you will need to be sure you have the floating Language Bar which gives you all the options you need. Open the program in which you will type, then switch to the Japanese of Chinese IME. To type in Chinese Traditional characters, look for an arrow at the right end of the toolbar and add “Char Set” to the options. If a character typed in Pinyin is not what you wanted, use the arrow keys (to the right of they keyboard) to arrow back over the character. A selection of possible characters will appear.
Right-to-left languages
A map of the Israeli Hebrew keyboard.
A computer in 1317 Turlington has Arabic key-caps. These are helpful for learning where the characters are.
When using Word, be sure to set a right alignment. When the HE or AR keyboard is selected, the direction of typing should be correct, but it still is aligned to the left. You can choose right alignment by pressing CTRL and the letter R key at the same time.
International Keyboard
For many Western-font languages, a good choice is the United States-International keyboard, which allows you to type accented text using a dead-key system. You can choose this by following the instructions above for adding an input method.
In this system, the following keys are “dead”–that is, when you press the key once, nothing appears, but when you press another key you either get the expected punctuation or else an accented letter:
The ~ ` key (to left): For ñ, press Shift + this key, then the n (or N if you need a cap). You can also use it to produce ã, or õ.
For a forward accent (French grave) on a vowel, press this key, then the vowel: à, è, ì, ò, ù.
To produce ~, press Shift + this key and then a space. To produce `, press this key + space.
The ” ‘ key (next to Enter). For a vowel with a diaresis, press Shift + this key and then the vowel: ä, ë, ï, ö, ü, ÿ.
For a vowel with a backward accent (French aigu, or the common vowel accent in Spanish), press the key and then the vowel: á, e’, í, ó, ú, ý.
For a ç, press the key and then the c.
To produce “, press Shift + this key and then a space. To produce an apostrophe (‘), press this key + space.
NOTE: in typing French, you have to remember to press key + space to produce an apostrophe, as in j’ai. Otherwise you will get jái.
^ (shift + number 6). To type a vowel with a circonflexe diacritic, press Shift + 6 and then the vowel: â, ê, î, ô, û.
ASCII codes for accented letters used often in Western European languages
With Num Lock on, hold down the Alt key and type a 3 or 4-number code using the keypad.
á = Alt + 160
à = Alt + 133 À = Alt + 0192
ä = alt + 132 Ä = Alt + 0142
â = Alt + 131 Â = Alt + 0194
æ = Alt + 145 Æ = Alt + 146
é = Alt + 130 É = Alt + 144
è = Alt + 138 È = Alt + 0200
ê = Alt + 136 Ê = Alt + 0202
ë = Alt + 137 Ë = Alt + 0203
í = Alt + 161
î = Alt + 140 Î = Alt + 0206
ï = Alt + 139 Ï = Alt + 0207
ó = Alt + 162
ô = Alt + 147 Ô = Alt + 1212
ö= Alt + 0246 Ö = Alt + 0214
ú = Alt + 163
ù = Alt + 151 Ù = Alt + 0217
û = Alt + 150 Û = Alt + 0219
ü = Alt + 129 Ü = Alt +154
ç = Alt + 135 Ç = Alt + 128
ñ = Alt + 164 Ñ = Alt + 165
ß = Alt : 0223
ª = Alt + 166 ° = Alt + 167
¿ = Alt + 168 ¡ = Alt + 173