[JeffPSU]

I'm trying to learn to use the French capabilities in Windows, because it's
very inconvenient to use "Insert symbol" every time I want an accent. I have
the language toolbar set up, but don't have a template for the French
keyboard mapping. Thanks.

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

For occasional typing of accented letters in Word (and French doesn't
require much in that regard), you can use Word's built-in keyboard shortcuts
(see http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/General/InsertSpecChars.htm for a list). If
you have the language set to French, Word will even substitute guillemets
(« and ») for quotation marks, insert a nonbreaking space after a colon,
etc.

With an international keyboard layout, I believe many of the keys are
similar, except that instead of pressing Ctrl+', e to get é, you press '
followed by e (' and other accent marks are "dead keys" which don't do
anything till you press another key). To get an actual apostrophe, you press
' and then ' again or ' and a space or punctuation (one or the other,
possibly both).

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://word.mvps.org
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

"JeffPSU" wrote in message
...
I'm trying to learn to use the French capabilities in Windows, because
it's
very inconvenient to use "Insert symbol" every time I want an accent. I
have
the language toolbar set up, but don't have a template for the French
keyboard mapping. Thanks.

[JeffPSU]

When I set the language to French, the keyboard letters change. The English
keyboard letters q,w,a,s,z,x become a;z;q;s;w;x: As you can see, a comma
also becomes a semicolon, and a period becomes a colon. Isn't there just a
diagram of the remapped keyboard somewhere, or a command to show the current
keyboard onscreen? Thanks.

"Suzanne S. Barnhill" wrote:

For occasional typing of accented letters in Word (and French doesn't
require much in that regard), you can use Word's built-in keyboard shortcuts
(see http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/General/InsertSpecChars.htm for a list). If
you have the language set to French, Word will even substitute guillemets
(« and ») for quotation marks, insert a nonbreaking space after a colon,
etc.

With an international keyboard layout, I believe many of the keys are
similar, except that instead of pressing Ctrl+', e to get é, you press '
followed by e (' and other accent marks are "dead keys" which don't do
anything till you press another key). To get an actual apostrophe, you press
' and then ' again or ' and a space or punctuation (one or the other,
possibly both).

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://word.mvps.org
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

"JeffPSU" wrote in message
...
I'm trying to learn to use the French capabilities in Windows, because
it's
very inconvenient to use "Insert symbol" every time I want an accent. I
have
the language toolbar set up, but don't have a template for the French
keyboard mapping. Thanks.

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

You might see
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/u...turnonuse.mspx or
one of the other articles linked from
http://www.microsoft.com/enable/trai...gkeyboard.aspx

See also http://www.microsoft.com/globaldev/keyboards/kbdfr.htm or
http://library.reed.edu/lang/frenchkeyboard.html (which displays all three
states of the previous) or http://www.forlang.wsu.edu/help/kfrench.asp,
which combines all three.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://word.mvps.org
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

"JeffPSU" wrote in message
...
When I set the language to French, the keyboard letters change. The
English
keyboard letters q,w,a,s,z,x become a;z;q;s;w;x: As you can see, a comma
also becomes a semicolon, and a period becomes a colon. Isn't there just
a
diagram of the remapped keyboard somewhere, or a command to show the
current
keyboard onscreen? Thanks.

"Suzanne S. Barnhill" wrote:

For occasional typing of accented letters in Word (and French doesn't
require much in that regard), you can use Word's built-in keyboard
shortcuts
(see http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/General/InsertSpecChars.htm for a list).
If
you have the language set to French, Word will even substitute
guillemets
(« and ») for quotation marks, insert a nonbreaking space after a colon,
etc.

With an international keyboard layout, I believe many of the keys are
similar, except that instead of pressing Ctrl+', e to get é, you press '
followed by e (' and other accent marks are "dead keys" which don't do
anything till you press another key). To get an actual apostrophe, you
press
' and then ' again or ' and a space or punctuation (one or the other,
possibly both).

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://word.mvps.org
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the
newsgroup so
all may benefit.

"JeffPSU" wrote in message
...
I'm trying to learn to use the French capabilities in Windows, because
it's
very inconvenient to use "Insert symbol" every time I want an accent.
I
have
the language toolbar set up, but don't have a template for the French
keyboard mapping. Thanks.