International Accent Marks & Special Characters

Changing  or adding  Keyboards

Microsoft Windows 95, 98, 2000 offer different International keyboards and layouts for Western European languages (including French and Spanish). The installation of these keyboards requires the Windows  CD-ROM.  To install one of these keyboards: 

1) Choose Start (in the lower left corner of the screen), then Settings, then Control Panel, and then Keyboard. 
2) Select the Language tab. 
3) Add  a language and give it properties - one of which is the International English keyboard (see below). 
4) Use Apply to finish the process.  

If you install more than one language, you can use  Alt + Shift to rotate through them. Checking the "Enable Indicator On Taskbar" puts the default language on the taskbar. Click the taskbar language icon to switch to another language.

MY RECOMMENDATION:

The International English (IE) keyboard

Can be installed in Windows 95/98/2000 as directed above. The beauty of this keyboard is that it maintains the familiar "QWERTY" layout. To install the International English keyboard:

1) Choose Start (in the lower left corner of the screen), then Settings, then Control Panel, and then Keyboard.
2) Select the Language tab.  
3) Select English
4) Click on Properties 
5) Change to United States-International.

NOTE:  French Users may wish to consider adding the French language and using the Canadian-Multilingual keyboard.

There are many other international characters not included in this table.

N.B.  Each punctuation key (  `  '  "  ~  ^) must be followed by the space bar if it is actually intended. However, the  International English keyboard will allow the use of the apostrophe in a contraction or possessive form without the space bar.

Other methods:

1.    MS Word 

Hold down the Control (Ctrl) key and then type the next key. Release both keys and type in the letter to be modified to the international.

2.    Numeric Keypad Method: (very confusing and time consuming. Not recommended)

This list of numeric codes can be found with the Character Map utility that comes with the operating system. From the Start menu, select Programs, then Accessories, System Tools, then Character Map. If it's not there, use the Start menu to select "Run..." and type in "charmap" (without the quotes) to launch the accessory.