Foreign language character shortcuts

[apearson]

Version: 2008
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger)
Processor: intel

I just downloaded 2008 (because I had to). In the help menu for 2004, it told you how to insert foreign language characters...for example, putting accents over an e, putting the o and e together, etc. I have searched the new help menu and I can't find these short cuts anywhere! I really need them when I'm writing papers that include French words. I don't want to change the language of the entire document. Can anyone point me in the right direction?

 

[Beth Rosengard]

I don't know where you found this topic in the Word 2004 Help because I just
looked for it and came up empty. If you have the exact name of the Help
topic, I'll see if I can locate it. However ...

You can insert all these characters by using the OS X Character Palette (and
without having to change the document language). Personally, I prefer the
third-party app called PopChar but you don't really need it.

Go to System Prefs> International> Input Menu. Check the option to "Show
input menu in menu bar" (at the bottom). That will put an American (or
whatever your chosen language is) flag in your menu bar. Select "Show
Character Palette" from the drop down and then select Accented Latin at the
left.

HTH

--
***Please always reply to the newsgroup!***

Beth Rosengard
Mac MVP

Mac Word FAQ: <http://word.mvps.org/Mac/WordMacHome.html>
My Site: <http://www.bethrosengard.com>

 

[CyberTaz]

I copied this from Word 2004's Help - it comes up a mess here but I'm sure
you can decipher it

Insert an international character by using a shortcut key
To produce Press
à, è, ì, ò, ù
À, È, Ì, Ò, Ù OPTION+` (ACCENT GRAVE),
the letter
á, é, í, ó
Ã, É, Ã, Ó, Ú OPTION+e, the letter
â, ê, î, ô, û
Â, Ê, Î, Ô, Û OPTION+i, the letter
ã, ñ, õ
Ã, Ñ, Õ OPTION+n, the letter
ä, ë, ï, ö, ü, ÿ
Ä, Ë, Ã, Ö, Ãœ, Ÿ OPTION+u, the letter
Ã¥, Ã… OPTION+a or OPTION+SHIFT+a
æ, Æ OPTION+' (single quotation mark) or
OPTION+SHIFT+' (single quotation mark)
Å“, Å’ OPTION+q or OPTION+SHIFT+q
ç, Ç OPTION+c or OPTION+SHIFT+c
ø, Ø OPTION+o or OPTION+SHIFT+o
¿ OPTION+SHIFT+?
¡ OPTION+1
ß OPTION+s


HTH |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

 

[CyberTaz]

Hi Beth -

The international character stuff is there (in 2004's Help) but it's buried
so deep most people would never find it - but then again you ain't most
people;-) if you do a search for 'shortcuts' you have to scroll nearly to
the bottom of a long list to get to the "Insert an international
character..." topic. OTOH, if you're clever enough to search for
'international' it's the first topic listed.

I'll send up a flare to have the *utter lack* of the same information
brought to the attention of the team.

Regards |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

 

[apearson]

Thank you both so much! I had it copy and pasted from the Word 2004 into stickies, but when my hard drive went down last week, I lost the sticky note. (crash is the reason I had to get 2008--my school upgraded and doesn't offer 2004 anymore). I will check out the Character Palette, too. Beth--In 2004 if you search for international characters it comes up. When you are working on a paper and don't have much time, it's really frustrating trying to figure out how to get an accent over a letter!

 

[Beth Rosengard]

I musta been momentarily hit with a stupid stick. I never used the search
word "international" <duh> .

Beth

 

[MC]

My solution to this is to use a Microsoft French Canadian keyboard. The
layout is almost identical to a regular QWERTY kb -- but the accent keys
are WYSIWYG actual keys. You select the appropriate keyboard in the Sys
Prefs International Input pane.

There are enough words in English that have accents for it to be the
standard English kb. Another advantage: It works across all apps, not
just Office.

If you are interested in getting one but don't live in Canada, Google
"Bureau en Gros" or "Office Depot" in Toronto or Montreal (It's actually
Staples). I guess you could also find one on eBay.

The French kb from France is completely different, by the way. Nothing
is where you think it's going to be!

 

[Corentin Cras-Méneur]

I have searched the new help menu and I can't find these short cuts
anywhere!

In the International Prefpane in the System, you need to go to Input
Menu and make sure you have the Show input menu checkbox checked.
Then in the menu itself, you should be able to see "Show keyboard
viewer".


Wit this applciation, you can play around with your keyboard to
visualize what shortcuts can let you type the characters you need. Press
the Alt and shift keys (separately or together) to see how they affect
your keys.


Corentin

 

[constable]

All this is interesting, but (except for CyberTaz's pasting from Word 2004, which I can't read) none of it answers the question for me, especially because I can't find 'show keyboard viewer' and because using a French Canadian keyboard seems fine until I need a German character.

I'd like not to create my own codes to do accents (which I can't do anyway if I can't find them), but use MS's codes.

Should I go back to Word 2004?

 

[John McGhie]

Let me take a wild guess here: You don't actually have the keyboards
enabled, because you're working in American? I had this same issue with an
American friend's Mac recently: I couldn't understand why the Keyboard
viewer was not available!

Go to your Mac Help and read this topic: "About Keyboard Viewer"

That will tell you how to reveal it.

There may be reasons to go back to Word 2004, but this is not one of them.
If you need VBA Automation, then yes. But if all you need is foreign
characters, then "No", Word 2008 has a wider range of characters than 2004.

Provided, of course, that you installed all the fonts that came with it:
that's where the new characters are!

Cheers

All this is interesting, but (except for CyberTaz's pasting from Word 2004,
which I can't read) none of it answers the question for me, especially because
I can't find 'show keyboard viewer' and because using a French Canadian
keyboard seems fine until I need a German character.

I'd like not to create my own codes to do accents (which I can't do anyway if
I can't find them), but use MS's codes.

Should I go back to Word 2004?

--

Don't wait for your answer, click here: http://www.word.mvps.org/

Please reply in the group. Please do NOT email me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie, Microsoft MVP, Word and Word:Mac
Nhulunbuy, NT, Australia. mailto:[email protected]