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tenlittlebullets) wrote2008-02-23 03:08 pm
tenlittlebullets) wrote2008-02-23 03:08 pm
FYI: Typing accented characters.
When I type up stuff in French, I get a lot of comments that it must have been a pain in the ass to transcribe all that with the accents. Typing accents with alt codes is indeed a pain in the ass, but I spare myself the trouble by setting my keyboard to the US international layout by default. It's identical to the standard US keyboard except for certain punctuation marks that are made into accent markers: type ' followed by e and it produces é, ^ followed by a makes â, etc. If you need to type "c'est" instead of "cést," you just hit spacebar after the apostrophe.
You can change it in Windows under Control Panel > Regional and Language Options, Languages tab, Details button. In addition to letting me type up long sections of French without too much trouble, this thing makes French/Spanish/German/Italian homework so much freaking easier because you don't have to handwrite it or keep reaching for Alt codes.
It can do the following accents just with punctuation keys: á ('), à, (`), ä ("), â (^), ã (~), ç ('). It also has a whole bunch of alt codes that are a lot easier to remember than the numerical ones: alt+[ is «, alt+t is þ, alt+s is ß, alt+d is ð, alt+w (for some reason) is å, alt+/ is ¿, alt+l is ø. (These only work with the right alt key; the left one is for whatever the alt commands are in the program you're using.)
Here's a fuller description of how it works. It takes a tiny bit of getting used to, but not nearly as much as alt codes or switching to a German keyboard every time you need an umlaut.
You can change it in Windows under Control Panel > Regional and Language Options, Languages tab, Details button. In addition to letting me type up long sections of French without too much trouble, this thing makes French/Spanish/German/Italian homework so much freaking easier because you don't have to handwrite it or keep reaching for Alt codes.
It can do the following accents just with punctuation keys: á ('), à, (`), ä ("), â (^), ã (~), ç ('). It also has a whole bunch of alt codes that are a lot easier to remember than the numerical ones: alt+[ is «, alt+t is þ, alt+s is ß, alt+d is ð, alt+w (for some reason) is å, alt+/ is ¿, alt+l is ø. (These only work with the right alt key; the left one is for whatever the alt commands are in the program you're using.)
Here's a fuller description of how it works. It takes a tiny bit of getting used to, but not nearly as much as alt codes or switching to a German keyboard every time you need an umlaut.