Teaching and Learning with Technology

Computing With Accents and Foreign Scripts

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LOCATION: By Language : French

French

Almost all applications support French accents. Guidelines for typing and using accents are given below.  lf you need to refer to additional characters, look under the Accents tab.

This Page

  1. Accent Codes
    1. Windows Alt Codes
    2. Windows International Keyboard
    3. Macintosh Accent Codes
  2. French or International Keyboards (New Page)
  3. HTML Accent Codes
    1. Language Codes: fr , fr-FR (Parisian French/France), fr-CA (Canadian French), fr-BE (Belgian French),
    2. Selected Minority Languages: co (Corsican), fp (Franco-Provençal), oc (Occitan), ca (Catalan), eu (Basque), br (Breton), wa (Walloon)
  4. Linux Links
  5. Minority Languages of France: See also the pages for
    1. Occitan and Franco-Provençal
    2. Catalan
    3. Breton
    4. Basque (on Spanish)
    5. Walloon (Belgium)

Windows Alt Codes

In Windows, combinations of the ALT key plus a numeric code can be used to type a non-English character (accented letter or punctuation symbol) in any Windows application. More detailed instructions about typing accents with ALT keys are available.  Additional options for entering accents in Windows are also listed in the Accents section of this Web site.

Capital Vowels
Vwl ALT Code
À ALT+0192
 ALT+0194
Ä ALT+0196
È ALT+0200
É ALT+0201
Ê ALT+0202
Ë ALT+0203
Î ALT+0206
Ï ALT+0207
Ô ALT+0212
ΠALT+0140
Ù ALT+0217
Û ALT+0219
Ü ALT+0220
Ÿ ALT+0159
Lower Vowels
Vwl ALT Code
à ALT+0224
â ALT+0226
ä ALT+0228
è ALT+0232
é ALT+0233
ê ALT+0234
ë ALT+0235
î ALT+0238
ï ALT+0239
ô ALT+0244
œ ALT+0156
ù ALT+0249
û ALT+0251
ü ALT+0252
ÿ ALT+0255
Consonants, Punctuation
Sym ALT Code
Ç ALT+0199 (caps)
ç ALT+0231 (lower)
« ALT+0171 (Left Angle Quote)
» ALT+0187 (Right Angle Quote)
€ ALT+0128
 

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Windows International Keyboard Codes

In order to use these codes you must activate the international keyboard. Instructions are listed in the Keyboards section of this Web site.

Accented Vowels

This list is organized by Accent type. The sample shows a letter with that accent, and the Notes present any special comments about using that accent.

For the Template, the symbol "V" means type any vowel.

Windows International Keyboard Vowel Codes
ACCENT SAMPLE TEMPLATE NOTES
Acute é É ', V ' = apostrophe key
Circumflex â Â SHIFT+^, V  
Grave à À `, V  
Umlaut ë Ë ", V " = quote key

Example 1: To type lower case ó - Type the apostrophe key ('), then O.  For capital Ó, type the apostrophe, then capital O.

Consonants and Puncutation

For these codes, you must make sure you use the Alt key on the right side of the keyboard.
Note: that there is no shortcut for the joined O-E.

International Keyboard Codes for Consonants, Punctuation
Sym Code
Ç Shift+RightAlt + <
ç RightAlt + <
« RightAlt+[
» RightAlt+]
€ Control+RightAlt+5

Windows French Keyboard

If you wish to simulate a non U.S. keyboard, follow the instructions for Activating Keyboard Locales to activate and switch Microsoft keyboards.

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Macintosh Accent Codes

Accented Vowels

For the Template, the symbol "V" means any vowel. The format is to hold the first two keys down simultaneously, release, then type the vowel you wish to be accented.
Note: You should use the French Keyboard if you need to type accents on the letter y.

Mac Option Codes for Vowels
ACCENT SAMPLE TEMPLATE
Acute á Á Option+E, V
Circumflex â Â Option+I, V
Grave à À Option+`, V
Umlaut ë Ë Option+U, V

Example 1: To input the lower case ó, hold down the Option key, then the E key. Release both keys then type lowercase o.
Example 2: To input the capital Ó, hold down the Option key, then the E key. Release all both keys then type capital O.

 

Other Characters

Consonant/Punctuation
Sym Mac Option Code
ç Option+C
Ç Shift+Option+C
« Option+\
» Shift+Option+\
€ Shift+Option+2
(not on older fonts)

Accented Y in OS X

If you are working with a Unicode aware application such as Microsoft Office 2004, Text Edit (free with OS X ), Dreamweaver or Netscape 7 Composer /Mozilla Composer you can activate the Extended Roman keyboard (10.2) or the U.S. Extended keyboard (10.3) and use the normal accent codes.

Example: For Ý, type Option+E, then capital Y.

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HTML Accent Codes

French Encoding and Language Tags

These are the codes which allow browsers and screen readers to process data as the appropriate language. All letters in codes are lower case.

See Using Encoding and Language Codes for more information on the meaning and implementation of these codes.

HTML Entity Codes

Use these codes to input accented letters in HTML. For instance, if you want to type île you would type &icirc;le.

The numbers in parentheses are the numeric codes assigned in Unicode encoding. For instance, because î is number 238, &#238;le can also be used to input île. These numbers are also used with the Windows Alt codes listed above.

Capital Vowels
Vwl Entity Code
À &Agrave;(192)
 &Acirc; (194)
Ä &Auml; (196)
È &Egrave; (200)
É &Eacute; (201)
Ê &Ecirc; (202)
Ë &Euml; (203)
Î &Icirc; (206)
Ï &Iuml; (207)
Ô &Ocirc; (212)
Π&OElig; (140)
Ù &Ugrave; (217)
Û &Ucirc; (219)
Ü &Uuml; (220)
Ÿ &Yuml; (159)
Lower Vowels
Vwl Entity Code
à &agrave; (224)
â &acirc; (226)
ä &auml; (228)
è &egrave; (232)
é &eacute; (233)
ê &ecirc; (234)
ë &euml; (235)
î &icirc; (238)
ï &iuml; (239)
ô &ocirc; (244)
œ &oelig; (156)
ù &ugrave; (250)
û &ucirc; (251)
ü &uuml; (252)
ÿ &yuml; (255)
Cons/Symbols
Sym Entity Code
Ç &Ccedil; (199)
ç &ccedil; (231)
« &laquo; (171)
» &raquo; (187)
‹ &lsaquo;
› &rsaquo;
€ &euro;
 

Note: The codes &oelig;, &OElig;, &Yuml; have been added for œ, Œ and Ÿ, but do not work in earlier browsers such as Netscape 4.7. Older browsers may also not suport single angle codes (&lsaquo; / &rsaquo; for ‹ and ›).

Using Encoding and Language Codes

Computers process text by assuming a certain encoding or a system of matching electronic data with visual text characters. Whenever you develop a Web site you need to make sure the proper encoding is specified in the header tags; otherwise the browser may default to U.S. settings and not display the text properly.

To declare an encoding, insert or inspect the following meta-tag at the top of your HTML file, then replace "???" with one of the encoding codes listed above.

<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=??? ">
...
<head>

Language tags are also suggested so that search engines and screen readers parse the language of a page. These are meta data tags which indicate the page of a language, not devices to trigger translation. Visit the Language Tag page to view information on where to insert it.

 

Links

Linux/Unix

 

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Last Modified: Tuesday, 04-Jun-2013 12:39:42 EDT