French characters

[mandc]

How do I get my keyboard to type french accents? I've selected the correct box in the International options in System Preferences but can't figure out how to use them.

Thanks

 

[Daydreamer]

Use option-e or ´ then e for é, and option-c for the c with cedilla (I believe it's called, like a small 5 below the c). For the apostrophes ^, ¨, and `, I can't recall, but if you have those on their own buttons (as I do, on a swedish keyboard, I don't know what apostrophes and extras you've got) you can press it first then the letter to put it on (that method works on windows too, if you use that sometime).

Thankfully, mac special characters are more easily rememberd then the windows equivalents (c-cedilla would be alt-somerandomnumber on the number keypad in windows, while mac recognizes it's a variation of c, and so designates option-c to it).

These are some of them:
option-e = é
option-c = c-cedilla (can't type it on the windows machine I'm sitting at now)
option-o = oe-ligature (o and e together)
option-shift-e = É
option-shift-c = C-cedilla
option-shift-o = OE-ligature

Other than that, I can't help you other than to take a look in the character pallette (go to System options, then International, input menu (? - i think it's called that in English), then add character pallette and select "display input menu in the menu bar", and you should be to open it from the "flag" menu beside the clock.

 

[mandc]

Thanks for your help. If you ever remember how to do the ^ or trema (2 dots above the o like in Noel) I'd be most grateful as I still can't puzzle it out. Thanks again for the time you've saved me!

 

[rglynjones]

PopChar is a useful little app that puts a tiny icon in the corner of the screen, and clicking on this brings up all the characters in the font you're using, which can then be inserted just by clicking on them. No need to remember all those key combinations.

 

[karazelle]

I strongly recommend, when you need to type foreign characters, that you go to System Preferences and choose International, then go to the Keyboard menu tab. Enable the keyboard menu, then enable all keyboard layouts you need, as well as the keyboard and character viewers.

 

[Spawn_Dooley]

To add to Ijuvefreya's tip, a tip I use is to launch Character Pallette, for example while in Safari, use the keyboard shortcut Command + Option + T, then find the character I like and add it to Favourites so I can access it quickly.





If you look at the option available in the first image, you can see that it's possible to make the Character Pallette minimise when you switch apps .... that's handy too