There are a number of words in the English language that should be written with an accent (mostly those with an European basis). Sure, we can ‘get away’ with writing them without, but it’s really easy to add these accented characters in.
A range of accents
There are a few ‘standard’ accents that may be used.
The most common accents are the acute (é), grave (è), circumflex (â, î or ô), tilde (ñ), umlaut and dieresis (ü or ï – the same symbol is used for two different purposes), and cedilla (ç). Accent marks (also referred to as diacritics or diacriticals) usually appear above a character. Reference from Fonts.com
Popular Accents
Depending on which accent you need to use there are two options:
For the most popular accented characters you can type them in with your keyboard.
All you need to do is use the ALT GR key.
That’s the ALT key on the right side of the space bar. You know, the one that doesn’t work with the other shortcuts.
If you’re curious – the Gr standards for Graphics. So it’s really Alternative Graphics (makes sense now 😊).
For the accented characters, hold down Alt Gr and press the letter – it mostly works with vowels (a, e, i , o and u).
Give it a go…
- á
- é
- í
- ó
- ú
What about the other accents?
For all of the other options, you need the other option:
Character Code
Every character (not just letters and number) has a code number assigned to it. Once you know the code you can use that as a shortcut key to ‘type’ it in.
For those characters that you use a lot, it can be faster.
If you want to sound techy, then it’s actually called an ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange) Code.
If you want to find the codes take a look at this external list – Extended Ascii Table
Insert Symbol
If that all seems a bit technical, then there is an easier way in MS Word (and other Microsoft programs).
Simply use the Insert Symbol option.
Note: This will also give you the ASCII code and the shortcut key to use.
From the Insert tab, choose Symbol (at the far right of the tab), then More Symbols…
There are a lot of characters/symbols to choose from.
First choose the Font to be used from the drop-down list.
They scroll through the options until you find what you want.
Note: It’s generally easier to start with (normal text)…
Next Steps
Want some more tips and tricks around popular programs? Take a look at my YouTube Channel – Michelle Kaye
Or why not Book a Call with me to chat how I can help you save time and frustration with your everyday programs.
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