Typing Accents, Diacritics and other Characters

Using Languages on your Laptop

• French, Spanish, Italian and German
• Arabic
• Chinese and Japanese
• Russian
  
  

For French, Spanish, Italian and German

In many languages, you may need to type diacritical marks (accents) or special characters to spell a word correctly. Sometimes, a missing accent can completely change the meaning of a word - so it is important to ensure the papers you type in world languages have all the accents and other special characters you need.
 
Every character has a numeric code assigned to it. You can use these codes to type accented characters. For example to type " à " , hold down the ALT key, and then type the numbers 0224. A list of ASCII codes is found in the LRC, or by visiting this website.
 
On your laptop, in order to make this work, you'll need to have the NUM LOCK enabled, and use the numeric keypad.
 
In the LRC, you can also use the International Keyboard. The International Keyboard allows you to type accented characters by using keystrokes in sequence. For example, to type " é ", you press the apostrophe key, followed by the letter e. You may find the International Keyboard easier when you are using your laptop.
 
Installation for the International Keyboard
Click Start, Settings, Control Panel, Regional and Language Options. then click the Language(s) tab. Click Details button, then Add. Select English (United States), then select United States-International keyboard. Click OK to close the dialog box. Now, in the upper part of the "Text Services and Input Languages" window, open the drop-down menu called Default Input Language and choose English (United States) - United States-International.
 
Windows Vista: Click Start, then Control Panel, then Clock, Language and Region, then Change Keyboards or other input methods. In the new window, click on the Change Keyboards button. This opens a new window called "Text Services and Input Languages". Click the Add button. Scroll & check the English (United States) - United States-International keyboard. Click OK. Finally, in the upper part of the "Text Services and Input Languages" window, open the drop-down menu called Default Input Language and choose English (United States) - United States-International as your default for all input fields.
 
Once installed, the international keyboard provides many intuitive shortcuts for common accents, eliminating the need to memorize or look up ASCII codes.
 

 

Arabic

Install the Arabic keyboard

1. Click on "Start" button and then select "Control Panel".
2. Under "Clock, Language, and Region" area select "Change keyboards or other input methods" link. Note: If you are in the Control Panel "Classic View" then double-click on "Regional and Language Options" icon and click on the tab "keyboard and languages".
3. Click on the "Change keyboards…" button then click on "Add…" button.
4. Expand "Arabic (your Country)" tree then expand "Keyboard" tree from the list.
5. Make a check mark beside the required keyboard(s).
   Note: You can preview any keyboard before adding it by highlighting its name then click on "Preview…" button.
6. Click "OK" to add the selected keyboards to the "Installed Services".
7. Click "OK" to confirm and apply your new language settings.
   
   

Once installed, change to the Arabic keyboard by clicking the " EN" icon in the lower right side of your computer screen.
 

 

Chinese and Japanese:

To install support for typing in Chinese and Japanese on Windows Vista, follow these steps:

1. Click on "Start" button and then select "Control Panel".
2. Under "Clock, Language, and Region" area select "Change keyboards or other input methods" link. Note: If you are in the Control Panel "Classic View" then double-click on "Regional and Language Options" icon and click on the tab "keyboard and languages".
3. Click on the "Change keyboards…" button then click on "Add…" button.
4. Expand the language (Chinese or Japanese) tree then expand "Keyboard" tree from the list.
5. Make a check mark beside the required keyboard(s).
   Note: You can preview any keyboard before adding it by highlighting its name then click on "Preview…" button.
6. Click "OK" to add the selected keyboards to the "Installed Services".
7. Click "OK" to confirm and apply your new language settings.
   
   

Once installed, change to the Chinese or Japanese keyboard by clicking the "EN" icon in the lower right side of your computer screen.

Russian

Professor Kuchta recommends you install a homophonic/transliterated keyboard.

1. Click on this link to download the homophonic Russian keyboard .zip file from the following address:
   http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/PaulGor/kbdru_y.zip
2. When prompted, choose to Save the .zip file.  Choose to save in a place you will remember, such as My Documents (Windows XP) or Documents (Windows Vista).
3. Open folder where you saved the kdbru_y.zip file. Right-click the kdbru_y.zip file, and choose Extract All...
4. In the Extraction Wizard, click Next. Accept the default location, then click Next, then Finish.  A window will open with the extracted files.
5. In the extracted folder, double-click Setup.exe.  The setup routine will run. (Note: you may be prompted to allow this setup process to run.)
   
   

 Your homophonic Russian keyboard is now installed.
 
To test it out

1. Open Microsoft Word.
2. In the Language Bar (which is on your task bar, near your clock at the bottom of your screen) you'll see the letters EN, for English.  Click the EN, and you will see a list of keyboards.  Choose RU to change the keyboard to Russian.
3. Type a few letters to verify you are typing in Russian.