Hi Jean-Claude, I said: >> E: However, I prefer to use my standard keyboard and enter French >> accents this way.
>> >> On the French keyboard letters "a" and "q" are switched and the >> "w" and "z" keys are switched. I have a hard time typing at speed >> with the "a" key in a different position. You wrote: JC: >if you don't want to have your letters all weirded out (smile), use >the Canadian French keyboard. This way, your A and Z keys are going >to be where you expect them. I'm not particularly in love with AZERTY >keyboards either... > Thank you, thank you, thank you! A great alternative. This is very nice. All of the text letters and numbers are in the same place as for the U.S. (and I think, British and Canadian) keyboards. Accented letters e (acute accent), e (grave accent), a (grave accent), c (with cedilla), and u (grave accent) have dedicated keys. There is an accent key for adding the circumflex accent to any letter (just to the right of p), so you only need to press and release one key (instead of the two keys Option+i) before typing the letter you want accented. When shifted, this key becomes the key for adding a diaeresis (umlaut) accent (with one key press instead of the two keys Option+u). When pressed in combination with the Option key, this key becomes the key for adding a grave accent (that VO simply calls "accent"). So all such accent additions are associated with one key (and combinations like Option+u, Option+i, and Option+accent either aren't defined or are bound to other key definitions). Unlike the case for the French keyboard, the accented letter keys (except for u with grave accent) are located on the main typing rows for letters (to the right of the p, l, and m keys), which makes them easier for me to type. (The same accented e, c, and a keys on the French keyboard are located on the top row occupied by numbers on the U.S. keyboard; you use shift to get the numbers). The u with grave accent key is at the top left -- just to the left of the number 1, and below the escape key. So, ] \ ' / ` map to ç à è é ù and the [ key becomes the accent key for circumflex, diaeresis (or umlaut), and grave accents applied to the next entered letter depending on whether it is pressed by itself, or in combination with Shift or Option keys. Punctuation keys for comma, period, colon, and semi-colon are in the same place as for the U.S. (etc.) keyboards -- I don't have to remember different locations for all of these keys, nor do I have to press the shift key in order to type a period as on a French keyboard. The remaining displaced punctuation marks I might want to access are the question mark -- now moved to Shift+6, displacing the caret, apostrophe and quotation mark -- these are typed by using Shift with the comma and period keys on the bottom row, and the brackets and braces -- Option+number keys 7,8,9, and 0 for left brace, right brace, left bracket and right bracket. Here's the detailed summary of key differences (stop here if not interested: Keys to the right of p (top row of letters) ^ circumflex (accent key) was left bracket on U.S. keyboard ¨ diaeresis (or umlaut) accent key was Shift+left bracket ` (grave) accent key was Option+left bracket (all these combinations accent the next letter pressed; if you press space bar only the accent appears) ç c with cedilla was right bracket Ç Capital letter c with cedilla was Shift+right bracket ~ tilde was Option+right bracket à a with grave accent is backslash on U.S. keyboard À Capital letter A with grave accent was Shift+backslash ` (grave) accent was Option+backslash Keys to the right of l (middle row of letters) ; semi-colon same as before : colon same as before Shift+semi-colon ° degree sign was Option+semi-colon on U.S. keyboard è e with grave accent was apostrophe on U.S. keyboard È Capital letter e with grave accent was Shift+apostrophe \ backslash was Option+apostrophe Keys to the right of m (bottom row of letters) , comma same as before ' apostrophe was Shift+comma on U.S. keyboard < less than was Option+comma . period same as before " quotation mark was Shift+comma on U.S. keyboard > greater than was Option+comma é e with acute accent was slash on U.S. keyboard É Capital letter e with acute accent wash Shift+slash / slash was Option+slash Key to left of 1 and below escape key (row of numbers) ù u with grave accent was accent on U.S. keyboard Ù Capital letter u with grave accent was Shift+accent \ backslash was Option+accent Cheers, Esther
