Re: Using the Canadian French Keyboard for French Accents [was Re: Typing German accents with German keyboard or British (or U.S.)keyboard]

[Jean-Claude Provost]

Hi Esther,

mind you, the Canadian French keyboard on the Mac doesn't quite float  
my boat yet.  In Windows, there are 2 (or maybe 3) differentversions  
of those.  The one I want is the one which deals with all accents in  
the same way  the circumflex is treated.  That is, the apostrophe key  
(currently the e grave), is only used for the actual grave accent,  
then you type the lettre to which you want the accent to be attributed  
to.  Thus, e grave would be written as follows: the apostrophe key,  
then the e key.  The same would then apply for a grave, u grave, etc.   
I think this is more logical and, might I say, sexier that way (smile).

I looked at the help content on that subject but could not find where  
the actual keyboard definitions are.  I did indeed find some example  
of writing a whole new keyboard but, I absolutely don't intend to re- 
invent the wheel.  If I could only get my hands on the Canadian French  
keyboard definition file, maybe I could tweak it to my liking and, who  
knows to other's as well.

Take care,

Cheers from Varennes, Qc Canada

On 29-Mar-08, at 3:31 PM, Esther wrote:
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