WD97: How to Enter Accented Characters from the Keyboard

ID: Q196842

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Word 97 for Windows

SUMMARY

Word provides a way to enter characters that take an accent grave, apostrophe, caret, colon, or tilde directly from the keyboard.

For example, you can use the keyboard to type an accented "a" (an "a" with an apostrophe above it).

MORE INFORMATION

To create these combinations on screen, you can use the following symbols:

   accent acute (')
   accent grave (`)
   tilde (~)
   caret (^)
   colon (:)

The letters they can be placed above are:

   A, a, E, e, I, i, O, o, U, u, Y, y

To insert these symbols, follow these steps:

1. While holding the CTRL key, type the character that will appear above

   the letter.

   NOTE: To add the tilde, colon or the caret character, press CTRL+SHIFT
   and then type the character that will appear above the letter.

   The status bar shows "CTRL+<key>" where <key> is the key you pressed,
   but nothing appears on the screen.

2. Type the desired letter.

   The new combination appears in the document.

If you type a legitimate symbol but type an ineligible letter, you'll hear a beep. If you press CTRL plus a symbol that is invalid, you'll see just the character and no symbol above it.

For more information about this topic, click the Help button on the Standard toolbar and search on "accent" (without the quotation marks). Select "Insert symbols or special characters" topic and then click "Type international characters."

Additional query words: foreign accented accents accent marks combination language docerr diacritical

Keywords          : kbualink97 kbdta winword word97 
Version           : WINDOWS:97
Platform          : WINDOWS
Issue type        : kbhowto

Last Reviewed: February 12, 1999