How do you put an accent (`) over a letter when typing?

I have no idea.

for windows

start menu - program - accessories - character map
select, copy and then paste

http://www.les.aston.ac.uk/chars.html

http://www.colby.edu/lang.tech/netpresent/accents.html

And for Macs:

Apple Menu> Key Caps

Press Shift, Option, and Shift+Option to see what characters are available to you. The charaters available to you vary with each font; you can use the Font menu to select and view another font’s characters.

To use the character, type the correspoding key combo, or click on it with your mouse. Select, copy, paste.

If you use special characters a lot, you can key them in with Unicode.

Make sure the NUM LOCK is on. Use the number keys at the right-hand end of your keyboard. The number keys at the top won’t work for this. Hold down ALT and type the four-digit code for the character you want. For example, for é type ALT 0233.

How do you know the code for each character? Simple. Select the character you want from Windows Character Map, and the number will display in the bottom right hand corner. If you look it up and use it enough times, you’ll have it memorized. That way you won’t have to keep opening Character Map and copying out of it. After you’ve memorized the codes. If you use special characters all the time, you may find this method more convenient.

Oh yeah, another handy reference for the Unicode numbers is to print out a web page with the codes and hang it up next to your computer.

Also, in Windows, if you use the accents a lot, there is the “Universal(or international)” keyboard setting (available on your Win CD). It takes a bit of getting used to, such as hitting space between apostrophes and vowels (such as '[space]e ) otherwise you get an e with an accent. It’s the keyboard setting I use, and once you know what it takes, you can do any letter with an accent, and still have the question mark next to the shift button rather than shift-6, which is the setting for French keyboards.

Of course, I say this while typing in Linux…I hope they get an international keyboard, or I’ll have to take the time to create my own!

On an iMac, you don’t have to go to key caps or do any cutting and pasting. You can put them in as you go along.

Certain keys are also accent keys. The “e” key, for example, is also the key for the accent aigu: ´ . If you want to put the acute accent on a letter, hold down the “option” key, press the “e” key, release both, then press whatever letter you want to have the accent, and voilà - it’s there! (except voilà uses the grave, of course :slight_smile: )

Accent grave (`) is the key at the extreme upper left, with the tilde and reverse apostrophe.

The trema (¨) is the “u” key.

The circonflexe (ˆ) is the “i” key.

The cidelle (ç) is option-“c” key.

Once you memorise the locations, you can type them pretty quickly.

If it’s a common word from a foreign language, such as fiancee, the spellchecker will correct it for you, complete with the accent.