# Program for entering accented letters? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 17, 2020, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/program-for-entering-accented-letters/851981 "2020-04-17T14:33:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![hibernicus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hibernicus/32/2802_2.png) [@hibernicus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hibernicus)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2020, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/program-for-entering-accented-letters/851981/21 "2020-04-17T20:54:10Z")
I can type certain accented characters in Windows 10 using the \ key. áéíóú. It’s limited to acute-accented vowels, so not sufficient for typing French, but it’s handy. You can easily add keyboards in Windows and cycle between them. I can cycle between “English (Ireland)” and “Japanese (Microsoft IME)” keyboards by pressing \-\. A solution for you may be to switch to a French keyboard when you want to type French - the keys won’t all match but I think you could get used to it quickly. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2020, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/program-for-entering-accented-letters/851981/22 "2020-04-17T21:08:19Z")
> [@DPRK](#): > > There is a Character Map utility that does it, but it is hardly suitable for _typing_ text in a language that uses accented characters. For instance, consider something like French where something like one third of the words take at least one accent. It would be nuts to stop to cut and paste the right letter each time. No, it wouldn’t work for that. I’m surprised Word and other word processors don’t make this easy, even auto correcting for accents where possible. An example of what I would want this do is to hold down control, press E, and then repeatedly pressing E would cycle through the variations of E with or without accent. I’m glad I’ve never had to deal with this problem. Remembering all the different kinds of print and match codes is enough trouble. ---
**Author:** ![Ruken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f475e1/32.png) [@Ruken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruken)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2020, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/program-for-entering-accented-letters/851981/23 "2020-04-17T22:10:27Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > I’m surprised Word and other word processors don’t make this easy Word does make it easy: > [@Hari\_Seldon](#): > > For example, if I hit Ctl and released it then typed 'e the result was an acute accented e. > [@Ruken](#): > > These sorts of shortcuts are built into MS Word I’ve been using these shortcuts for over a decade. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2020, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/program-for-entering-accented-letters/851981/24 "2020-04-18T02:41:50Z")
Hari Seldon named the program he was using and it was specifically not Word. Word does have [keyboard shortcuts for accents](https://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000657.htm), but not for all special characters. ---
**Author:** ![Ruken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f475e1/32.png) [@Ruken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruken)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2020, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/program-for-entering-accented-letters/851981/25 "2020-04-18T02:46:13Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Hari Seldon named the program he was using and it was specifically not Word. And that’s why I was responding to the poster who was specifically writing about Word. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2020, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/program-for-entering-accented-letters/851981/26 "2020-04-18T03:04:17Z")
> [@Ruken](#): > > And that’s why I was responding to the poster who was specifically writing about Word. You also made it sound as if Word has shortcuts for the more expansive set of general characters, not just accents. Word does \*not \*make this easy. In any case, I found your post confusing and tried to provide more specific information as well as a link and not just a hand wave. ---
**Author:** ![galen\_ubal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/galen_ubal/32/4440_2.png) [@galen\_ubal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/galen_ubal)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2020, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/program-for-entering-accented-letters/851981/27 "2020-04-18T03:13:00Z")
Assuming you use Win10, there is a (slightly clonky) way of doing this. Right-click on the taskbar, and check “Show touch keyboard button” A little icon that looks like a keyboard should appear amongst the taskbar icons. Then, when your cursor is in an area where you can enter text, bring up the touch keyboard If you longclick on the character, you can get alternate versions of that character For example, I just brought up the touch keyboard; a long click on the ‘M’ gives you ‘M’ or ‘µ’. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2020, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/program-for-entering-accented-letters/851981/28 "2020-04-18T03:25:08Z")
I have the same problem on my Chromebook. Apparently the only way to add accents is switch keyboards. There are no simple shortcut keys. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2020, 5:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/program-for-entering-accented-letters/851981/29 "2020-04-18T05:25:46Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Hari Seldon named the program he was using and it was specifically not Word. > > Word does have [keyboard shortcuts for accents](https://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000657.htm), but not for all special characters. I believe he was using XEDIT, but he was looking for a solution that would work seamlessly in all applications, otherwise it would be easy to suggest “just use Word” or “just use Emacs”. Unfortunately I cannot test all the different programs ATM; WinCompose and FreeCompose did let you edit the key sequences. If those don’t work any more, nor AllChars, there were also UniChars and maybe a couple of others like [this one](https://github.com/MrBertie/compose-keys) ---
**Author:** ![Ruken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f475e1/32.png) [@Ruken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruken)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2020, 12:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/program-for-entering-accented-letters/851981/30 "2020-04-18T12:21:00Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > You also made it sound as if Word has shortcuts for the more expansive set of general characters, not just accents. I did no such thing; any confusion is reader error. The posts I was responding to were about accents. The entire thread is about accented characters. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2020, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/program-for-entering-accented-letters/851981/31 "2020-04-18T17:56:01Z")
Win-compose comes with no documentation whatever. I have installed it but now what? The program I referred to that used to work well, but hasn’t since Win-7, is All-Chars. ---
**Author:** ![Disheavel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e274bd/32.png) [@Disheavel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Disheavel)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2020, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/program-for-entering-accented-letters/851981/32 "2020-04-18T18:28:23Z")
An alternative that I use, Windows has an autocorrect library, which has things like © or ® which turns it into the copyright or trademark symbols. I have entered some things in there like " u umlaut " so when I am typing I will type something like “M u umlaut nchen” and then it autocorrects to München. Also for a and o, etc. It is not ideal, but it allows me to get by without learning any new keystrokes. Apple solved this 15 years ago with logical option+u to get ü, and that’s what I use at home… thus my reluctance to learn another set of keystrokes. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2020, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/program-for-entering-accented-letters/851981/33 "2020-04-18T18:32:40Z")
> [@Steven\_Maven](#): > > This technique also works on my iPhone 8, including the inverted punctuation marks “¡” and “¿” in Spanish. I know the OP is not using a Mac, but this works with Macs, too. Just hold down the letter you want and you’ll get a menu of alternate versions with various accents/diacritics or variations of it. ---
**Author:** ![RioRico](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f04885/32.png) [@RioRico](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RioRico)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2020, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/program-for-entering-accented-letters/851981/34 "2020-04-18T19:45:33Z")
> [@Hari\_Seldon](#): > > Win-compose comes with no documentation whatever. I have installed it but now what? My d/l installed three programs: WinCompose, WinCompose Settings, and WinCompose Sequences. The latter eventually displayed impossible keystrokes. I am uninstalling now. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2020, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/program-for-entering-accented-letters/851981/35 "2020-04-18T20:08:16Z")
Succès. I finally installed WinCompose and nothing happened. Then I realized I had to run it first. AllChars installed automatically. Okay, now my next question is how to add it to the Start list. None of the instructions I could find online worked. I created a shortcut which is now sitting on my desktop, but could not drag it either to the Task Manager startup window or to the startup window in Settings–\>Apps–\>Startup which seem to be the two methods recommended online. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/program-for-entering-accented-letters/851981.md?page=1)