Typing Diacritics (Accents, Cedillas,Umlauts etc)

     I occasionally want to type an accent or special character, but can never remember specifically how.  I can never find a guide that pertains to all relevant diacritics,  so I wrote my own.  Here is my ultimate guide.

     To type one of the characters listed below on a Windows PC, Hold the ALT button down while typing the corresponding ANSI 4 digit number on the keypad.  When you release the ALT button, the character will appear.  For instance, if you hold the ALT button, type 0224 and then release ALT, a lower case "à" will appear.

Windows Laptop

     On most laptops without a separate keypad, there's a special way to activate the numbers keypad.  If you look at the keys just to the right of the middle, you will see that the keys M J K L U I O 7 8 9, are also labeled 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9.  To activate the Numbers Pad,  press the Function Key,(mine is labeled Fn, in the lower left corner of the keyboard, yours may be different), and press the Numlk or Numlock button.  (Mine is located at F 11)  Then you can type numbers on that internal keypad.  Just remember to repeat the Fn + NUMLOCK buttons when you want to return to regular typing again.

     The chart below has most (but not all) of the characters you will need for languages written with a Roman type alphabet, in roughly alphabetic order.  As I discover the missing ones, I'll add them to the list.  I have this list bookmarked so I can quickly refer to it when the need arises.

Letter          Lower Case     Upper Case

à           Alt+     0224                0192

á                         0225                0193

â                         0226                0194

ã                         0227                0195

ä                         0228                0196

å                         0229                0197

æ                        0230                0198

ç                         0231                0199

è                         0232                0200

é                         0233                0201

ê                         0234                0202

ë                         0235                0203

ì                          0236                0204

í                          0237                0205

î                          0238                0206

ï                          0239                0207

ð                         0240                0208

ñ                         0241                0209

ò                         0242                0210

ó                         0243                0211

ô                         0244                0212

õ                         0245                0213

ö                         0246                0214

÷   ×                    0247                0215 

ø                         0248                0216

š                          0154               0138 

ß                         0223

ù                         0249                0217

ú                         0250                0218

û                         0251                0219

ü                         0252                0220

ý                         0253                0221

ÿ                         0255                0159

ž                         0158                0142

Other Symbols, Punctuation Marks



¿     ¡     ¢             0191       0161       0162

¼    ½    ¾           0189        0190       0191

„            “            0132        0147  German quotation marks

 

     There you have it!  Happy diacritical typing!