There are different ways to type Franch accents into documents.
ASCII Alt Key Method:
The following is a compilation of ASCII code numbers that allow one to type in accented French letters. Only the commonly found accented letters are listed in this text.
To start off, push the NumLock button on the keypad if your keyboard is usually set so that the keypad functions of Insert, Delete, Page Up, Page Down, Home and End are the ones your keypad is set to. This will change your keypad so that the keys are now numbers. Usually, when you restart your computer, it sets the keys to the functions as opposed to the numbers.
To get an accented letter, press and hold the Alt key at the bottom of the keyboard, and type in the three digit number corresponding to the accented letter. Use only the right-most keypad numbers, not the numbers at the top row of the keyboard.
If typing the numbers does not work and you get a "?" or nothing, then push the NumLock button on the keypad and then try again.
Result Alt Key And
à ......... 133
ç .......... 135
é .......... 130
è .......... 138
ê .......... 136
Remember, press Alt and the code at the same time to get the accented letter. You also have to release the Alt key before it shows up on the screen.
These are most of the only ones you will ever need in genealogy, and you may want to memorize them or write them on a post-it note.
Since a laptop doesn’t have a keypad and the letters on the keyboard serve as the keypad, this can be a bit of a nightmare to hit the right key since the keypad function of the letter is tiny and doesn’t really stand out at all.
One of the things I do when I need to type in a lot of special accented characters is store a list of them in a file. When I need it, I simply open that file when I need it, and either copy and paste the characters in and out of the file, or simply look at the file with its listed code and type it in, in order to not to have to memorize the Alt codes. The file can be stored with your family tree computer files.
If you need to use the keypad as function keys, just toggle the Numlock key on and off.
The following accents are rarely found in genealogy, but are included here because there are some occurences of them, along with the most common ones above, just in case you need one:
Result Alt Key And ...................... or Alt Key And
â .......... 131 ...... a with circonflexe ......... 0226
ä .......... 132 ...... a with tréma or umlaut 0228
à .......... 133 ...... a with accent grave ...... 0224
ç .......... 135 ...... c cedilla .......................... 0231
é .......... 130 ...... e with accent aigu ........ 0233
è .......... 138 ...... e with accent grave ...... 0232
ê .......... 136 ...... e with circonflexe ......... 0234
ë .......... 137 ...... e with tréma .................. 0235
î ........... 140 ...... i with circonflexe .......... 0238
ï ........... 139 ...... i with tréma ................... 0239
ô .......... 147 ...... o with circonflexe .......... 0244
ö .......... 148 ...... o with tréma .................. 0246
ù .......... 151 ...... u with accent grave ...... 0249
û .......... 150 ...... u with circonflexe ......... 0251
ü .......... 129 ...... u with tréma .................. 0252
ÿ .......... 152 ...... y with tréma .................. 0255
This shows that you can either press the Alt key with the three digit code, or the Alt key with the four digit one all with a leading zero.
In French, by convention, if the first letter of a capitalized word is accented, the accent is omitted.
However, sometimes people do like or want the accent on the capitalized words to emphasize its non-capitalized spelling for the purpose of accuracy, so that list of ALT keys is included here:
Result Alt ..... or Alt
À ......... 0192
 ......... 0194
Ä ......... 142 ....... 0196
Ç ......... 128 ....... 0199
É ......... 144 ....... 0201
È ......... 0200
Ë ......... 0203
Ê ......... 0202
Î .......... 0206
Ï .......... 0207
Ô ......... 0212
Ö ......... 153 ....... 0214
Ù ......... 0217
Û ......... 0219
Ü ......... 154 ....... 0220
Note that in this list of capitalized accented letters, some require a 4-digit ASCII or ALT code in which the leading 0 must be typed in.
There are two other French letter combinations which have a special character code. They are not however needed since typing in the two vowels will do. But for the sake of fun or appearance, you may want to use the special characters themselves.
Result ALT ......Type............................................... or Alt
æ ......... 145 ........ ae ......... a e ligature .....................0230
Æ ........ 146 ........ AE ........ a e ligature capitalized . 0198
œ ......... 156 ........ oe ......... o e ligature
Π........ 140 ........ OE ........o e ligature capitalized
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Microsoft Word
Hold down the Control key and press the symbol key or keys all together. Then release the keys and type in the letter that goes with the symbol.
Result Ctrl
â .......... Shift + ^ (caret), a
ä .......... Shift + : (colon), a
à .......... `(accent grave), a
ç .......... , (comma), c
é .......... ‘ (apostrophe below "), e
è .......... ` (accent grave), e
ê .......... Shift + ^ (caret), e
ë .......... Shift + : (colon), e
î ........... Shift + ^ (caret), i
ï ........... Shift + : (colon), i
ô .......... Shift + ^ (caret), o
ö .......... Shift + : (colon), o
ù .......... Shift + ` (grave), u
û .......... Shift + ^ (caret), u
ü .......... Shift + : (colon), u
ÿ .......... Shift + : + y
æ ......... Shift+ &, a
œ ......... Shift+ &, a
Thus, press the Control key and either ', `, "," , Shift key and :, Shift key and 6 or Shift key and &, then release all two to three keys, and click the letter that is to be accented.
In summary,the symbol key or keys are: ‘ = aigu, ` = grave, Shift and : = trema, Shift and ^ = circumflex, Shift and & = ligature.
For capitals, simply substitute the letter with its capital, using Shift and letter.
I’m not sure how Microsoft Word saves keystrokes from the Alt-key way, since it uses up 4 to 5 typed keys for regular accented letters, and 5 to 6 for capitals, when the same thing using the Alt-keys requires 4 for regular letters and 5 for capitals.
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Mac OS:
Hold down the Option key and press the symbol key. Then release the keys and type in the letter that goes with the symbol.
Result Option
â ........... I, a
ä ........... U, a
à ........... ` (accent grave above Tab key), a
ç ........... C
é ........... E, e
è ........... ` (accent grave), e
ê ........... I, e
ë ........... U, e
î ............ I, i
ï ............ U, i
ô ........... I, o
ö ........... U, o
ù ........... ` (accent grave), a
û ........... I, u
ü ........... U, u
ÿ ........... U, y
Thus, in general, press Option and a letter E, I or U, or the accent grave, then release and click the letter to be accented.
In summary, the symbol key or keys are: C = cedille, I = circumflex, ` = grave, E = aigu, U = trema.
For capitals, simply substitute the letter with its capital, using Shift and letter.
For translation's sake, the French-to-English translation of the accents themselves are:
accent = accent
aigu = aigu
grave = grave
circonflexe = circumflex
tréma = trema
cédille = cedilla
ligature = ligature
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