GLOBAL STUDIO GUIDES MAY 2015 Typing in Languages Other Than English: Roman Characters (Windows)

A Quick-Start Guide Things to Remember

Windows offers several ways to insert accented letters and other special characters used in languages other than English. • Some languages that use the Roman alphabet One way is to install and use an alternate keyboard; however, require characters that are if you are used to typing on a standard US QWERTY keyboard, not built into the United be aware that this will change the location of the keys. States-International keyboard. For these Another method is to use the numerical keyboard to enter languages (e.g., Czech, the ASCII code for the character you need. This is an Polish), installing alternate especially good method when you need a special character (e.g., keyboards or entering the € sign, which is 0128) occasionally. Simply find the ASCII ASCII or Unicode codes is number of the character you need and type it while required. holding down the . A good list of ASCII codes for world languages is located at http://www.starr.net/is/type/ • Use the On-Screen altnum.htm. Keyboard to see where special characters and symbols are located. For Western European languages, the easiest way to type accents is to install and use the United States International • To activate the On- keyboard. These instructions explain how to do that for Screen Keyboard, go to Windows 7 but can be adapted for other versions of Windows. Start > All Programs > Accessories > Ease of Access > On-Screen INSTALLING THE US-INTERNATIONAL KEYBOARD Keyboard. If you need this • Go to Start > Control Panel > Clock, Language, and Region frequently, you can pin it to the task bar. • Click Change keyboards or other input methods. • You need to select a keyboard for each application that you open. • If you use an alternate keyboard frequently, you can make it your default by changing the Default input language on the screen where one adds keyboards.

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• In the window that opens, click Add. • In the next window, scroll to English (United States) • Check the box next to United States- International. • Click OK. • Continue to click Apply and OK until you’ve closed all control panel windows.

You should now see a tiny keyboard icon in your task bar, which allows you to choose your keyboard for each application. If you do not see this icon, right-click the task bar and select Toolbars > Language bar.

USING THE UNITED STATES-INTERNATIONAL KEYBOARD The characters shown on this chart can be typed by holding down the right- alt key (AltGr) + the key.

Holding down AltGr + Shift gives capital accented letters and several other special characters.

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Here is a chart to help you remember how to type some of the special characters using the United States-International keyboard. Notes: The + indicates keys are to be typed simultaneously; a comma (,) indicates a second action. The right-alt (AltGr) key must be used because the right and lef alt keys are not interchangeable on the US International keyboard.

Character Keys to Type

acute (á, é, +) right-alt + letter grave (à, è, +) ` , letter circumflex (î, û, +) shift+ ^, letter (, ã, +) shift + ~, letter umlaut, (ü, ï, +) shift + “, letter cedilla (, Ç) right-alt + (shift) + , ß right-alt + s ¡ right-alt + 1 ¿ right-alt + ? £ right-alt + shift + 4 € right-alt + 5 æ right-alt + z œ not available º right-alt + shift + ; § right-alt + shift + s

NEED MORE CHARACTERS? Unicode is a standardized system for representing characters that goes far beyond ASCII, which was designed for American English. In Unicode-compliant applications (Office for Windows is a good example), there is generally a way to enter the hexadecimal code for a specific character. In Microsoft Word, for example, you can enter a hexadecimal code directly into a document and then press alt-x to produce a visual representation of the character. (You will need to use a font which includes the character you need.) Unicode character charts are available at http://www.unicode.org/ charts/. Microsoft’s Character Map (All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Character Map) can also help you enter Unicode characters.

NEED HELP? ASK A GLOBAL STUDIO ASSISTANT! GLOBAL STUDIO: 226 CAROLE WEINSTEIN INTERNATIONAL CENTER

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