Keyboard Help and Diacritics (PC)

Language Bar

The following instructions for using diacritics in the specified languages assume that the IME language bar option is already installed on your computer. To install an input language, do the following:

  • Go to Start >> Settings >> Control Panel.
  • Double-click Regional and Language Options.
  • Click the Languages tab.
  • Click the Details button.
  • A list of input languages currently installed will be displayed. To add a language to the list, click Add and choose the desired input language from the drop-down list. You can also adjust language bar settings (such as how it is visible in the taskbar) by clicking the Language Bar button under Preferences.

Select the desired language using the blue symbol (EN) next to the system tray in the taskbar (the taskbar is where the Start button is located on Windows OS).
To make any of these symbols Upper Case, add the Shift key.

Chinese

  • Change the language bar icon to "CH" (Chinese PRC)
  • Type the desired word phonetically in pinyin
  • Press the space bar >> Use the right arrow key to select the desired character >> press enter
  • Example: If you type "zhong" and select the first character option, "中" will appear in place of the entered pinyin.

French

To create these diacritics you don’t have to change to French.

To produce, follow these steps:

à, è, ì, ò, ù –

  1. Type a ` ( ctrl + the accent grave key, located above the Tab key)
  2. Let go of the keys (don’t hold it down for step 3).
  3. Type the vowel over which you want the accent to appear.
  4. À, È , Ì, Ò, Ù – Hold the Shift key down in step 3 above.

á, é, í, ó, ú –

  1. Type a ‘ (the apostrophe).
  2. Let go of the key (don’t hold it down for step 3).
  3. Type the vowel over which you want the accent to appear.
  4. Á, É, Í, Ó, Ú – Hold the Shift key down in step 3 above.

â, ê, î, ô, û –

  1. Type a ^ (caret, Ctrl + Shift and the number 6 above the T & Y keys).
  2. Let go of the keys (don’t hold them down for step 3).
  3. Type the vowel over which you want the caret to appear.
  4. Â, Ê, Î, Ô, Û – Hold the Shift key down in step 3 Above.

ç –

  1. Type a , (comma) +Ctrl
  2. Let go of the keys (don’t hold them down for step 3).
  3. Type c
  4. Ç Hold the Shift key down in step 3 above.

æ, œ –

  1. Hold down the Ctrl + Shift and type the & (ampersand)
  2. Let go of the keys
  3. Type the vowel a or o
  4. Æ, Œ Hold the Shift key down in step 3 above.

German

ä – right alt and the letter q
ü – right alt and the letter y
ö – right alt and the letter p
ß – right alt and the letter s

Japanese

  1. Change the language bar icon to "JP" (Japanese)
  2. Select ‘Restore the Language bar" or "Additional icons in taskbar"
  3. To type in Japanese, click on the button with the ‘A’ (the icon that is furthest to the left on the tool bar), and click on hiragana. (Note: a simple key-stroke of alt-tilde will change the text inputting quickly from hiragana to English, and vice versa. Also, alt-shift will switch between locales e.g. switching from English to the Japanese settings)
  4. Type the word phonetically and press the space bar. If you wish to input kanji characters, use the right arrow key to select the desired character and press enter.
  5. Use the "direct input" option to type in Romanized characters instead of hiragana or katakana.
  6. To actually type Japanese, simply input the Romanized version of what you wish to type.

Things to keep in mind when inputting in Japanese

  • When you wish to input katakana enter the Romanized text first, then simply hit F7, and enter.
  • If you wish to enter the small つ, as in いって, type the first letter of the character directly following the つ twice. As in this example, after typing い, simply input t-t-e to make って.
  • Small や, ゆ, and よ are easy to enter, and can usually be done phonetically. じゃ, for example is simply ‘ja’; しょ is ‘sho’; にゅ, ‘nyu’.
  • The character を is inputted as ‘wo’.

Norwegian

Change the language bar icon to "NO" (Norwegian Nynorsk). Use the following keystrokes to input these Norwegian characters.

ø- ; (semi-colon)
æ- ' (apostrophe)
å- [ (left bracket)

Russian

The Russian alphabet will correspond to these letters on an English keyboard. Use Shift to make them uppercase.

Spanish

¿ – hold down Alt, Control, Shift, ?
¡ – hold down Alt, Control, Shift, 1
ñ – hold down Control, Shift, ~ (tilde), lift and press n
á, é, í, ó, ú – hold down Control, ' (apostrophe), desired vowel