Adding Accent Marks

When typing in English, we often type in shorthand or abbreviated form (like OMG!, G2G, etc.). We usually ignore accent marks that we find in foreign words like résumé and replace them with regular a's, e's or i's.

However, when typing or writing in a foreign language, these accent marks are usually important, and can in fact be essential to properly understanding a word or phrase. So how do we add these marks? There's not a key on your keyboard for adding "é" to a word, right? Mine just has a regular "e."

Actually, your keyboard is all you need to add all kinds of accents to your typing. Pretty much every accented letter you need can be accessed and added to your type by entering its "keyboard code," which can be entered by pressing and holding the "ALT" key and entering the particular letter's four-digit code.

For example, you can type the letter "e" with an "accent aigu" (which is what the little line was called in my high school French classes) by entering the code ALT + 0233, which gives you "é."

As the French would say, voilà! It's that simple. Of course the trick is finding out all of these codes, but we've got a great link for you: Arnold Winkelried's Tip Sheet on Special Characters.

Here, towards the bottom of the page, Winkelried has created a table of pretty much every special character you need. Simply scroll through the table and find the accent you need, then look two columns to the right. That column is the code for Windows, which will be some combination of ALT + four numbers.

Three important notes:

• You must use the number pad at the right of your keyboard to enter these codes; you can't use the number bar on the top of the keyboard. Make sure your "Num Lock" is on before entering the codes, or they won't work.
• There are different codes for capital and lower case accented letters.
  
• These codes only work on Windows computers. If you have a Mac, you can still use the above link; you just have to enter a different combination of keys.

So there you have it. Next time you want to type in a foreign language, you'll have all of the proper accents!

Free Online Typing Tutor

For most kids and teens, typing on a keyboard comes naturally. In fact, some are probably more comfortable typing things up than they are writing words out by hand.

Do you remember learning to type? Chances are you probably don't, it's just considered second nature at this point.
However, for those who aren't familiar with computers, learning to type can be a confusing process. Learning to correctly use a keyboard is the first step one must take when learning how to use a computer for the first time.

Recently we had an adult here in the CLC that was unfamiliar with computers, and wanted to learn from the very beginning. We started her off with learning how to type efficiently, as pretty much everything one does on a computer requires typing skills.

Explaining how to correctly position one's hands and how the keyboard is set-up only gets people so far; the best way to learn is by doing.

This is where online typing tutors come in handy. We pointed the woman to a typing website, Typing Web, which bills itself as a free online typing tutor. The website offers lessons for people ranging from beginners to experts, and features an on-screen guide and multiple exercises designed at increasing familiarity with a keyboard.

Our adult typist went through many of the lessons on her own the other day, and emerged more familiar with the keyboard and more confident in her ability to learn to type.

Typing Web, which is free to use, can be accessed here.