Special characters

Question

I have a Dell Inspiron 8600 laptop and am trying to find the shortcut key method best suited to insert the special characters, specifically german characters. On my old PC, using windows 98, I was able to customise the shortcut keys to insert the special characters but it seems to be impossible on this laptop. I have also followed the advice given in the forum, of using the NUM Lock then holding down the Alt key while typing in the shortcut stroke for the required character, but this also proves fruitless.Could it be because I do not have a numerical keyboard on the side? My only number access is above the letters of the keyboard. I am writing many letter in german and it is INCREDIBLY slow to have to select from the character map each time I wish to insert a special character. i would really appreciate any advice on this.

tgsmith · Answer

Ozmac, I think what you are looking for is so obvious in Windows XP that you would never find it. Click on Start|Control Panel|Regional and Language Options.  Click on the Languages tab.  Click on the Details button for Text Services and Input Languages.  Under Installed Services I would just add the German language, turn on the Language bar, and switch to that language when typing German correspndence. Hope this info helps. Tony

RoHe · Answer

You didn't mention what software you're using, but in Microsoft Word, for example, you can setup hotkeys for any character you want.

Click insert>symbol on Word toolbar. Select character you want and click shortcut button to set up the hotkey. Some characters like ö have a pre-assigned shortcut in Word (eg, ctrl+: o ), but you can change it to anything you want, assuming the shortcut isn't assigned to something else.

Ron

Message Edited by RoHe on 01-02-200701:45 PM

tgsmith · Answer

Ozmac, Ron makes a good point.  If using Microsoft Word, you can click on the Microsoft Word Help, type 'create or edit multlingual documents' in the Search box and old Clipit will walk you through setting up Word for multilingual editing. Tony

WillIn · Answer

I just switched from a Latitude D500/W2K-German to a D820/WXP-English with a German keyboard. The keyboard settings are such that the German keyboard is recognized so I have direct access to all German special characters. However, the "accents" key (=key on the upper (numbers) key row just left of the Backspace/Delete key) does not seem to work. On my D500 I hit that key and then the system would wait for me to type the letter I wanted accented (say e) and it produced an é. When I do the same on the D820 it just produces the unaccented character, so effectively the "accents" key does not seem to be doing anything.
This is independent of the software I use (e.g. word, notepad, this forum) and I'd rather have a general solution than trying to fix one program (I am writing a lot of French). I played around with various Regional Settings to no avail and I didn't find anything in the BIOS either, so would much appreciate any ideas someone might have.

RoHe · Answer

XP-English probably doesn't recognize your "accent" key because it's not on a stardard English keyboard.

Open Regional and Language Settings control panel. Click Languages tab, click Details button. Highlight your keyboard in the list box. If it's not listed, click Add button and set Input Language to your flavor of German. Click ok back to previous screen. Assuming German keyboard is now listed, select it and click ok back to desktop; reboot. Does that make the extra key work?

Ron

WillIn · Answer

Thank you for the tip, but I believe I have done that: keyboard German is listed and highlighted as default in the Regional and Language Settings and all the other 'weird' keys (ö, ä, ü, ß) work fine. It's just this two-step accent thing that does not work. Within Word the slightly more complicated shortcuts (e.g. CTRL+SHIFT+' then letter) work as well.

Ozmac · Answer

Hi tony, yes, unfortunately,I forgot to mention that I have XP home addition and this subject is not listed in the help topics. Any of the suggestion to change the keyboard/language, have also let to a dead end. I have no options to edit or create new shortcut keys and am at this stage, completely at a loss to know what to do next. Gaye

tgsmith · Answer

Ozmac,   Gaye, since you do not have a numeric keypad, you will need to use the method described on this Penn State web page to create German accent characters:  http://tlt.psu.edu/suggestions/international/accents/codeint.html .   You'll probably want to print out the web page and follow the step-by-step instructions.   The fact that your XP is Home Edition should have no bearing on your ability to set up your keyboard for alternate languages or international keyboard codes.  The Penn State web page basically gives a walkthrough on the method suggested earlier by myself and RoHe.   Let us know how you fare.   Tony

tgsmith · Answer

Ozmac, You're welcome, Gaye.  Thanks for posting back.  Helps everyone viewing these posts. Tony

Ozmac · Answer

I'm extatic!!!!!! I followed the link you suggested and I now have a way to shorcut the keys. Thanks so much. Gaye

kniz · Answer

I have a dimension 4700 and I was just wondering if anyone had the numeric codes for international characters.  I have found a few but it is time consuming.

JRosenfeld · Answer

Kniz,   If you mean the ALT + numberpad codes, open character map, it shows the codes (bottom right) for the characters that have them. So you can make your own list from there.

Windows General

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