Excluding changing the keyboard in Windows, which requires memorizing where
the accented characters are, you are left with customizing the keyboard in
your word processor. For my students, the best I could do is giving them the
following information (this is for Italian). This information is edited so
it can used in any language:
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Using Vowel with Accents in Your Compositions
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These instructions assumes you are using Windows 95/98/2000 OS (it may work
in Windows 3.1)-- If are using MAC OS, Good Luck! - Use your own computer
knowledge.
How do I assign vowel with accents to keyboard keys in MS Word? (I tested
this in MS Word 97 and Word 2000)
1. Go to "Insert" on the Menu Bar.
2. Go to "Symbol"
3. Select the Font: "(normal text)"
4. Select the Subset: "Basic Latin"
5. Click on the character you want to assign (the character will be
highlighted)
6. Click on "Shortcut Key"
7. On the keyboard, type the key combination you want to assign to the
character. (ex. à = ALT+A)
8. Click "Assign" then "Close"
9. Repeat, starting at step 5, to assign other characters.
10. When finished, close the "Insert Symbol" dialog box"
11. Close the dialogue boxes - Your accented vowels are available on the
keys you assigned.
MS Word does not include automatic spelling and thesaurus in Italian. You
need to purchase the international language program if you want it.
For just about the same money, you can buy the academic version of
WordPerfect 2000 which includes most languages (Italian, French, German,
Spanish, Russian, and many more).
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How do I assign vowel with accents to keyboard keys in WordPerfect? (I
tested this in WordPerfect 6.1, 7, 8 and WordPerfect 2000)
1. Go to "Tools" on the Menu Bar
2. Go to "Settings" ("settings" is found under Tools in Wp9, "Format" in WP
7, "Edit" in WP6.1)
3. Double-click the keyboard symbol with the word "Customize"
4. Click the "keyboard" tab
5. Only in WP 6.1, and 7: Click "create" (in WordPerfect 8 and 2000, you may
edit the standard keyboard -- skip steps 5 & 6)
6. Only in WP 6, and 7 -- Type any name in the space provided
7. In the left window scroll down to the key where you want to assign the
character (e.g. <ALT+A>)
8. Click the "keystroke" tab on the left side of the dialogue box
9. In the white space, insert the character you need for the international
characters provided by WordPerfect. You can get the international characters
by pressing <CTRL+W>
10. In the Characters dialogue box go to "Multinational"
11. Scroll down until you find the character you need (e.g.. <à>
12. Click "Insert and close" - the character appears in the white area
13. Click "Assign keystroke to key (e.g. <ALT A>)
14. Repeat steps 7 to 14 to assign other characters to keys
15. When you finish, for WordPerfect 6.1 and 7 only, highlight your new
keyboard, end click "select"
16. Close the dialogue boxes - Your accented vowels are available on the
keys you assigned.
Note: WordPerfect 2000 includes the Multi-Language Module, which is
accessible by running SETUP, Custom -- it may not be available in the
Standard Setup -- when this option is enabled, you can automatically spell
check your compositions, and you can also access a thesaurus in many
languages.
You can set the your language by clicking: <Tools> <Setting> <Language> In
the dialogue box that appears, choose the language you want and press <OK>.
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If you are using MS Works, or any other word processor, you may copy each
character from the Windows Character Map, available under <Start> <Programs>
<Accessories> <Character map> in Window 95/98
Also you can install a different keyboard in Windows 95/98, by going to
Control Panel -- Keyboard -- Language (however, a different keyboard will
change the position of some keys. Unless you have a good visual memory, stay
away from this).
__________________________
Charles Franco
European Languages
SUNY at Stony Brook
[log in to unmask]
-----Original Message-----
From: [log in to unmask]
[mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of Failla
Sent: Thursday, April 27, 2000 1:36 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: International Keyboard éè ä úù ñ ¿? ¡! 1º 2ª Ç
I wonder if anyone knows how to customize a keyboard.
I am sure that many of you write in several languages, often in the same
document. Switching the keyboard from one language to another in the
middle is cumbersome, as is using the alt key plus a number for a
particular character (e.g. alt 165 = Ñ). In addition, commands for
foreign characters vary from program to program (ctrl ` e will produce è
in Word, but does nothing in Telnet).
The Portuguese keyboard seems to be the most expansive, but it is not the
one I learned to type on. I wonder, then, if it is possible to customize
our keyboards.
I vaguely remember MACROS in DOS helping to do this once, but only for
WordPerfect.
Thank you for any suggestions.
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