Where can I get a French keyboard map for Windows XP?

[Guest]

I'm trying to learn to use the French capabilities in Windows, because it's
very inconvenient to use "Insert symbol" every time I want an accent. I have
the language toolbar set up, but don't have a template for the French
keyboard mapping. Thanks.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

For occasional typing of accented letters in Word (and French doesn't
require much in that regard), you can use Word's built-in keyboard shortcuts
(see http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/General/InsertSpecChars.htm for a list). If
you have the language set to French, Word will even substitute guillemets
(« and ») for quotation marks, insert a nonbreaking space after a colon,
etc.

With an international keyboard layout, I believe many of the keys are
similar, except that instead of pressing Ctrl+', e to get é, you press '
followed by e (' and other accent marks are "dead keys" which don't do
anything till you press another key). To get an actual apostrophe, you press
' and then ' again or ' and a space or punctuation (one or the other,
possibly both).

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

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all may benefit.

 

[Guest]

When I set the language to French, the keyboard letters change. The English
keyboard letters q,w,a,s,z,x become a;z;q;s;w;x: As you can see, a comma
also becomes a semicolon, and a period becomes a colon. Isn't there just a
diagram of the remapped keyboard somewhere, or a command to show the current
keyboard onscreen? Thanks.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

You might see
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/accessibility/oskturnonuse.mspx or
one of the other articles linked from
http://www.microsoft.com/enable/training/windowsxp/usingkeyboard.aspx

See also http://www.microsoft.com/globaldev/keyboards/kbdfr.htm or
http://library.reed.edu/lang/frenchkeyboard.html (which displays all three
states of the previous) or http://www.forlang.wsu.edu/help/kfrench.asp,
which combines all three.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.