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• Spanish
• French
• Portuguese
• German
• Danish and Norwegian
• Swedish
• Finnish
• Gaelic (Irish and Scottish)
• A list of codes for all accented letters or commonly used characters for Windows 95, MS Word, and Notepad.
• Tagalog and Indonesian require no special characters

Spanish

To place an accent(') over a vowel, use option-e plus the vowel:

• option-e + a produces á
• option-e + e produces é
• option-e + i produces í
• option-e + o produces ó
• option-e + u produces ú

Other special characters necessary in Spanish:

• option-n + n produces ñ
• option-u + u produces ü
• option-1 produces an inverted exclamation point
• shift-option-? produces an inverted question mark

French

to produce the circumflex(^) over a vowel, use option-i plus the vowel:

• option-i + a produces â
• option-i + e produces ê
• option-i + i produces î
• option-i + o produces ô
• option-i + u produces û

To produce diereses(¨) over a vowel, use option-u plus the vowel:

• option-u + a produces ä
• option-u + e produces ë
• option-u + i produces ï
• option-u + o produces ö
• option-u + u produces ü

Portuguese

To produce the tilde (~) character above a letter, use option-n plus the letter:

• option-n + a produces ã
• option-n + o produces õ
• option-n + n produces ñ

Gaelic

To place an accent(') over a vowel, use option-e plus the vowel:

• option-e + a produces á
• option-e + e produces é
• option-e + i produces í
• option-e + o produces ó
• option-e + u produces ú

For fonts using the old gaelic system, see our Celtic fonts page.

German

• option-s produces ß

To produce diereses(¨), use option-u plus the vowel:

• option-u + a produces ä
• option-u + o produces ö
• option-u + u produces ü

Danish and Norwegian

• option-a produces å
• option-o produces ø
• option-' produces æ

• shift-option-a produces Å
• shift-option-o produces Ø
• shift-option-' produces Æ

Swedish

• option-a produces å
• option-u + o produces ö
• option-u + a produces ä

• shift-option-a produces Å
• option-u + shift-o produces Ö
• option-u + shift-A produces Ä

Finnish

• option-u + o produces ö
• option-u + a produces ä

Windows

To produce accented letters on an MS-DOS based computer (aka IBM-compatible) here is the basic method if you are using the normal USA keyboard and character set:

Depress the "ALT" key and continue to hold it down while you type the sequence of numbers on the numeric keypad. When done typing the numbers, release the "ALT" key and the accented letter should appear. (You must have NUMLOCK ON)

Note that this only works if you use the numbers on the numeric keypad at the right of the keyboard. It does not work if you use the normal numbers in the top row of the alphabetic area.

Actually it is possible to produce any character in the PC character set using this method. Consult your computer manual for a complete list of the possible characters (or experiment for yourself.)

Note also that accented letters may not be supported by certain software programs, such as text editors, databases, etc. many of those also have other methods of producing accented letters and other special characters, and do not support this basic imput method. In Microsoft Word for example there is a different approach which may be more convenient and easier to remember - for information on this, consult the on-line help file under the keyword "international".

Check the manuals or on-line help files for the software you are using if you have problems. Search for keywords such as "accents", "international characters", "special characters" etc. in the help files or in the indexes.

If you cannot get this method to work in your preferred editor, you may be able to produce a basic text file with a basic editor such as the MSDOS "EDIT" program and then import that file into your normal editor or mail program, etc. If you are working with databases or sorting lists that contain accented letters be aware that the database program or the sorting utilities may not properly support accented letters, and that even if they do support them, the sorting order it uses may not be the one you may desire.

You may also have problems with these characters because all printers may not properly support all these characters or your printer may be set to use a different character set, or your computer may be using a different keyboard or character set.

Also if you attempt to transmit files with these characters via e-mail or post in Internet newsgroups, it is possible that the characters may be deleted, or may be changed to different characters by various host computers which do not properly support them along the way, especially if you are communicating with correspondants in other countries.

Here is a fairly complete list of codes for all accented letters or commonly used characters that are included in the standard ASCII character set. A description is also given in case your computer prints or displays different characters. Remember to hold down the "Alt" key while typing the numbers on the numberic keypad. (NUMLOCK must be ON.) You may also use the character map found in the Accessories:System Tools folder in the Start Menu.

Codes that are skipped in this list are usually for signs that can be typed from normal keyboard keys, a few mathematical symbols, and characters that may not work in some fonts. All these characters test OK in Windows 95 and MS Word and notepad. This list is best used if viewed or printed with a larger type size (eg. 12 to 16) Also some font styles may not show the characters as well as others. This list has been tested under Windows-95 and MS Word and works as advertised. Not all of the symbols will show up correctly on the WWW, the explanations should help. They should work fine if you're on a PC with Windows.

Character	Code
’	0146 left hand (opening) single quotation mark
”	0148 left-hand (opening) double quotation mark
¡	0161 inverted exclamation mark (Spanish)
¢	0162 monetary symbol for US cent
£	0163 monetary symbol for British Pound
¥	0165 monetary symbol for Japanese Yen
§	0167 section sign
ª	0170 small superscript a (feminine ordinal indicator)
«	0171 left-hand (opening) French dialog quotation mark
°	0176 superscript degree symbol (tiny circle)
²	0178 numeric superscript 2
³	0179 numeric superscript 3
µ	0181 lowercase greek mu (micro sign)
¶	0182 paragraph sign (Pilcrow)
¹	0185 numeric superscript 1
º	0186 small superscript o (masculine ordinal indicator)
»	0187 right-hand(closing) French dialog quotation mark
¿	0191 inverted question mark (Spanish)
À	0192 uppercase A with grave accent
Á	0193 uppercase A with acute accent
Â	0194 uppercase A with cirumflex accent
Ã	0195 uppercase A with tilde (nasal) accent
Ä	0196 uppercase A with diaeresis (umlaut) accent
Å	0197 uppercase A with ring accent (scandinavia)
Æ	0198 uppercase digraph AE letter (scandinavia)
Ç	0199 uppercase C with cedilla
È	0200 uppercase E with grave accent
É	0201 uppercase E with acute accent
	v
Ë	0203 uppercase E with diaeresis (umlaut) accent
Ì	0204 uppercase I with grave accent
Í	0205 uppercase I with acute accent
Î	0206 uppercase I with circumflex accent
Ï	0207 uppercase I with diaeresis (umlaut) accent
Ð	0208 uppercase "Eth" (barred D) (Icelandic)
Ñ	0209 uppercase N with tilde accent
Ò	0210 uppercase O with grave accent
Ó	0211 uppercase O with acute accent
Ô	0212 uppercase O with circumflex accent
Õ	0213 uppercase O with tilde (nasal) accent
Ö	0214 uppercase O with diaeresis (umlaut) accent
Ø	0216 uppercase O with oblique bar (scandinavia)
Ù	0217 uppercase U with grave accent
Ú	0218 uppercase U with acute accent
Û	0219 uppercase U with circumflex accent
Ü	0220 uppercase U with diaresis (umlaut) accent
Ý	0221 uppercase Y with acute accent
Þ	0222 uppercase "Thorn" letter (Icelandic)
ß	0223 German sharp s (double S) letter
à	0224 lowercase a with grave accent
á	0225 lowercase a with acute accent
â	0226 lowercase a with circumflex accent
ã	0227 lowercase a with tilde (nasal) accent
ä	0228 lowercase a with diaeresis (umlaut) accent
å	0229 lowercase a with ring accent (scandinavia)
æ	0230 lowercase ae digraph letter (scandinavia)
ç	0231 lowercase c with cedilla
è	0232 lowercase e with grave accent
é	0233 lowercase e with acute accent
ê	0234 lowercase e with circumflex accent
ë	0235 lowercase e with diaeresis (umlaut) accent
ì	0236 lowercase i with grave accent
í	0237 lowercase i with acute accent
î	0238 lowercase i with circumflex accent
ï	0239 lowercase I with diaeresis (umlaut) accent
ñ	0241 lowercase n with tilde (nasal) accent
ê	0243 lowercase o with acute accent
ô	0244 lowercase o with circumflex accent
õ	0245 lowercase o with tilde (nasal) accent
ö	0246 lowercase o with diaeresis (umlaut) accent
ø	0248 lowercase o with oblique bar (scandinavia)
ù	0249 lowercase u with grave accent
ú	0250 lowercase u with acute accent
û	0251 lowercase u with circumflex accent
ü	0252 lowercase u with diaeresis (umlaut) accent
ý	0253 lowercase y with acute accent
þ	0254 lowercase "thorn" letter (Icelandic)
ÿ	0255 lowercase y with diaresis (umlaut) accent