There are two ways in which you can type letters with diacritical marks and other special characters found in many languages on the Freedman Center workstations. You can:

1. Type their ASCII Code. You type a character's ASCII Code by holding down the ALT key while typing a combination of numbers on the number keypad. For example, typing Alt + 0199 will produce Ç. There are several websites that list ASCII Codes, including this one: Look Up Tables. The special characters needed in many languages can be found in the third column.
2. Activate the International Keyboard and type a combination of characters to make the special character appear.

Your choice of method will likely depend on how frequently you need to use special characters. If you are typing a paper in French, German, Spanish, or another language requiring frequent use of accents and other diacritical marks, you should become familiar with the easy technique of typing using the International Keyboard method.

[edit] Activating the International Keyboard

To type papers and presentations in foreign languages quickly, activate the international keyboard on the Freedman Center's workstations.

1. Go to: Start > Settings > Control Panel > Regional and Language Options
2. Then to go to: Languages tab and click on the Details button
3. Under the Settings tab –Default input language should be set to English (United States) – US, if it is not already selected. (See image below for illustration of steps 2-4.)
4. Below this will you see the heading Installed services with a listing of languages. Click on the Add button.
5. You should then be in the Add Input Language box. Click the check box next to Keyboard layout/IME.
6. Click on the drop down box that you have just activated. Find United States – International in the list of choices. Select it and click OK to close the box.
7. Click Apply and then OK to close the remaining two boxes.
8. Go to the language bar and make sure that English – United States is chosen as the input language. (See instructions for Using the Language Bar if you are not sure where to find it.) Click on the keyboard icon and you should see United States – International as an option. Select it and you’re finished! Read the instructions for Using the International Keyboard below.

[edit] Using the International Keyboard

Using the International Keyboard to type special characters saves time over the ASCII method by reducing the number of keys that must be typed. It does so by relying on 'dead' keys that will not be activated until a second key is typed. For example, the single quote (') is a dead key. If you type it once, you will not see it, but if you first type it, and then type a, you will see á. If you need a single quote, you will simply need to type it and press the space bar.

Download our handy pdf reference chart of special characters for quick typing.