Using Accented letters

I have a Windows Media Center PC and i have been trying and failing miserably to use accented letters "Esperanto" on my webpage. I had been advised to use Windows "Word" and then copy and paste the accented letters onto my webpage but for some reason i can't find a trace of Word on my PC. Can anyone help me out here please. Big thanks.

 

Hi Boomble,

Word is a component of the MS Office suite, which is why you can't find it on your computer.

So far as accents are concerned, for years I've been using a free program called AllChars, which I load at startup. When you need a special character, such as ñ, just tap Ctrl + ~ + n, in sequence. Something similar for ¡ (Ctrl + ! +!) and ¿ (Ctrl + ? + ?).

The program provides easy access to all sorts of special characters, such as ¢, €, £, ½, ¼, ¾, °, ±, ÷, ©, ‡, and just about any other found in the character tables, including every accent and diacritical mark you can think of. If you can't remember a particular key combination (always Ctrl followed by two other characters), Ctrl + h + h opens AllChar's Help window where they're all shown.

AllChars doesn't need to be installed; it will run from anywhere ... I keep a special folder for programs which don't require installation, but you could just as easily create an AllChars folder in My Programs.

 

Hi, Boomble.

An alternative to Jim's suggestion is to use Windows XP's Character Map program for your special characters.

The path to the program is C:\windows\system32\charmap.exe and you can create a shortcut to it on your desktop. If you want help creating a shortcut, just let us know.

Alternatively...

• Click Start > Run...
• Type [FONT= "Courier New"][SIZE= "3"]charmap[/SIZE][/FONT] in the "Open:" field.
• Hit your "Enter" key or click the "OK" button.

If the charmap.exe program is not located on your hard drive, then you will need to add the Character Map component to your Windows XP installation from your Windows XP CD. We'll be glad to help you with that task if you need it.

If you have only a few special characters you regularly use, then you can click on each special character in the Character Map program window and write down the Alt+#### keystroke combination displayed for each character in the lower right corner of the Character Map program window. Then keep your Alt+#### key combination list handy for future use (i.e., on a sticky note stuck to your monitor).

For example, è is created with the Alt+0232 key combination. (Hold down your "Alt" key while typing [FONT= "Courier New"][SIZE= "3"]0232[/SIZE][/FONT]. Then release the "Alt" key.)

NOTE: The Character Map window contains a scrollable table. Use the scrollbar to view additional special characters for the font type specified in the Character Map program.

 

Boomble ...

Mailman was right to suggest the Character Map as an alternative to AllChars, but it's cumbersome, at best. A condensed version of it, containing all the characters you might need, in any installed font, is accessible from AllChar's help page.

The only real advantage to the Character Map is that you can copy a desired character to the system clipboard, but unless you use a clipboard manager, each time you copy something you erase whatever was previously copied.

The big benefit of AllChars is that all characters are formed using the Ctrl key and a logical combination of only two other keys. Using mailman's example of è, instead of having to hold down the Alt key while typing the easily forgotten combination 0232, with AllChars, simply press and release the Ctrl key, then press the ` (grave) and e keys, in either order.

Try it ... you'll like it!

EDIT: As you can see, Tony and I were writing our responses at the same time. Thanks for mentioning the obvious, Tony ... I got on a roll and quite forgot that Boomble was talking about characters on a web page.

 

Ditto for me, Jim.

Thanks, Tony! I also overlooked the fact that Boomble should use proper HTML for special characters when editing a web page. The HTML 4.01 Entities Reference link you provided is certainly a handy reference that Boomble should use for web page editing.

 

Another workaround (each one appropriate for different end-uses!) I use in Word is the following: I often write in German, but my keyboard (in fact my whole setup) is Italian, so there are several characters not available, like ä or ß. So I created a macro for inserting each one - real fast, just record, insert the Alt-nnnn combination, finish recording - then created a new toolbar called "German" and saved the macros to it, using the accented letter as the icon. Then when I need to write in German I just call up the "German" toolbar and click the icon to insert the accented character.

But I don't know whether HTML would like it...