How to Type Letters with Accents and Special Characters in Microsoft Windows if You Live in the U.S.

by Rob Locher


All common European special characters
Characters used in French
Characters used in Spanish
Characters used in German

Many people don't know it, but it has long been possible to enter special characters that aren't on any key on your keyboard into almost any Windows program.  This includes letters with accents, so if you like you can type "résumé", or write that paper for your foreign-language class.

There are actually several ways of doing this.  One way is with the Character Map utility that comes with Windows, and may already be installed on your computer.  This copies the special character you select into the Windows clipboard so that you can paste it into whatever program you are running.  The disadvantages of the Character Map utility are that you must choose a font, and that it is disruptive because you have to interrupt what you are doing to use it.  The best advantage of the utility is that it allows you to use any special character from any font installed on your computer, including the weird symbols in fonts that exist only to host weird symbols, such as the Wingdings font.

The quickest way to enter one quick special character or letter with an accent is with a trick that has been around for a long time.  To use it, you hold down the "Alt" key, type a four-digit number starting with zero on the number pad (not on the number keys above the letters), and then let go of the "Alt" key.  (It doesn't matter if you have "Num Lock" on or not.)  For example, to type the cent symbol "¢", hold down "Alt", type 0162 on the number pad, and then let go of "Alt".  This is written as "Alt+0162".  See the tables below.  This technique works pretty well for the occasional special character, especially if you memorize your favorites.  It allows you to access all the special characters except the weird ones in the special fonts.  (Note to programmers: Alt+0xxx picks a character from the character set selected by Windows, normally "ISO Latin-1"; Alt+xxx also selects a character, but from the "OEM" character set from DOS, which is deprecated.  The two character sets are the same for the common ASCII characters but are otherwise different.)

If you are writing in a foreign language, and not just typing one or two words, then it quickly becomes very tedious to look up and type the four-digit number of every character with an accent.  Of course, speakers of foreign languages don't put up with typing the four-digit number every time, and you don't have to either.  The best solution to typing lots of text in a foreign language is to load a different keyboard driver.  (A driver is a software program that is part of the operating system.)  The only difference between a keyboard in France and a keyboard in the United States, besides the labels on the keys, is the keyboard driver loaded on the computer.  The French keyboard driver knows that if you type "^" and then "o", you want "ô".  Believe it or not, but your U.S. edition of Windows has not only the "US" keyboard driver on the CD, but the "French (France)" keyboard driver too.  So if you wanted, you could use the French keyboard driver.  The disadvantage of this technique is that the French keyboard driver switches the Q and A keys, which is very distracting if you learned to type in the U.S., and only works with accents that are used in French, which is no good if you are crazy enough to study French and German in the same semester.  Fortunately, some wise person at Microsoft invented the "United States-International" keyboard driver, which lets you type accented characters for nearly every western European language, but still has the keys laid out as people in the United States expect.  Unfortunately somebody else at Microsoft was in charge of making the documentation for the driver easy to find; you can find it here, or look in the tables below.

To switch keyboard drivers in Windows, open the Control Panel, double-click on the Keyboard icon, and click on the "Input Locales" tab.  You may need to have your Windows CD-ROM disk handy the first time.  More recent versions of Windows make it easy to quickly switch between keyboard drivers via an icon in the taskbar or a keyboard "hot key" combination; in older versions, you have to go through the Control Panel when you want to switch.

If you are using a different keyboard driver, to type an accented character you usually type the accent first and then the character.  To type "é" in the "United States-International" keyboard driver, first type the accent (which is the apostrophe " ' " on the key next to the semicolon key) and then the "e".  With the "United States-International" keyboard driver, some characters, e.g. "¡", are typed by typing the right "Alt" key first and then the second key.  To type the accent character by itself, type the accent and then a space.  The Alt+0xxx trick also works with the "United States-International" keyboard driver, which is good because there aren't key combinations for all the special characters.

By the way, the "United States-International" keyboard driver and the Alt+0xxx keyboard trick only work with the common European accented characters and common special characters used in the U.S.  To be specific, they only work on characters 128-255 of the Windows-1252 character set.  (That's not the same as ASCII; ASCII is a seven-bit code, so the ASCII character set is only from 0 to 127.)  To type characters used in non-European languages such as Japanese, a different keyboard driver is required and the Alt+0xxx trick doesn't work.

 

Common European accented characters and special characters used in the U.S. and Europe

Char # Character Description US US-Int'l
128
Euro symbol Alt+0128 right Alt+5
129

unused Alt+0129
130
low left rising single quote Alt+0130
131
ƒ
function of, florin Alt+0131
132
low left rising double quote Alt+0132
133
low horizontal ellipsis Alt+0133
134
dagger mark Alt+0134
135
double dagger mark Alt+0135
136
ˆ
circumflex Alt+0136
137
per thousand (mille) sign Alt+0137
138
Š
Alt+0138
139
left single quote (guillemet) Alt+0139
140
Œ
capital OE ligature Alt+0140
141

unused Alt+0141
142
Ž
Alt+0142
143

unused Alt+0143
144

unused Alt+0144
145
left single quotation mark Alt+0145 right Alt+9
146
right single quote mark Alt+0146 right Alt+0
147
left double quotation mark Alt+0147
148
right double quote mark Alt+0148
149
round filled bullet Alt+0149
150
en dash Alt+0150
151
em dash Alt+0151
152
˜
tilde accent Alt+0152
153
trademark sign Alt+0153
154
š
Alt+0154
155
right single quote (guillemet) Alt+0155
156
œ
small oe ligature Alt+0156
157

unused Alt+0157
158
ž
Alt+0158
159
Ÿ
Alt+0159
160
 
Nonbreaking space Alt+0160
161
¡
Inverted exclamation Alt+0161 right Alt+1
162
¢
Cent sign Alt+0162 Shift+right Alt+C
163
£
Pound sterling Alt+0163 Shift+right Alt+4
164
¤
General currency sign Alt+0164 right Alt+4
165
¥
Yen sign Alt+0165 right Alt+-
166
¦
Broken vertical bar Alt+0166 Shift+right Alt+\
167
§
Section sign Alt+0167 Shift+right Alt+S
168
¨
Diæresis / Umlaut Alt+0168 Shift+right Alt+"
169
©
Copyright symbol Alt+0169 right Alt+C
170
ª
Feminine ordinal Alt+0170
171
«
Left angle quote, guillemet left Alt+0171 right Alt+[
172
¬
Not sign Alt+0172 right Alt+\
173
­
Soft hyphen Alt+0173
174
®
Registered trademark Alt+0174 right Alt+R
175
¯
Macron accent Alt+0175
176
°
Degree sign Alt+0176 Shift+right Alt+;
177
±
Plus or minus Alt+0177
178
²
Superscript two Alt+0178
179
³
Superscript three Alt+0179
180
´
Acute accent Alt+0180 right Alt+'
181
µ
Micro sign Alt+0181 right Alt+M
182
Paragraph sign Alt+0182 right Alt+;
183
·
Middle dot Alt+0183
184
¸
Cedilla Alt+0184
185
¹
Superscript one Alt+0185 Shift+right Alt+1 
186
º
Masculine ordinal Alt+0186
187
»
Right angle quote, guillemet right Alt+0187 right Alt+]
188
¼
Fraction one-fourth Alt+0188 right Alt+6
189
½
Fraction one-half Alt+0189 right Alt+7
190
¾
Fraction three-fourths Alt+0190 right Alt+8
191
¿
Inverted question mark Alt+0191 right Alt+/
192
À
Alt+0192 `+A
193
Á
Alt+0193 '+A
194
Â
Alt+0194 ^+A
195
Ã
Alt+0195 ~+A
196
Ä
Alt+0196 "+A
197
Å
Alt+0197 Shift+right Alt+W
198
Æ
Alt+0198 right Alt+Z
199
Ç
Alt+0199 '+C
200
È
Alt+0200 `+E
201
É
Alt+0201 '+E
202
Ê
Alt+0202 ^+E
203
Ë
Alt+0203 "+E
204
Ì
Alt+0204 `+I
205
Í
Alt+0205 '+I
206
Î
Alt+0206 ^+I
207
Ï
Alt+0207 "+I
208
Ð
Alt+0208 Shift+right Alt+D
209
Ñ
Alt+0209 ~+N
210
Ò
Alt+0210 `+O
211
Ó
Alt+0211 '+O
212
Ô
Alt+0212 ^+O
213
Õ
Alt+0213 ~+O
214
Ö
Alt+0214 "+O
215
×
Multiply sign Alt+0215 right Alt+=
216
Ø
Alt+0216 Shift+right Alt+L
217
Ù
Alt+0217 `+U
218
Ú
Alt+0218 '+U
219
Û
Alt+0219 ^+U
220
Ü
Alt+0220 "+U
221
Ý
Alt+0221 '+Y
222
Þ
Capital Thorn, Icelandic Alt+0222 Shift+right Alt+T
223
ß
Small sharp s, German sz Alt+0223 right Alt+S
224
à
Alt+0224 `+a
225
á
Alt+0225 '+a
226
â
Alt+0226 ^+a
227
ã
Alt+0227 ~+a
228
ä
Alt+0228 "+a
229
å
Alt+0229 right Alt+W
230
æ
Small ae ligature Alt+0230 right Alt+Z
231
ç
Alt+0231 '+c
232
è
Alt+0232 `+e
233
é
Alt+0233 '+e
234
ê
Alt+0234 ^+e
235
ë
Alt+0235 "+e
236
ì
Alt+0236 `+i
237
í
Alt+0237 '+i
238
î
Alt+0238 ^+i
239
ï
Alt+0239 "+i
240
ð
Alt+0240 right Alt+D
241
ñ
Alt+0241 ~+n
242
ò
Alt+0242 `+o
243
ó
Alt+0243 '+o
244
ô
Alt+0244 ^+o
245
õ
Alt+0245 ~+o
246
ö
Alt+0246 "+o
247
÷
Division sign Alt+0247 Shift+right Alt+=
248
ø
Alt+0248 right Alt+L
249
ù
Alt+0249 `+u
250
ú
Alt+0250 '+u
251
û
Alt+0251 ^+u
252
ü
Alt+0252 "+u
253
ý
Alt+0253 '+y
254
þ
Small thorn, Icelandic Alt+0254 right Alt+T
255
ÿ
Alt+0255 "+y

 

Characters used in French

Char # Character Description US US-Int'l
171
«
Left angle quote, guillemet left Alt+0171 right Alt+[
187
»
Right angle quote, guillemet right Alt+0187 right Alt+]
192
À
Alt+0192 `+A
194
Â
Alt+0194 ^+A
199
Ç
Alt+0199 '+C
200
È
Alt+0200 `+E
201
É
Alt+0201 '+E
202
Ê
Alt+0202 ^+E
203
Ë
Alt+0203 "+E
206
Î
Alt+0206 ^+I
207
Ï
Alt+0207 "+I
212
Ô
Alt+0212 ^+O
217
Ù
Alt+0217 `+U
219
Û
Alt+0219 ^+U
220
Ü
Alt+0220 "+U
224
à
Alt+0224 `+a
226
â
Alt+0226 ^+a
231
ç
Alt+0231 '+c
232
è
Alt+0232 `+e
233
é
Alt+0233 '+e
234
ê
Alt+0234 ^+e
235
ë
Alt+0235 "+e
238
î
Alt+0238 ^+i
239
ï
Alt+0239 "+i
244
ô
Alt+0244 ^+o
249
ù
Alt+0249 `+u
251
û
Alt+0251 ^+u
252
ü
Alt+0252 "+u

 

Characters used in Spanish

Char # Character Description US US-Int'l
161
¡
Inverted exclamation Alt+0161 right Alt+1
171
«
Left angle quote, guillemet left Alt+0171 right Alt+[
187
»
Right angle quote, guillemet right Alt+0187 right Alt+]
191
¿
Inverted question mark Alt+0191 right Alt+/
193
Á
Alt+0193 '+A
201
É
Alt+0201 '+E
205
Í
Alt+0205 '+I
209
Ñ
Alt+0209 ~+N
211
Ó
Alt+0211 '+O
218
Ú
Alt+0218 '+U
220
Ü
Alt+0220 "+U
225
á
Alt+0225 '+a
233
é
Alt+0233 '+e
237
í
Alt+0237 '+i
241
ñ
Alt+0241 ~+n
243
ó
Alt+0243 '+o
250
ú
Alt+0250 '+u
252
ü
Alt+0252 "+u

 

Characters used in German

Char # Character Description US US-Int'l
196
Ä
Alt+0196 "+A
214
Ö
Alt+0214 "+O
220
Ü
Alt+0220 "+U
223
ß
Small sharp s, German sz Alt+0223 right Alt+S
228
ä
Alt+0228 "+a
246
ö
Alt+0246 "+o
252
ü
Alt+0252 "+u