Francophiles United

Plugging in...

There are some bi and tri-lingual users the Tutor has the pleasure to work with. Their computers are English-language based, but they desire the option to type in a language other than English. There are several ways to accomplish this.

A Tutor francophile had been typing in French on their laptop for two years when suddenly, the ability to use the correct French international characters vanished! The mystery was quickly solved when the Tutor asked for a demonstration as to how the client had gone about typing said characters. Sure enough, the characters stubbornly refused to appear.

As mentioned above, several methods can accomplish this task. The particular method this client knew, used the ALT (alternate) key and a numeric sequence on the numeric keypad to get the French characters, properly accented, to appear on the screen. The technical name for this is using ASCII codes.

Should one wish to use these codes, the NUM LOCK key must be turned on for this to work. Should one look closely at the numeric keypad, one would notice two sets of characters on each key. In order to use the NUMBERS, the NUM LOCK key must be on. Most keyboards have a green led light that is visible when the NUM LOCK key is on. When the NUM LOCK key is off, the keys do something else.

For example, the number 9 is also the PgUp key (Page Up scrolls the screen 20 lines per key press). To maximize space, all numeric keys on the keypad do double duty.

What does the reader think happened in this case? A misplaced thumb, elbow or hand press the NUM LOCK key and turned it off!

TRY THIS AT HOME: to get this character, è, press the ALT key hold it while your press 0232 on the numberic keypad. Release the ALT key. Like magic, isn't it?

Here is a link to other accent codes one can type using this method:

http://www.accentcodes.com/

ALWAYS REMEMBER: before calling for help - is it plugged in, and is it turned on?

Unplugged