On Making Those Silly Marks Over and Under Letters
I am a stickler for proper grammar, punctuation and spelling, so when I recently did a photo shoot for a family with an accent aigu over their ‘e’ (é) and they said “we don’t always use it, so don’t worry about it” I knew there was no chance of that happening. I’d forever visualize them looking at their custom made Christmas card and thinking “That idiot photographer couldn’t even put the accent on?” I’m sure they wouldn’t care – you know, since they told me NOT to worry about it – but I had to.
However, when I opened Word to type in their name (to copy and paste into Photoshop CS4, where the text shortcuts are non-existent as far as I know) the good old ALT 130 of my past didn’t do anything. We have the Office 2007 suite and nothing’s the same as it used to be. Quite frankly, it’s a pain in the patootie.
In searching, I found some info from someone at Penn State (for which I can no longer find the exact link, but I’m sure you don’t really care since I’m going to share it with you here, but I’d like to give more specific credit.) for the new fan-dangled “advanced” shortcuts for creating accents.
If you ever find yourself needing an accent aigu (which, I just learned, is called an ‘acute accent‘ in English), accent grave, cedilla or circonflex, you can send me a thank you card. With chocolate inside, please.
ACCENT SHORTCUTS IN WORD 2007 (and probably other places too)
Note: Be sure to note the difference between the ‘ key and the ` key.
‘ is a single quote (in between the ; and Enter). ` is a “tick” and is above Tab and to the left of the number 1.
à
Press Control + ` (above Tab and next to 1). Release. Press a.
á
Press Control + ‘ (single quote). Release. Press a.
ä
Press Control + Shift + : then release. Press a.
â
Press Control + Shift + ^ (on the 6 key). Release. Press a.
ç
Press Control + , then release. Press c.
è
Press Control + ` (above Tab and next to 1). Release. Press e.
é
Press Control + ‘ (single quote). Release. Press e.
ë
Press Control + Shift + : then release. Press e.
ê
Press Control + Shift + ^ (on the 6 key). Release. Press e.
ì
Press Control + ` (above Tab and next to 1). Release. Press i.
í
Press Control + ‘ (single quote). Release. Press i.
ï
Press Control + Shift + : then release. Press i.
î
Press Control + Shift + ^ (on the 6 key). Release. Press i.
ñ
Press Control + Shift + ~ (above Tab and next to 1). Release. Press n.
ò
Press Control + ` (above Tab and next to 1). Release. Press o.
ó
Press Control + ‘ (single quote). Release. Press o.
ö
Press Control + Shift + : then release. Press o.
ô
Press Control + Shift + ^ (on the 6 key). Release. Press o.
ù
Press Control + ` (above Tab and next to 1). Release. Press u.
ú
Press Control + ‘ (single quote). Release. Press u.
ü
Press Control + Shift + : then release. Press u.
û
Press Control + Shift + ^ (on the 6 key). Release. Press u.
Tips For Remembering:
Grave accents (à è ì ò ù) are formed with the ` key, which resembles a grave accent.
Acute accents (á é í ó ú) are formed with the ‘ key, which resembles an acute accent.
Circonflex accents (â ê î ô û) are formed with the ^ key, which resembles a circonflex accent.
The cedilla (ç) is formed with the , key, which looks like a cedilla.
How’s that for the most boring post of all time? Is there an award for that?
August 3rd, 2009 at 9:38 pm
Not boring. I think it’s actually clever and considerate of you!–Damselfly
Holly at Tropic of Mom´s last blog ..Little stinker
[Reply]
August 4th, 2009 at 7:51 am
Good for you! I think some people drop the ball when it comes to something different. I had a friend who used to say it didn’t matter if someone put Mac for her last name rather than Mc. As I was a Mac I thought that this was horrible! I would never settle for Mc!!!
it’s kind of like having a child with a different name. Do you know how many times we get gORdie or Jordan or georGie?!?! it’s GeorDie!!! Sounds exactly as it is spelled!!!
On to another thing…did not know that they came in English!! You know, like foyer (unless you’re in the States and say foy-yER). No wonder people look at me like I have nine heads all the time!!!
Helen´s last blog ..Child Labour?!?!?
[Reply]
admin Reply:
August 7th, 2009 at 8:37 am
Who knew other people cared as much as I do?
[Reply]
August 5th, 2009 at 7:48 pm
LOL – I absolutely know that I have you beat in the most boring blog post of all time category! I think Saturday’s post that I tapped out on my iPod gets the award
Mom On The Run´s last blog ..Handy Manny
[Reply]
admin Reply:
August 7th, 2009 at 8:37 am
Yours was MUCH better than mine. I didn’t think yours was boring at all!
[Reply]
August 8th, 2009 at 6:13 pm
I think it is wicked that you shared the knowledge!
chelle´s last blog ..It’s Been One Week …
[Reply]
August 8th, 2009 at 9:02 pm
I just bookmarked this post in my Tools and Reference folder. Thank you so much for this!
Julie @ the calm before the stork´s last blog ..and so it goes
[Reply]
August 8th, 2009 at 10:18 pm
This was super helpful! We just had a girl start at work that has an accent acute on the e and I knew there had to be a shortcut…just hadn`t had time to figure it out yet!
GREAT BLOG! Thanks for sharing the knowledge!
[Reply]