WD97: How to Type Accented International Characters from the Keyboard

Microsoft Word provides a way to type international characters that contain a grave (`), acute ('), circumflex (^), umlaut (:), or tilde (~) directly from your keyboard.

For example, the following are some of the characters that can be typed with an accent directly from your keyboard: NOTE: The names of the various accents may be different depending upon your language.

For more information about typing international characters, click Contents and Index on the Help menu, click the Index tab in Microsoft Word Help, type the following text
and then double-click the selected text to go to the "Type international characters" topic. If you are unable to find the information you need, ask the Office Assistant.

To type an accented international character, follow these steps:

1. While holding the CTRL key, type the character that will appear above the letter.
   
   NOTE: To add the tilde, colon, or caret character, press CTRL+SHIFT and then type the character that will appear above the letter.
   
   The status bar displays "CTRL+key" where key is the key that you pressed, but nothing appears on the screen.
2. Type the letter that you want. The accented character will appear in the document.

If you type a legitimate symbol and an ineligible letter, you hear a beep. If you press CTRL plus a symbol that is invalid, you see just the character with no symbol above it.