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.

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To type an accented international character, follow these steps:

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Windows

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.

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Macintosh

1.	While holding the OPTION key, type the character that will appear above the letter.
2.	Type the letter that you want. The new combination appears in the document.

If you type a legitimate symbol, but type an ineligible letter, the symbol and letter will be placed in the document as separate characters.

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Word 98 Macintosh Edition

For more information about this topic, click the Help button on the Standard toolbar and search on accent. Click the Insert symbols or special characters topic, and then click Type international characters.

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Word 7.0

For more information about this topic, double-click the Help button on the Standard toolbar and search (Show Topics) on accent, or international. Select the "Creating international letters with a U.S. keyboard" topic and click the Go To button.

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