Type French easily on USA keyboard?

[cclloyd9785]

Is there an easy way for me to type in French, including accents on a USA keyboard, other than memorizing the alt codes?

 

[whs]

You could make yourself a character store (e.g. on a notepad) from the character map that you find in All Programs > Accessories > Ease of Access. Then you copy the characters from there and paste it into the text. That is not very convenient either, but gets the job done for the occasional email or so. The notpad shortcut you can pin to the taskbar for easy access.

But if you need it frequently, I would get a French keyboard and make the appropriate settings (which you can easily switch back and forth). E.g. I am right now typing from a German keyboard - in Florida.

 

[cclloyd9785]

What about making hotkeys?

Like for é I could type Alt + E + 1 for accent aigu, 2 for grave, etc.

 

[whs]

What about making hotkeys?

Like for é I could type Alt + E + 1 for accent aigu, 2 for grave, etc.

That would be about the same as the Alt codes. If you have a numeric keypad, that would be easier. There are not that many that you can write on a small sheet.

 

[cclloyd9785]

Well it would be easier, because I don't have to memorize the code for each letter and accent for each letter. Its like a code.

And I do have a numeric keypad.

I also have AutoHotKey if you know a way to do it with that.

 

[whs]

Not really, I never use hotkeys - except the obvious ones like CTL+P. Three keys together would confuse me - LOL.