Uneasy Rhetoric

Bilingual? Need to write in a language with accent marks? Use Windows XP? Use the Language Bar and its ability to switch keyboard layouts on the fly.

MS-Word has keyboard shortcuts for characters such as é or ü ([ctrl]+ ‘ then e or [ctrl]+[shift]+ ‘ then u). However, not all programs respond to Word’s keyboard shortcuts. For example, I write blog posts in a text editor or in a form on a web page.

It takes a little time to get used to the US-International keyboard layout, but it can be a time saver when typing longer documents in French or Spanish.

The layout is the same as a regular QWERTY, except that three keys (two and a half, actually: the grave accent/tilde, the caret or [shift]-6, and the apostrophe/quote keys) change behavior. Using the US-International keyboard, these keys will always wait for the next keypress. If it is an accented letter (vowels except for ç and ñ), that letter will appear with its accent. If it is any other character, then the key’s normal character will appear.

The key strokes:

é = apostrophe then a letter (a, e, i, o, u)

è = backwards apostrophe/tilde (that key in the upper left corner) then a letter (a, e, i, o, u)

ç = apostrophe then c

ü = [shift]+apostrophe (that’s a quotation mark) then a letter (a, e, i, o, u)

ê = [shift]+ 6 then a letter (a, e, i, o, u)

ñ = [shitf]+ `/~ then n

Microsoft has a page that depicts the US-International keyboard. (Guess what? The page doesn’t load in Firefox.)

How to install the US-International keyboard.

1. Go to Control Panel then “Regional and Language Options”
2. On the “Languages” Tab, click “Details”
3. Under “Installed Services” click “Add”
4. Keep “Input Languages” as English (United States)
5. Under “Keyboard layout/IME” choose “United States - International”
6. Click “Apply”

A little keyboard icon should display next to your Windows system tray. If it doesn’t, right-click on the taskbar, go to “toolbars,” and turn on the language bar.

To switch keyboards, click the keyboard icon. It will give you a list of your installed keyboards.

Note, all of this assumes you’re using a font that supports the necessary characters or that the website you’re posting to is using a compatible character set, e.g. utf-8.