Foreign Language Word Processing in the ICC Learning Center
International Communications and Culture Department, SUNY Cortland
 

US-International Keyboard

The US-International keyboard uses the ', `, ~, ^, " as dead keys (highlighted in blue below), and uses Right-ALT plus !, ?, and a number of other keys to produce characters not normally available.  The accents are intuitive, and they work with the standard US keyboard so students do not need to learn any special codes of non-standard letter positions.

Tap the accent dead key, then tap the vowel for which you want the accent.  The ' dead key also works for the cedilla:

Hitting the spacebar or a non-accented letter after a dead key produces the key's normal value, i.e. ', `, ~, ^, or ".  Caveat:  If you type fast, it is easy to get an accent when you actually meant to type a real apostrophe before a vowel.

Other special characters can be entered by using the Right-Alt key in combination with other keys  (esp. useful for ¿,  ¡  «, »  ß).  For Spanish, it might be easier to use the Right-Alt key for accents too:

Spelling and grammar proofing in the ICC lab:

Spell check, grammar, and thesaurus software for French and Spanish is available for MS Word.  The correct dictionary will be used for any part of a document for which the language is set (see tools menu).  In MS Word, the language setting for text may be selected for English, French, or Spanish by using Word's Tools / Language / Set Language menu.

In other computer labs, you may use Word's built-in shortcut keys for typing accents.

W3 page maintained by PonterioR@cortland.edu.
Copyright © 2001, International Communications and Culture, SUNY Cortland, Cortland, New York.