french

These are examples of the alt-number code method:
ù Alt+151 or Alt+0249
û Alt+150 or Alt+0251
ü Alt+129 or Alt+0252
The right Alt key may be required.
JLG extended keyboard layout for US
You can download the JLG Extended Keyboard Layout for US (freeware) on http://www.jlg-utilities.com.
This layout does not modify the normal US Layout, but extends it. Thus the punctuation characters (', ", ^,
etc.) are not dead keys and does not perturb the common user. Thousand of Unicode characters can be
reached, included the French characters, generally with intuitive combinations, for instance:
é = CTRL + ' then e
à = CTRL + ` then a
Î = CTRL + ^ then I
œ = ALTGR + o then e
« = ALTGR + [
» = ALTGR + ]
etc.
In Mac OS X
You could change your keyboard layout in System Preferences->International->Input Menu or with the
default qwerty keyboard layout you can use meta keys to create the accents. For instance if you want to
create an "`" accent you would press option+` then press the vowel you want to appear under the letter to
create à, è, ì, ò, or ù. The keystrokes for the diffent accents are...
option + "`" = `
option + "e" = ´
option + "i" = ˆ
option + "u" = ¨
Copy & paste
This method can be useful if you are just writing a short text (for example an e-mail) and don't have a
computer where you can/want change language settings. Just try to pull up a web page or a document that
contains the special characters and paste them into your text. For longer texts, however, this can become
quite tedious.
Search & replace
If you are working with a text editor you have the option to search for text and replace it with other text.
This feature can be used to 'type' special characters. The idea is to mark a character for becoming a special
character, for example typing ~a when you mean à. After you have written your text you replace marked
characters (the ~a) with special characters (the à). Of course you have to either type in the Alt number code
or paste the character, but the point is that you only have to do it once for the whole text and not for every
single à that you want to type.
Unix and the Compose key
If you are using Ubuntu Linux with Gnome you select the Compose key from System: Preferences:
Keyboard then Layouts: Layout Options: Compose key position. You can select one of Right Alt key, Left
Win-key, Right Win-key, Menu key, Right Ctrl key or Caps Lock key (for a USA keyboard layout). The
Keyboard preferences dialog has an area you can use to test the settings. See below for how to use the
Compose key. Ubuntu with a different window manager, such as KDE should have a similar keyboard