Using French AZERTY keyboards

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Using French AZERTY keyboards

Postby jeffers » Mon Mar 08, 2021 12:38 pm

Does anyone know of a simple guide to using an AZERTY keyboard to type accent marks, etc? I have installed the French (France) set on my laptop and I'm hoping I can simply switch keyboards to simply type the accents when I want to. I'm using Windows 10.

When I google this question the pages I look up don't work with this setup, or they turn out to be articles about making accents on a QWERTY keyboard.
Last edited by jeffers on Tue Mar 09, 2021 3:11 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Using French AZERY keyboards

Postby rdearman » Mon Mar 08, 2021 12:48 pm

You can just google for an image of the azerty keyboard and then keep it beside your machine. I just went ahead and bought an azerty keyboard myself since it was only about £14. Most of the keys with the accent marks are where the function keys are on mine. for example F7 = è and F9=ç
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Re: Using French AZERY keyboards

Postby Dragon27 » Mon Mar 08, 2021 12:52 pm

What is exactly the problem? Have you added the keyboard layout you wanted? Do you know how to switch to it? Do you know which keys on your keyboard are for accent marks?
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Re: Using French AZERY keyboards

Postby Cavesa » Mon Mar 08, 2021 1:10 pm

jeffers wrote:Does anyone know of a simple guide to using an AZERTY keyboard to type accent marks, etc? I have installed the French (France) set on my laptop and I'm hoping I can simply switch keyboards to simply type the accents when I want to. I'm using Windows 10.

When I google this question the pages I look up don't work with this setup, or they turn out to be articles about making accents on a QWERTY keyboard.


If you need it just for French (and not to add accents like the Spanish ones on top of that, which is something I cannot do yet), I recommend just doing a normal typing course online, like this one (not sure whether it is the one I did, but it was surely similar).

https://www.dactylographie-online.com/FR/Aspx/Start.aspx

There are various free options. You can invest one afternoon in this skill and then profit and practice in the real life. Most accents taught like this will be second nature to you, just like the differently placed "normal" letters and special symbols. The few resistent ones (I'll probably live the rest of my days without managing to type @ on the French keyboard :-D ) can be handled with a sticker on the key.

Some people put stickers on all the keys, but I find it to be a less esthetic, less pleasant, and also less efficient solution. You'll be lost, if you suddenly need to type on a different machine, and it may actually slow down your real typing speed and learning in my opinion.

Really, an online typing course has been one of the best time investments I've ever done. I type fast on two keyboards now, the only problem are the passwords, because I usually have them memorised more "motorically" than as a string of symbols. :-)
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Re: Using French AZERY keyboards

Postby jeffers » Mon Mar 08, 2021 1:10 pm

Here's the on-screen keyboard for the AZERTY (French) keyboard in Windows 10.
azerty on-screen.png


I can see the e acute and the e grave, as well as a grave, but for example I don't see a acute anywhere. The one key combo I was able to find is that if you press the key to the right of P and then any vowel you get a circumflex over that vowel: â ê î ô û.

The function keys just do their normal functions when I switch to French.
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Re: Using French AZERY keyboards

Postby gsbod » Mon Mar 08, 2021 1:37 pm

I generally switch between UK extended keyboard layout and German keyboard layout on Windows. I find that UK extended works just fine for French when I need it. You need one or two switch keys for the accents, but as far as French is concerned they are all there.

I've never bothered actually getting a German keyboard or marking the keys up or anything, although I did keep a printout of the German keyboard layout by my desk until I got used to it.
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Re: Using French AZERY keyboards

Postby guyome » Mon Mar 08, 2021 1:52 pm

jeffers wrote:but for example I don't see a acute anywhere.
I dont think there's a key for that since it's not used in French as far as I know.
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Re: Using French AZERY keyboards

Postby jeffers » Mon Mar 08, 2021 2:13 pm

guyome wrote:
jeffers wrote:but for example I don't see a acute anywhere.
I dont think there's a key for that since it's not used in French as far as I know.


True, that would explain why it's not there! :lol:
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Re: Using French AZERY keyboards

Postby Dragon27 » Mon Mar 08, 2021 2:20 pm

You mean "á"? No, I can't find it on the French keyboard in MKLC either. There are four dead keys: circumflex, diaeresis (the same key that is for circumflex, but it should be pressed with Shift), tilde (on AltGr+2) and grave accent (on AltGr+7). No dead key for acute accent, it seems.

PS: AltGr is either right Alt key or Ctrl + left Alt (by "either" I mean both options should work equally fine).
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Re: Using French AZERY keyboards

Postby jeffers » Mon Mar 08, 2021 2:29 pm

gsbod wrote:I generally switch between UK extended keyboard layout and German keyboard layout on Windows. I find that UK extended works just fine for French when I need it. You need one or two switch keys for the accents, but as far as French is concerned they are all there.

I've never bothered actually getting a German keyboard or marking the keys up or anything, although I did keep a printout of the German keyboard layout by my desk until I got used to it.


Thank you, I think this may be a more straightforward solution for me, especially as it keeps the qwerty layout I'm used to. I found a page in Lawless French which explains the key combinations:
https://www.lawlessfrench.com/faq/type-accents/type-accents-in-windows/

Incidentally, the "US International" keyboard and the "UK Extended" keyboard both seem to access the same accents in the same way.
I was wrong. The UK Extended works quite differently from the US International. I prefer the US International because you type a single quote followed by a vowel to get an acute accent, and followed by a c to get the cedille. E.g. é á ú í ç. Very little to memorize.
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