How to Generate French Characters on any Keyboard

1. Go to Start - Settings - Control Panel - Regional Settings - Languages.
2. Click on the Details button - and select French (Canada) as your input language.
3. Select Canadian French (---> NOT CANADIAN MULTILINGUAL <---) as your layout.

This will enable access to the extra characters and symbols as above.

This is the only reasonable ergonomic and practical way to access French characters on a regular basis. If you only occasionally need access to a French character, then you can easily set up a toggle in your taskbar (you click on the language of choice, EN for English or CF for Canadian French) which will toggle the layout from standard English to French (Canada).

Using the ALT codes is a cumbersome way to generate special characters and is not recommended in general as it requires a complex combination keystroke, which many individuals choose to perform with one hand (which makes it even more of a risk factor when keyboarding).

If you have a need for a number of special characters on a regular basis, from multiple languages, consider getting a programmable numeric keypad where these special characters can be directly assigned to a specific key.

1. Go to Start - Programs - Accessories - System Tools - Character Map
2. You will see a list of special characters available in your current font (including French Canadian Characters).
3. Double click the desired character, or select the character and click the 'Select' button.
4. Click the 'Copy' button.
5. Return to the program you need the character in (word processor, email, etc.) and press CTRL-V or select 'Paste' from Edit on the Menu bar.
6. Your desired character will appear in that location.

1. Ensure that you have access to your numeric keypad (these are the numbers arranged in a grid pattern on the far right side of a traditional keyboard).
2. If you have a keyboard with no numeric keypad, there is usually an embedded numeric keypad which is accessed by pressing and releasing a Fn (Function) key, or possibly the NumLock key. On occasion the key to enable the embedded numeric keypad is not toggle access (i.e. press and release) but rather is shift access (i.e. press and hold). For more information about how to activate your numeric keypad on your keyboard, find your keyboard on our site and view the More Information / Detailed Specifications Page.
3. Press and hold down the ALT key and type the appropriate ALT code on the numeric keypad, and then release the ALT key. Your character should be generated. There are both 4 digit ALT codes (which always work) and 3 digit ALT codes (which will always work in Windows applications, but are also dependent on the selected font i.e. they will not work on all fonts).
4. IMPORTANT NOTE #1: The numbers on the top row of your keyboard (i.e. 1 (!), 2 (@), 3 (#), 4 ($), etc.) will not generate the special characters as the number keys on the top are considered different than those in the numeric keypad by your computer.
5. IMPORTANT NOTE #2: You cannot use an external numpad using an ALT key on the keyboard i.e. the ALT key has to be on the SAME device as the number keys.

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