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The US-International Keyboard (see below) is the preferred solution for Microsoft Word; you can also use AllChars or Insert > Symbol.
The recommended solution is to install the appropriate "virtual keyboard" for your purposes. (Not the physical set of input keys plugged into the computer, but an internal "map" of which characters are produced when you press each key.) Windows 9x allows you to have several keyboard maps installed at once and switch among them via shortcut keys (Left Alt+Shift or Ctrl+Shift) or the taskbar (click on blue box with language abbreviation in lower-right of the screen). To add (or delete) keyboards to those installed, click on the sequence My Computer > Control Panel >Keyboard > Language > Add, then select the language you want to add from the drop-down box. Next highlight the language name and click Properties to associate that language with the keyboard layout you prefer, then click Ok. Click here to view the sequence of actions.
When you have a virtual keyboard selected, the character produced when you press a given key may differ from the one shown on the key. You can learn about the layout by trial and error, or else print out a keyboard map. The French and German keyboards may prove difficult to use due to significant differences between the "regular" US keyboard and these two. Students in these languages first should try out the option described in the next paragraph.
The most useful keyboard layout for Western European languages is "United States - International," whose layout is illustrated here (print it out for reference!): United States-International Keyboard Layout. In addition to a special set of characters accessible when you hold down the Alt-key on the right-hand side of the keyboard, you can compose characters by typing first the specific key for the modification (which does not appear on the screen), then the "base" character as follows:
| Accent or Diacritic | Modification Key | Enter | Result |
| acute | single quote | ' a | á |
| Umlaut / dieresis | double quote | " a | ä |
| circumflex | circumflex (shifted 6) | ^ a | â |
| grave accent | grave | ` a | à |
| til(de) | tilde | ~ a | ã |
Limitations and Considerations for US-International Keyboard
Notes on International Keyboards
To enter Japanese, Chinese or other non-Roman orthography Asian languages in Internet Explorer or Outlook Express e-mail and newsreader programs, you can install the free add-on Microsoft Global IME (Input Method Editor) for Windows and display fonts for the languages of interest from Windows Update (follow this link, then click "Product Updates"; select the language support you require--typically both the IME and Display support--from near the bottom of the list of available product updates). According to e-mail from Akemi Asa:
...the MS global IME which allows input of Japanese / Chinese / Korean in English IExplorer and Outlook seems to work OK on Win98, but only with the two programs noted. However, if you cut and paste into another application such as Word 97 from Internet Explorer or Outlook and choose a font that has the Asian language characters in it then you can read it in Word 97. You can move the text around and resize in Word but you cannot input any of the Asian characters except by cutting and pasting as described above.
To display these languages in a web page or e-mail, you must have the appropriate fonts installed, and select the appropriate encoding scheme in your browser or e-mail reader (Netscape or Outlook Express e-mail); see preceding paragraph for download link.
ANSI Character Codes
Hold down the Alt key and type these digits on the Number Pad to get the corresponding character:
To switch keyboards
- hold down Alt key on the Left side of the keyboard and press Shift,
- or else select in Taskbar (Tray) at bottom right of screen
Additional Microsoft References
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