French accents with US keyboard on MacBook?
Thread poster: Marie-Cécile Béal
Marie-Cécile Béal
Marie-Cécile Béal  Identity Verified
Local time: 14:10
English to French
+ ...
Oct 26, 2010

Hi,

I am considering to buy a MacBook Pro and use it for my translations to French, but I live in Costa Rica where only US or Spanish keyboards are available (the Apple stores would not deliver from France, neither from Canada).

I have read in various forums that it was relatively easy to type the French accents and quotation marks with a Mac, but my clients want the 'curly' marks associated with certain fonts. So, does the US keyboard handle the same accents exactly as
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Hi,

I am considering to buy a MacBook Pro and use it for my translations to French, but I live in Costa Rica where only US or Spanish keyboards are available (the Apple stores would not deliver from France, neither from Canada).

I have read in various forums that it was relatively easy to type the French accents and quotation marks with a Mac, but my clients want the 'curly' marks associated with certain fonts. So, does the US keyboard handle the same accents exactly as in the font? Also, could I type the ç in the same style as the one of the font?

The answer seems obvious but I need to be sure, given the cost of the investment. For example when I use a Spanish PC keyboard the acute accents don't look exactly the same as in French, I think (I am not sure).

And I have never used a Mac before.

So thanks in advance for your wise input.
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Tom in London
Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 20:10
Member (2008)
Italian to English
Me too Oct 26, 2010

You could simply use Apple's own character palette, which is built into the Mac operating system. This allows you to access all accented characters in a very easy way, with your mouse, from the menu bar - like this: Ê ê or even ě!!! (I just did that with my mouse).

Here's a demo: http://www.apple.com/pro/tips/specialchar.html

You can do it from within any applic
... See more
You could simply use Apple's own character palette, which is built into the Mac operating system. This allows you to access all accented characters in a very easy way, with your mouse, from the menu bar - like this: Ê ê or even ě!!! (I just did that with my mouse).

Here's a demo: http://www.apple.com/pro/tips/specialchar.html

You can do it from within any application.

If you want to make it even easier you can buy PopChar and install it:

http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/productivity_tools/popcharx.html

It only takes a second to do accented characters this way but it's still an annoying little additional task, so I do it another way:

I use a MacBook Pro (English keyboard) but when I was in Italy I bought a full-size Italian keyboard with all the proper accents, and I plug it into the MB Pro.

Anyway go ahead and get the MB Pro- it's a wonderful computer.

[Edited at 2010-10-26 16:07 GMT]
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Joakim Braun
Joakim Braun  Identity Verified
Sweden
Local time: 21:10
German to Swedish
+ ...
Buy the Mac Oct 26, 2010

You have several options.

There are various keyboard remappers around that let you reassign any physical keyboard key. Ukulele looks good (haven't tried it): http://scripts.sil.org/cms/scripts/page.php?site_id=nrsi&id=ukelele

And I may be wrong about this, but isn't the key mapping of the physical keyboard dependent on some "International" sett
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You have several options.

There are various keyboard remappers around that let you reassign any physical keyboard key. Ukulele looks good (haven't tried it): http://scripts.sil.org/cms/scripts/page.php?site_id=nrsi&id=ukelele

And I may be wrong about this, but isn't the key mapping of the physical keyboard dependent on some "International" setting in the system preferences (just like in Windows)? I'm pretty sure you can set the Mac up to work just as if it had a French keyboard.

Also, you can connect external USB keyboards from any supplier. You'll most certainly be able to get hold of a French USB keyboard somehow.

As very last resort, you could even write an AppleScript to insert whatever character you want and tie it to a keyboard shortcut. (Even in MS Word!)

"does the US keyboard handle the same accents exactly as in the font?"
The Mac works with Unicode internally just like most computers do. If you type a key, the corresponding character will appear, assuming it's included in the current font's character set. If you mean "curly quotes" substitution, then typically that's a setting in your word processor (which will also handle French bracket quotes etc.).

Go ahead and buy the Mac, and don't worry about this problem.
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Susanne Kress
Susanne Kress  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 21:10
Member (2010)
Spanish to German
+ ...
It is very easy Oct 26, 2010

Hello, marie-cecile,
I just bought an iMac a month ago, and with one click I change from a Spanish keyboard to a German or to a French keyboard.
You just go to System Preferences, International, Input Menu, and there you choose the languages for your keyboard.
Once you've done this, you will find a flag at the right top of the screen, where you can change from one keyboard to another. Your US-keyboard will write as if it were a French one (you just have to know where the keys a
... See more
Hello, marie-cecile,
I just bought an iMac a month ago, and with one click I change from a Spanish keyboard to a German or to a French keyboard.
You just go to System Preferences, International, Input Menu, and there you choose the languages for your keyboard.
Once you've done this, you will find a flag at the right top of the screen, where you can change from one keyboard to another. Your US-keyboard will write as if it were a French one (you just have to know where the keys are...)
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Madeleine MacRae Klintebo
Madeleine MacRae Klintebo  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 20:10
Swedish to English
+ ...
Not a problem Oct 26, 2010

I regularly work on an English (UK) keyboard typing in Swedish, a language which has three more letters (the dots and rings above Swedish characters aren't just diacritical marks - å and ä are different characters, not a with a diacritical mark, and ö is not o.

Susanne has already told you how to access different language settings. All you then have to do is memorise where they are situated on the relevant keyboard. I suggest googling language name + "keyboard" + "layout" + "mac
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I regularly work on an English (UK) keyboard typing in Swedish, a language which has three more letters (the dots and rings above Swedish characters aren't just diacritical marks - å and ä are different characters, not a with a diacritical mark, and ö is not o.

Susanne has already told you how to access different language settings. All you then have to do is memorise where they are situated on the relevant keyboard. I suggest googling language name + "keyboard" + "layout" + "mac" and clicking on "Images". You can also click on the flag on the right-hand side of the menu "strip" at the top of your screen (sorry, can't remember what this is officially called) and select "Show Keyboard Viewer". The problem I've found with the latter approach is that this doesn't display the keys' other functions - using Shift or Alt.
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Cetacea
Cetacea  Identity Verified
Switzerland
Local time: 21:10
English to German
+ ...
Not a problem indeed. Oct 26, 2010

Madeleine MacRae Klintebo wrote:
The problem I've found with the latter approach is that this doesn't display the keys' other functions - using Shift or Alt.


Yes it does. All you have to do is press the Shift and/or Alt keys while the Keyboard Viewer is open, and voilà!


 
Madeleine MacRae Klintebo
Madeleine MacRae Klintebo  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 20:10
Swedish to English
+ ...
Eating humble pie Oct 26, 2010

Cetacea wrote:

Madeleine MacRae Klintebo wrote:
The problem I've found with the latter approach is that this doesn't display the keys' other functions - using Shift or Alt.


Yes it does. All you have to do is press the Shift and/or Alt keys while the Keyboard Viewer is open, and voilà!

Do you know how long it took me to find @ initially?

Now can you help me with how to work on a Mac with a physical UK keyboard with SV as default language over a VPN on to a PC with Vista and a physical SV keyboard, also SV default, without trying to commit harikiri every 5 minutes? And then reverting back to the Mac and using WM Fusion to access Windows XP, still default SV, without going mad?


 
Marie-Cécile Béal
Marie-Cécile Béal  Identity Verified
Local time: 14:10
English to French
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
you guys are so convincing Oct 26, 2010

I will buy the Mac then, how could I resist?

I just have to take some holiday to learn how to use it, and... get Trados to work, which should take me ages and a few headaches.

Thanks a lot for all these ideas.


 
Brian Young
Brian Young  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 13:10
Danish to English
on a mac Oct 27, 2010

It is worth noting that there are three options
shift+option (= alt)
shift alone
Option alone.
These all give different sets of selections from the keyboard viewer.
Buy the mac! You will not regret it!


 
Tom in London
Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 20:10
Member (2008)
Italian to English
Explore this for a while Oct 27, 2010

http://www.apple.com/why-mac/better-hardware/

 
Catherine Jan (X)
Catherine Jan (X)  Identity Verified
France
Local time: 21:10
French to English
AZERTY on my wall Oct 27, 2010

Hi Marie-Cécile,

I can confirm that you just need to change the language settings. Very easy! I've got two flags, the French one and Canadian one, and I switch back and forth if someone needs my computer.

I use AZERTY on my QWERTY keyboard. I printed out the AZERTY layout and taped it up on my wall for easy reference.

It's much cheaper to buy a Macbook in Canada than in France.

Catherine


 
Marie-Cécile Béal
Marie-Cécile Béal  Identity Verified
Local time: 14:10
English to French
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
Thanks to all Nov 4, 2010

I confirm it is very easy to use a US Mac to write in French. It is a wonderful machine, I am thrilled.

Regards.


 


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French accents with US keyboard on MacBook?






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