If there is a shortcut for the symbol it will be displayed and even a full name. As you can see, the shortcut key (roughly) matches how the accent looks – which makes them easy to remember: Here’s a simplified list of the main accent shortcuts in large type on the rightĪdd the Ctrl + Shift + the accent shortcut key. Strictly speaking the shortcut is Ctrl + ^ but in practice you have to press the Shift key to enter the grave character above the 6 key … so the shortcut is Ctrl + Shift + ^ for most keyboards. Is it Ctrl + ^ or Ctrl + Shift + ^ ? You’ll see the same shortcut written both ways. The same shortcut works for the accent and grave using the apostrophe and grave (usually on top left of the keyboard, below the ~ tilde). Similarly, press Ctrl + Shift + : (colon) then either a, e ,I, o, u will produce that letter with a umlaut above it (which looks like a colon on its side) eg â, ê ,î, ô, û. For example pressing Ctrl and Shift plus ^ (caret, usually above the 6 key) then the letter ‘a’ will produce an a with caret above it eg â. An easy way to remember them is … you hold the Ctrl and Shift keys down while pressing the character that represents the type of accent you want. The shortcuts have been there for a long time and the main four are quite logical.

Same with fiance becoming fiancé ShortcutsĬommon accents have shortcuts in Office generally (Word and Outlook which uses Word as its email editor). Type cafe and Office will change it to café In English language versions of Office you’ll probably see some of these: Sometimes you don’t have to do anything! Office may add some accented characters for you automatically using the in-built AutoCorrect list. This ensures you get it right and saves having to work out the keyboard shortcuts to make an accent letter. The real easy way, especially with names, is to copy the word (with accented characters) from some source document or incoming email.

Office and Windows let you enter almost any character. It’s good to get a name or word exactly right, if only as a courtesy to the reader. The keyboards don’t show accented letters and it’s not obvious how to type them.

Typing accented letters can be a chore and a mystery, especially for those of us unaccustomed to languages with the ‘extra’ letters. How to enter accented characters, grave, circumflex, umlaut etc when they aren’t on the keyboard.

How to make accent marks in word 2010