Forum Discussion
meyestone
Oct 04, 2023Copper Contributor
Some accent shortcut keys not working in Word (but one does!)
Hi, I got an older laptop at work (not crazy old, but used by others) and in Word (Microsoft 365 Apps for Business) two of the three shortcut keys I regularly use to type accented characters don't work.
- I can do Ctrl-` followed by a letter and get an accent grave (So Ctrl-`, e gives me è)
- But, Ctrl-' does *not* give me an accent aigu. Ctrl-', e just gives me an e, rather than é.
- Similarly, I get no accent circonflexe when I use Ctrl-Shift-^. Ctrl-Shift-^, e just gives me an e, rather than ê.
I have using the English US keyboard layout (and have disabled the French (Canadian) keyboard.)
I've checked that there are no other actions mapped to the Ctrl-' and Ctrl-Shift-^ key combinations (in Customize Ribbon, Keyboard Shortcuts, Customize).
I've googled up and down and found no one with the same problem.
Again, the one works - I can make à, è and ò, but not á, é ,ó, â, ê, or ô. I'm forced to use "Insert Symbol" every time I want to add an accented character (and I'm in Canada, so have to write lots of words with accented characters in them.)
Anyone have any ideas?
Thanks in advance.
In Word, you can (re-)assign keyboard shortcuts to characters through the Symbol dialog box (Insert tab > Symbols group > Symbol > More Symbols. Select the desired character and use the Keyboard Shortcut button.
- meyestoneCopper Contributor
Stefan_Blom Thanks, but that would mean I'd need to invent a shortcut key for every accented character! I just want the "normal" Ctrl+', [letter], or Chrt-Shift-^, [letter] to work, the way that Ctrl-`, [letter] works. This has worked on every other Word installation I've ever used!
Thanks for the update. I see your point.
I would look into keyboard settings once more, and the regional settings in Windows. Do you see a possible explanation there?
It is maybe a long shot, but you could try a different (physical) keyboard.