Forum Discussion
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.
3 Replies
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.