leçon 1a: Typing French accent marks

Easiest: Change your keyboard.  (sorry Mac users…)

Windows Vista

1. Open your Control Panel
2. If in Classic View, click Control Panel Home in upper-left corner
3. Under Clock, Language, and Region, click Change keyboards or other input methods
4. Click Change keyboards
5. Click Add
6. Scroll down to the layout you want to add*
7. If you don't see a list including the keyboard you want, click + to expand
8. Choose your layout
9. Click OK in each dialog window.

Windows XP

1. Open your Control Panel (via Start menu or My Computer)
2. Double-click Regional and Language Options
3. Click Languages
4. Click Details
5. Click Add
6. Under "Input Language" pick the language you want to add*
7. Under "Keyboard layout/IME" make your selection
8. Click OK in each dialog window.

Windows 95, 98, ME, NT

1. Open your Control Panel (via Start menu or My Computer)
2. Double-click Keyboard
3. Click Language
4. Click Properties, Settings, or Details (whichever you see)
5. Click Add
6. Pick the layout you want to add*
7. Click OK in each dialog window.

Windows 2000

1. Open your Control Panel (via Start menu or My Computer)
2. Double-click Keyboard
3. Click Input Locales
4. Click Change
5. Click Add
6. Pick the US International layout. 
7. Click OK in each dialog window.

How to type what after changing keyboard:

• To type accent grave (à, è, etc), type ` (to the left of 1) then the vowel.
• Accent aigu (é), type ' (single quote) then e.
• Cédille (ç), type ' then c.
• Circonflexe (ê), type ^ (shift + 6) then e.
• Tréma (ö), type " (shift + ') then o.
• To type French quotation marks « » use ctrl + alt + [ and ], respectively.

The only problem with this is that in order to use the apostrophe and quotation marks, you will need to hit the space bar after pressing the apost/quote key.