This is for those of you who have problems getting accent marks with your wordprocessor, or who need to produce letters with accent marks when responding by e-mail or using the on-line grammar exercises.

When working at a desktop computer:

Hold down your Alt key and, without letting up on the Alt key, type the number to the left of the character you want below one digit at a time, using the keypad on the right side of your keyboard and not the numbers across the top of the keyboard. The character, complete with letter and accent mark, should appear on your screen. (You can then let up on the Alt key:)

When working at a laptop computer:

First turn on the Number Lock function on your keyboard. The NumLk key is located in the upper right-hand corner. To activate Number Lock you usually have to hold down some other key when you hit NumLk. It may be a Func key, or the Shift key, or whatever you use on your keyboard to activate alternate keys. On most laptop keyboards, once you have activated Number Lock, a light goes on near the NumLk key. Once Number Lock is activated, hold down your Alt key and, without letting up on the Alt key, type the number to the left of the character you want below one digit at a time using the keypad numbers on your keyboard and not the numbers across the top of the keyboard. (On a laptop, the keypad numbers are alternates on keys located on the right side of the keyboard. On my laptop, they are they 7, 8, 9, U, I, O, J, K, L, and M keys.) The character, complete with letter and accent mark, should appear on your screen. (You can then let up on the Alt key:) You will then have to turn off NumLk to go on typing letters.

(If you have some idea of how Windows works, you can also install the International English keyboard, but that is more complicated than I can explain here.)

131 â
132 ä
133 à
142 Ä
135 ç
128 Ç
136 ê
137 ë
138 è
130 é
144 É
139 ï
140 î
147 ô
148 ö
149 ò
153 Ö
129 ü
150 û
151 ù
154 Ü