How do you do french accents in Thunderbird (eg above the 'e')?
Many thanks for reading and replying.
Chosen solution
abcTajpu and Clippings are "add-ons", and yes you install them into Thunderbird, and also into Firefox if that's useful to you. After all I have been using them both here in Firefox to write to you now.
The easy way to find either of them is to go to Tools|Add-ons in Thunderbird, and type its name into the search box.
Here's the item on my website describing how to do this: http://xenos-email-notes.simplesite.com/416814616
A macro is a mini-program, but that probably sounds more scary than it is. All it means here that a specific set of key presses will get something done for you. The abcTajpu add-on comes with some already set up for you, and I was trying to indicate the keystrokes you'd use to generate some typical accented or combination characters. You're free to add your own or you can re-define any existing keyboard macros.
<insert> means the key labelled insert on your keyboard. So, for your e-with-umlaut (and I'm guessing here and following my nose:)
type e type : press the insert key
ë
And it's probably available in upper case too:
Ë
Here's your other example:
e ^ <insert> gives us ê.
Yay! But this was intended just as an illustration as to how complex it is to use. Some of us like keyboard shortcuts, others find them counter-intuitive.
If all that looked too horrifying to you then you might just not want to go any further with it.
For me, three keystrokes is less of an interruption to my typing than going off to click on a menu and searching through a list. But searching through lists seems to suit many people. ;-)
abcTajpu is more than just some accented characters. It gives you access to just about any character you can imagine wanting to use: Greek, Cyrillic, mathematical, typographical, Arabic, Hebrew, box-drawing, Wingdings-style icons/clip-art and more. You could do this by picking through the Character Set tool in Windows (I presume Macs have something similar) but again, searching through a list or table isn't quite my favourite way of doing it.
And if all else fails, it gives pop-up menus very like the one built into Thunderbird.
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Look under Insert-Characters and Symbols on the menu bar in a Write window. There is Accent upper and lower case there.
Thank you for this, I have managed it but it is a bit of a faff (my family is french so I use those accents a lot in my emails). Would you know by any chance, if there is a way to put these letters with the accent as icons in the top menu (two would be enough), or any other way to use them more quickly? Many thanks for replying, Airmail. My best wishes to you.
Modified by Marilou
Not that I know of. There are language pack add ons that you might investigate. I have never used them so I cannot say how they work. Google Thunderbird language pack and read about them.
Thank you for this. Perhaps someone else might know? With best wishes.
A language pack is an extension (add-on) that changes the language of the user interface in a Mozilla application (Firefox, Thunderbird, SeaMonkey, etc.). For example, if you have an English version of Thunderbird, then the first button on Thunderbird's toolbar has the label 'Get Mail' and the tooltip 'Get new messages'. But if you install the French language pack and switch the user interface to French, then the first button on Thunderbird's toolbar has the new label 'Relever' and the tooltip 'Relever les nouveaux messages'. So the Language pack will alter the user interface. You need to ascertain whether this is what you want. Info here: http://kb.mozillazine.org/Language_packs https://addons.mozilla.org/en-us/thunderbird/language-tools/
Otherwise try this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QWERTY#US-International
To type French special characters without changing the keyboard layout, hold down the Alt button + type the Numbers (from the Numeric Pad) see codes here ; http://symbolcodes.tlt.psu.edu/bylanguage/french.html
I use abcTajpu which allows keyboard macros. So,
é is e ' <insert> ç is c , <insert> æ is a e <insert> è is e ` <insert> ø is o / <insert> ö is o : <insert>
and so on. I also use Clippings for combinations and other characters that I occasionally use but can't remember, since this is a tad faster than searching through all the character sets that abcTajpu exposes. Hence:
[≡] → …
are all accessed via <ctrl>+<alt> v then a mnemonic, or via yet another pop-up menu.
Both of these add-ons work in Firefox and Thunderbird.
But if you're using Windows, I'd expect there to be a compose method open to you as well. Ah, I see Toad-Hall has covered that, but I think abcTajpu's method is more intuiitve. ;-)
Modified by Zenos
1. Thank you Toad Hall, I had googled the language packs but disregarded that option as I do not wish to change my program to another language, I just want to be able to quickly type eg. é, è and e with an umlaut (like ö but with an e - letters copied from Zenos' post btw) I looked at the wikipedia page but the instructions don't appear to work with my (UK) MacbookPro. I also looked at the symbol codes for Mac, which were very useful, I managed to do é ê ë (copied from my attempt in Thunderbird) but unfortunately the instruction for è end up as æ. But now I know how the system works I can look for it. Thank you very much!
2. Thank you Zenos. Your reply is probably useful but I would need this to be translated into plain english, sorry I'm an oap and don't know: - how/where top find abcTajpu - is it something I would need to instal in T'bird? - I've never understood what macros were, and also don't understand what you mean when you type 'é is e ' <insert>' - it's probably a case of 'it's obvious once you know' but if I translate it it would be something like: type e, type ', but what does <insert> mean? Sorry to be such a dunce... But thank you for trying to help
Chosen Solution
abcTajpu and Clippings are "add-ons", and yes you install them into Thunderbird, and also into Firefox if that's useful to you. After all I have been using them both here in Firefox to write to you now.
The easy way to find either of them is to go to Tools|Add-ons in Thunderbird, and type its name into the search box.
Here's the item on my website describing how to do this: http://xenos-email-notes.simplesite.com/416814616
A macro is a mini-program, but that probably sounds more scary than it is. All it means here that a specific set of key presses will get something done for you. The abcTajpu add-on comes with some already set up for you, and I was trying to indicate the keystrokes you'd use to generate some typical accented or combination characters. You're free to add your own or you can re-define any existing keyboard macros.
<insert> means the key labelled insert on your keyboard. So, for your e-with-umlaut (and I'm guessing here and following my nose:)
type e type : press the insert key
ë
And it's probably available in upper case too:
Ë
Here's your other example:
e ^ <insert> gives us ê.
Yay! But this was intended just as an illustration as to how complex it is to use. Some of us like keyboard shortcuts, others find them counter-intuitive.
If all that looked too horrifying to you then you might just not want to go any further with it.
For me, three keystrokes is less of an interruption to my typing than going off to click on a menu and searching through a list. But searching through lists seems to suit many people. ;-)
abcTajpu is more than just some accented characters. It gives you access to just about any character you can imagine wanting to use: Greek, Cyrillic, mathematical, typographical, Arabic, Hebrew, box-drawing, Wingdings-style icons/clip-art and more. You could do this by picking through the Character Set tool in Windows (I presume Macs have something similar) but again, searching through a list or table isn't quite my favourite way of doing it.
And if all else fails, it gives pop-up menus very like the one built into Thunderbird.
Modified by Zenos
Thank you so much Zenos, for taking the time to explain things to me. All I have to do now is find an Insert button on my keyboard (there doesn't appear to be one on my macbook but I'll google it). I will read your article and keep it for reference. With my best wishes.
I didn't see that one coming!
http://support.oreilly.com/oreilly/topics/the_great_insert_key_mystery
But you can configure abcTajpu to use different keys to do its thing. So maybe there is another key that is more obvious, intuitive or accessible.
Hello again Zenos, I had spent a bit of time researching the Insert key but none of the solutions I found so far when I googled the query appear to work on my macbook (including the one mentionned in your link). The other problem I had was that I haven't yet found the Add ons menu in Thunderbird, only in Firefox so I'll have a look at this too. Never mind, I'll use the tip given by Toad Hall (eg pressing Options (the alt key)+e then e to get é. Again, many thanks for your help, which is greatly appreciated. All my best wishes.