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–Hello!–
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Are you planning to visit Paris soon? Will you need to find an internet cafe?
I did a search recently and was surprised by how many internet cafes there are in Paris.
It made me think of the first time I typed on a keyboard in Paris. [many moons ago now] and how confused I was when the letters that appeared on the computer screen did not match what I had typed… or I THOUGHT I had typed…
That was my introduction to foreign language keyboards – I’ve come a long way since then.
A long time ago when the internet was a puppy [an old saying from my grandaddy], you can press a couple of keys on the keyboard to switch between typing French and English. This saved my bacon many times, but it certainly confused people who borrowed my computer from time to time.
These days, with MS Windows updating a million times since I first used it, and the Mac OS being so fabulous, there are definitely easy ways to ‘switch’ between typing English and French… if only you knew which ones. are.
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—one—
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How can I type English on a French keyboard?
The first thing you need to do is add an English keyboard module via the START menu, which anyone can do; You don’t need to be a wunderkind or a tech guru to do this:
In Win XP, you can change the languages and keyboard layout
1* start your computer
2 * click the Start button
3* choose Settings, Control Panel and Regional and Language Options
4* click on the “Languages” tab
5* click the “Details” button
6* add a language and assign properties to it, one of which is US International English keyboard.
7* for Windows XP, click Details
8* click Apply to finish the process; the Windows installation CD is usually not necessary
9* for more help, see the keyboard and multilingual sections in Home – Help
Do you have Windows VISTA? Try these slightly different instructions when following the information above:
4* “Languages” tab becomes “Keyboard & Languages” tab
5 * “Details” button becomes “Change keyboards”
6* click the General tab to get to the Add section
Continue following steps 7-9.
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Now, just because I’ve shown you HOW to change your keyboard from French to English in an internet cafe doesn’t mean the owner is happy you’re doing it. You should ask… you really should, so he left it to you.
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The standard keyboard in English-speaking countries is known as a QWERTY keyboard. These are the first 6 letters, starting from the left, just below the numbers.
On a French keyboard, these same keys become AZERTY, where the A and Z have been moved up.
The French keyboard already has extra characters like cedille included on the keys, while on a QWERTY keyboard you have to press the Alt key. [Windows PC] or the Control key [Mac] and then the special character, sometimes twice.
PS: I wrote an article for my website about this and thought it was a great idea to share the information with lots of other people who could benefit from it. You can see the article here:
http://www.one-night-in-paris.com/internet-cafes-in-paris.html
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The bottom line is that yes, there are solutions that allow you to type English on a French keyboard without your emails looking like gibberish. If you can’t ‘add’ the English layout as shown above, then you can certainly search and slowly peck to type your message.
And the best part? You will meet others in those internet cafes that have the same challenges, you will try new cafes and you will visit interesting cafes, so… where better to learn how to type on a French keyboard than in Paris?
Enjoy your trip! Post a comment on my website if you like.
I need to go for a walk on the Champs Elysées… bye!
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–The end–
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