Hjælp

How to type accented characters and special symbols on Windows

Software: Comfort Keys Pro

I often need to type accented letters (é, ñ, ü) and special symbols (€, ©, ®, —). Memorising Alt-codes is awkward and the built-in US-International layout breaks regular typing. Is there an easier way?

Windows offers several built-in options, but each has limitations:

  • Alt + numeric code on the numeric keypad (for example, Alt+0233 for é). Hard to remember and useless on laptops without a numeric pad.
  • US-International keyboard layout turns apostrophe and quote keys into dead keys, which interferes with normal typing.
  • Windows Touch Keyboard (Win+;) shows a small picker, but you cannot customise it.

With Comfort Keys Pro you can place any character on a dedicated key:

  1. Open the Edit keyboard type window.
  2. Add a new key with a hexadecimal code (or pick an unassigned one).
  3. Press the Action... button and choose Paste text. Type the symbol you need (é, €, ©, —…).
  4. Save the layout.

The character is inserted in any application, regardless of the current keyboard language. You can also assign the same action to a hardware-keyboard hotkey in Comfort Keys Pro and skip the on-screen step entirely.