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–Hello there! –
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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 amazed at how many internet cafes there actually 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 THOUGHT that I had typed …
That was my introduction to foreign language keyboards; I’ve come a long way since then.
Back then, when the internet was a puppy [an old saying from my grandaddy], you can press a couple of keys on the keyboard to toggle between typing French and English. This saved my bacon many times, but it sure confused people who borrowed my computer from time to time.
These days, with MS Windows updated a trillion times since I first used it, and the Mac OS is so fabulous, there are definitely easy ways to ‘switch’ between typing English and French … if you only knew what they are. .
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— 1 —
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How to be able to type English on a French keyboard
The first thing to do is add an English keyboard module via the HOME menu, which anyone can do; You don’t need to be a wunderkind or technical guru to do this:
In Win XP, you can change the languages and keyboard layout
1 * turn on 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 give it properties, one of which is the US international English keyboard.
7 * for Windows XP, click Details
8 * click Apply to finish the process; Windows installation CD is not usually necessary
9 * For more help, see the keyboard and multi-language sections in Start – Help
Do you have Windows VISTA? Try these slightly different instructions when you follow the information above:
4 * the “Languages” tab becomes the “Keyboard and languages” tab
5 * “Details” button becomes “Change keyboards”
6 * click the General tab to get to the Add section
Continue with steps 7-9.
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— 2 —
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Just because you’ve shown you HOW to change the keyboard from French to English in an internet cafe doesn’t mean the owner will be happy about you doing it. You should ask … you really should, so I’ll leave it to you.
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The standard keyboard in English-speaking countries is known as the 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 A and Z have been moved up.
The French keyboard already has the extra characters like the cedilla included in the keys, whereas 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 many others who might benefit. You can see the article here:
http://www.a-night-in-paris.com/internet-cafes-in-paris.html
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— 4 —
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The bottom line is that yes, there are solutions that allow you to type English on a French keyboard without making your emails look like gibberish. If you can’t ‘add’ the English layout as shown above, then you can certainly hunt and peck slowly to write 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 visit interesting cafes, so … where better to learn to type on a French keyboard but in Paris?
Enjoy your trip! Post a comment on my website if you want.
I need to take a walk on the Champs Elysees … au revoir!
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–end–
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