Typing Accents and Special Characters

There are several ways to insert accented letters and other foreign characters. The following chart lists a few methods that can be used on particular computer types.

General Instructions

Most of the links below go to http://tlt.its.psu.edu/suggestions/international/accents/index.html.

Inserting Cyrillic Accent Marks in Word on Windows XP

1. Download the Cyrillic accent fonts to your Desktop.
2. Open the AccentFonts.zip on your Desktop, open the Accent Fonts folder and drag the 4 files to your My Computer > Local Disk C: > Windows > Fonts folder. (Note: you'll need to be logged in as an administrator )
3. Open Word, go to Tools > Macro > Visual Basic Editor.
4. Copy and paste these codes into the Visual Basic Editor window:
   

   Sub StressMark()
   ' Macro written on 3/23/2005 by Laura Qin, Wellesley College
   Selection.MoveLeft
   If (Selection = ChrW(1081) Or Selection = ChrW(1092) Or Selection = ChrW(1073)) Then
   Selection.MoveRight
   HighAccent
   Else
   If (Selection = ChrW(1099) Or Selection = ChrW(1102)) Then
   Selection.MoveRight
   MiddleAccent
   Else
   Selection.MoveRight
   LowAccent
   End If
   End If
   End Sub
   Function HighAccent()
   Selection.InsertSymbol CharacterNumber:=769, Unicode:=True
   End Function

   Function LowAccent()
   Selection.InsertSymbol CharacterNumber:=-4088, Unicode:=True
   End Function

   ' This part of the macro was contributed by Richard Robin at George Washington University
   Function MiddleAccent()
   Dim a$
   Dim fontname$
   WordBasic.CharLeft 1, 1
   'a$ = WordBasic.[Selection$]()
   'WordBasic.CharLeft 1
   fontname$ = WordBasic.[Font$]()
   If fontname$ = "Times New Roman" Then WordBasic.Font "VremyaAccent"
   If fontname$ = "Arial" Then WordBasic.Font "ArialAccent"
   'WordBasic.Font "VremyaAccent"
   WordBasic.WordRight 1
   WordBasic.Font "Times New Roman"
   GoTo fin

   WordBasic.CharRight 1, 1
   a$ = WordBasic.[Selection$]()
   WordBasic.CharLeft 1
   fontname$ = WordBasic.[Font$]()
   If fontname$ = "Times New Roman" Then fontname$ = "Times New Roman Cyr"
   If a$ = Chr(13) Then GoTo KonecStroki

   WordBasic.Insert " "
   WordBasic.CharLeft 1
   WordBasic.CharLeft 1, 1
   WordBasic.Font "VremyaAccent"
   WordBasic.CharRight 1
   WordBasic.EditClear
   WordBasic.CharRight 1
   GoTo fin

   KonecStroki:
   WordBasic.CharLeft 1, 1
   WordBasic.Font "VremyaAccent"
   WordBasic.CharRight 1
   WordBasic.Font fontname$

   fin:
   End Function

5. Close the Visual Basic Editor window.
6. To assign a keyboard short cut for the macro, go to Tools > Customize...
7. In the Commands tab, select Macros on the left.
8. Click the Keyboard... button.
9. Under Categories, scroll down to select Macros.
10. Select StressMark on the right, and then choose new combination keys (for example, Ctrl + , ). Click Assign when you are done.
    
    Note: When you do not see StressMark on the right, select the name of your document on the Save changes in: field.
    
11. Now when you need to type Cyrillic accent in Word, just type the letter, then press the key combination assigned above. The accent mark will be inserted.

• Heather Woods
• hwoods@wellesley.edu
• Date Created: November 26, 2002
• Last Modified: June 21, 2006