How to Type Letters with Accents on the keyboard (+ Alt codes) - How to Type Anything (2024)

An Accent is a diacritical mark used to indicate stress or placed below or above a letter (or a vowel) to indicate a special pronunciation.

Due to improved keyboard controls on devices, typing or putting accents on letters (accented letters) becomes very easy. Whether you are using a desktop (be it Windows or Mac), laptop, or even on mobile devices, you can easily type accents on letters with some cool tricks and techniques you’ll learn about in this article.

There are some specialized keyboards that allow you to type these accented letters easily. Thus, if you don’t use these special Accent keyboards, you’ll need some of the techniques in this article to be able to type any letter with an accent or symbol into your Work on any device.

Without further ado, let’s get started.

Table of Contents

How to Type Letters with Accents (On Windows)

There are several approaches to typing or inserting accented letters into Microsoft Windows.

Since these characters are not readily available on the keyboard, using their alt codes is the simplest way to type them on Windows.

In this section, I’ll show you how to type accents in windows using the characters’ alt codes.

Using the Letters with Accents Alt Code

Each letter with an accent has an alt code with which you can use to type it anywhere in Windows, whether in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, in your Browser, and so on. You’ll learn the alt code to all the accented characters in a moment. For now, let’s look at the steps.

To type letters with accents on top, obey the following instruction:

  • First of all, know the alt code of the letter with accent you want to type. The alt codes are listed just below these instructions.
  • Turn on your Num Lock. Press Fn+NmLk to turn on Num Lock on laptops without the numeric keypad.
  • Hold down the Alt key on your keyboard.
  • Whilst still holding on to the Alt key, press the character’s alt code.
  • For example, to type e with an acute accent (é), press and hold the Alt key, then type the alt code 0233 on the numeric keypad.
  • Now release the Alt key.

You should see the accented letter inserted as soon as you release the Alt key.

Below are the alt codes for the various accented letters.

Letters with Acute accents Alt Codes

DescriptionSymbolAlt Codes
A acute – UppercaseÁAlt 0193
a acute – LowercaseáAlt 0225
E acute – UppercaseÉAlt 0201
e acute – LowercaseéAlt 0233
I acute – UppercaseÍAlt 0205
i acute – LowercaseíAlt 0237
O acute – UppercaseÓAlt 0211
o acute – LowercaseóAlt 0243
U acute – UppercaseÚAlt 0218
u acute – LowercaseúAlt 0250
Y acute – UppercaseÝAlt 0221
y acute – LowercaseýAlt 0253

Letters with Grave accents Alt Codes

DescriptionSymbolAlt Codes
A grave – UppercaseÀAlt 0192
a grave – LowercaseàAlt 0224
E grave – UppercaseÈAlt 0200
e grave – LowercaseèAlt 0232
I grave – UppercaseÌAlt 0204
i grave – LowercaseìAlt 0236
O grave – UppercaseÒAlt 0210
o grave – LowercaseòAlt 0242
U grave – UppercaseÙAlt 0217
u grave – LowercaseùAlt 0249

Letters with Circumflex accents Alt Codes

DescriptionSymbolAlt Codes
A circumflex – UppercaseÂAlt 0194
a circumflex – LowercaseâAlt 0226
E circumflex – UppercaseÊAlt 0202
e circumflex – LowercaseêAlt 0234
I circumflex – UppercaseÎAlt 0206
i circumflex – LowercaseîAlt 0238
O circumflex – UppercaseÔAlt 0212
o circumflex – LowercaseôAlt 0244
U circumflex – UppercaseÛAlt 0219
u circumflex – LowercaseûAlt 0251

Letters with Tilde accents Alt Codes

DescriptionSymbolAlt Codes
A tilde – UppercaseÃAlt 0195
a tilde – LowercaseãAlt 0227
N tilde – UppercaseÑAlt 165
n tilde – LowercaseñAlt 164
O tilde – UppercaseÕAlt 0213
o tilde – LowercaseõAlt 0245

Letters with Umlaut Accents Alt Codes

DescriptionSymbolAlt Codes
A umlaut – UppercaseÄAlt 0196
a umlaut – LowercaseäAlt 0228
E umlaut – UppercaseËAlt 0203
e umlaut – LowercaseëAlt 0235
I umlaut – UppercaseÏAlt 0207
i umlaut – LowercaseïAlt 0239
O umlaut – UppercaseÖAlt 0214
o umlaut – LowercaseöAlt 0246
U umlaut – UppercaseÜAlt 0220
u umlaut – LowercaseüAlt 0252
Y umlaut – UppercaseŸAlt 0159
y umlaut – LowercaseÿAlt 0255

Note: Using the alt code approach means that you have a lot to learn. And as we all know, learning these alt codes will take a lot of practice as there are many alt codes to remember. However, you can create a cheat sheet for quick reference if you happen to type accents frequently. If you are using any of the Microsoft Office Apps like Word or Excel, you can reconfigure some hotkeys to better suit your typing needs – We’ll discuss that later in this article.

How to type Accents on Mac

Typing accents on Mac is a lot easier with shortcuts. There are some combinations of keys for typing any accented letter on Mac. Let’s take a look at how to use each of these shortcuts.

Typing Letters with grave accents on Mac

Obey the following steps to type any letter with the grave accent mark on top of it:

  • First of all, press [Option]+[`] on your keyboard.
  • Then press the letter to be accented.

For example, to type è (e with the grave accent), press and hold [OPTION], then press the [`] grave accent key. Release the two keys and then type [e]. The ‘e’ with grave should be inserted into your work. The same technique can be used to type à, ì, ò and ù.

The [`] mark is called the grave accent and the key for typing this mark is the key on top of the [Tab] key and before the [1] key.

How to Type Letters with Accents on the keyboard (+ Alt codes) - How to Type Anything (1)

Letters with grave accent shortcuts are listed in the table below:

SymbolDescriptionShortcut on Mac
àa grave[OPTION]+[`] then a
èe grave[OPTION]+[`] then e
ìi grave[OPTION]+[`] then i
òo grave[OPTION]+[`] then o
ùu grave[OPTION]+[`] then u

Typing Letters with acute accents on Mac

Obey the following steps to type any letter with the acute accent mark on top of it:

  • First of all, press [Option]+[e] on your keyboard.
  • Then press the letter to be accented.

For example, to type é (e with the acute accent), press and hold OPTION, then press the e key. Release the two keys and then type e. The letter é should be inserted for you. The same technique can be used to type á, í, í, ó, ú and ý.

Letters with acute accent shortcuts are listed in the table below:

SymbolDescriptionShortcut on Mac
áa acute[OPTION]+[e] then a
ée acute[OPTION]+[e] then e
íi acute[OPTION]+[e] then i
óo acute[OPTION]+[e] then o
úu acute[OPTION]+[e] then u
ýy acute[OPTION]+[e] then y

Typing Letters with circumflex accents on Mac

Obey the following steps to type any letter with the circumflex accent mark on top of it:

  • First of all, press [Option]+[i] on your keyboard.
  • Then press the letter to be accented.

For example, to type ê (e with the circumflex accent), press and hold the [OPTION] key, then press the [i] key. Release the two keys and then type e. The letter ê should be inserted into your work. The same technique can be used to type â, î, ô and û.

Letters with circumflex accent shortcuts are listed in the table below:

SymbolDescriptionShortcut on Mac
âa circumflex[OPTION]+[i] then a
êe circumflex[OPTION]+[i] then e
îi circumflex[OPTION]+[i] then i
ôo circumflex[OPTION]+[i] then o
ûu circumflex[OPTION]+[i] then u

Typing Letters with the tilde accents on Mac

Obey the following steps to type any letter with the tilde accent mark on top of it:

  • First of all, press [Option]+[n] on your keyboard.
  • Then press the letter to be accented.

For example, to type ã (a with the tilde accent), press and hold the [OPTION] key, then press the [n] key. Release the two keys and then type a. The letter ã should be inserted into your work. The same technique can be used to type ñ and õ.

Letters with tilde accent shortcuts for Mac are listed in the table below:

SymbolDescriptionShortcut on Mac
ãa tilde[OPTION]+[n] then a
ñn tilde[OPTION]+[n] then n
õo tilde[OPTION]+[n] then o

Letters with umlaut accents on Mac

Obey the following steps to type any letter with the umlaut accent mark on top of it:

  • First of all, press [Option]+[u] on your keyboard.
  • Then press the letter to be accented.

For example, to type ë (e with the umlaut accent), press and hold the [OPTION] key, then press the [u] key. Release the two keys and then type e. The letter ë should be inserted into your work. The same technique can be used to type ä, ï, ö, ü and ÿ.

Letters with umlaut accent shortcuts are listed in the table below:

SymbolDescriptionShortcut on Mac
äa umlaut[OPTION]+[u] then a
ëe umlaut[OPTION]+[u] then e
ïi umlaut[OPTION]+[u] then i
öo umlaut[OPTION]+[u] then o
üu umlaut[OPTION]+[u] then u
ÿy umlaut[OPTION]+[u] then y

These are the easy ways to type letters with accents on top of them on Mac.

How to Type Accents on Letters in Word

In this section, we’ll discuss the various options you can use to type accents in Microsoft Word.

Without further ado, let’s get started.

Keyboard shortcuts for typing accents in Word

If you are using Microsoft Word for typing your projects which requires you to frequently type accented letters, you’ll be happy to learn that Word has made typing accents very easy with some combinations of keys.

For example, to type é ( e with acute accent) in Word, press Ctrl+’ (apostrophe), then hit on the letter [e].

This means that Ctrl+’ then [a] gives you á, Ctrl+’ then [u] gives you ú, and so on.

Below is a table of shortcut keys to type accents in Word:

Accented LettersShortcut Key in MS Word
à, è, ì, ò, ù, À, È, Ì, Ò, ÙCtrl+` (accent grave),the letter
á, é, í, ó, ú, ý, Á, É, Í, Ó, Ú, ÝCtrl+’ (apostrophe),the letter
â, ê, î, ô, û, Â, Ê, Î, Ô, ÛCtrl+Shift+^ (caret),the letter
ã, ñ, õ, Ã, Ñ, ÕCtrl+Shift+~ (tilde),the letter
ä, ë, ï, ö, ü, ÿ, Ä, Ë, Ï, Ö, Ü, ŸCtrl+Shift+: (colon),the letter
å, ÅCtrl+Shift+@(At), a or A

Typing Letters with accents in Word using Alt Codes

One of the easiest ways you can get any accented letter in Word is to use the character’s alt code. All you have to do is to key in the alt code whilst you press and hold the Alt key on your keyboard.

Below are the steps to type any accented letter in Word using the character’s Alt code:

  • First of all, identify the alt code of the accented letter you wish to type. In this example, we will type the letter e with an acute accent (é). The Alt code for this letter is 130.

Note: Refer to the first section of this article for a list of alt codes for all the accented letters.

  • Press and hold the Alt key and type the alt code of the letter you wish to type. In this example, we are typing é whose alt code is 130. Therefore, whilst holding down the Alt key, press 130 on the numeric keypad at the right-hand side of your keyboard.

This is how you may type accents into Microsoft Word with the help of character codes.

Insert Accents using the Insert symbol’s dialog

This particular method involves a little bit of workaround. But it’s fairly simple. It doesn’t involve using the keyboard though.

And once you get the accented you want into your document; you can always copy and paste it again as and when the need arises.

Obey the following instructions to insert accents in Word using the insert symbol dialog.

  • On theInserttab, click theSymbolbutton and chooseMore Symbols…
How to Type Letters with Accents on the keyboard (+ Alt codes) - How to Type Anything (2)

These few clicks will display the Symbol dialog box. Now it’s time to look for the symbol you want to insert.

How to Type Letters with Accents on the keyboard (+ Alt codes) - How to Type Anything (3)
  • Locate theSymbol

To easily find all the accents in the dialog box, look at the bottom right area of the Symbol dialog box and selectUnicode (hex)in thefrom:drop-down. Then look again at the top right area of the dialog and selectLatin-1 Supplementin theSubset:drop-down.

This will filter out all theletters with accents.

How to Type Letters with Accents on the keyboard (+ Alt codes) - How to Type Anything (4)
  • Select the symbol, then click Insert. Alternatively, double-click on your choice to insert it into your document.
  • After inserting, close the Symbol dialog box by clicking on the Cancel button.

This is how you may insert letters with accents in Word using the insert symbol dialog.

How to Type Accents in Excel

There are two simple ways to type accents in Excel. The use of character codes and using the insert symbol’s dialog box.

In this section, I’ll go through these two options one after the other.

Without further ado, let’s get started.

Using the insert Symbol’s dialog

The following steps will show you how to insert letters with accents in Excel using the insert symbol’s dialog box.

  • Select the cell that will contain the accented letter you wish to insert. If you want the accented letter to come before or after a particular character in a cell, place the insertion pointer right there.
  • Click on the Insert tab.
How to Type Letters with Accents on the keyboard (+ Alt codes) - How to Type Anything (5)
  • Click on the Symbols drop down and select Symbol to display the Symbol’s dialog box.
How to Type Letters with Accents on the keyboard (+ Alt codes) - How to Type Anything (6)
  • The Symbols dialog box will appear.
  • From this Symbol dialog box, search for the letter with an accent you want and double click it to insert. Alternatively, just select and click on the Insert button at the bottom of the dialog.
How to Type Letters with Accents on the keyboard (+ Alt codes) - How to Type Anything (7)
  • Click on the Cancel button to close the dialog.

This is how you may use the Symbol’s dialog box to insert letters with accents in Excel.

Using alt codes to type accents in Excel

Another easy way to type letters with accents in Excel is to use alt codes. This method will work for you if you are using a Windows PC. If it looks like you, just obey the instructions below:

  • First of all, identify the alt code of the accented letter you wish to type. In this example, we will type the letter e with an acute accent (é). The Alt code for this letter is 130.

Note: Refer to the first section of this article for list of alt codes for all the accented letters.

  • Now, Select the cell that will contain the letter with an accent.
  • Press and hold the Alt key and type the alt code of the accented letter. In this example, we are typing é whose alt code is 130. Therefore, whilst holding down the Alt key, press 130 on the numeric keypad at the right-hand side of your keyboard.
  • After typing the code, release the alt key.

This is how you may type accents in Microsoft Excel using alt codes.

How to Type Letters with Accents on the keyboard (+ Alt codes) - How to Type Anything (2024)

FAQs

How to Type Letters with Accents on the keyboard (+ Alt codes) - How to Type Anything? ›

To insert an ASCII character, press and hold down ALT while typing the character code. For example, to insert the degree (º) symbol, press and hold down ALT while typing 0176 on the numeric keypad. You must use the numeric keypad to type the numbers, and not the keyboard.

How do you type special characters with Alt key? ›

To insert an ASCII character, press and hold down ALT while typing the character code. For example, to insert the degree (º) symbol, press and hold down ALT while typing 0176 on the numeric keypad. You must use the numeric keypad to type the numbers, and not the keyboard.

How do you type accents on a keyboard? ›

Press Control + `, then the letter to add a grave accent.

Hold the Control key down, then tap the accent key near the top left corner of your keypad. Release the keys. Then select the desired letter to accent. The accent key is usually on the same key as the ~.

How to type u with accent alt code? ›

Hold the Alt key as you type the following four digit codes on your numeric keypad: Alt + 0218 for Ú, upper case U with acute accent. Alt + 0250 for ú, lower case u with acute accent.

How do you type the letter A with an accent over it? ›

For example, to create an A with an acute ligature, hold down the Control key and press the apostrophe key. Release both keys and either press A or press and hold Shift+A. For example, to create an O with the grave ligature, hold down the Control key and press the apostrophe key.

How do I activate special characters on my keyboard? ›

To type special characters in Windows, hold the Alt key, type the number code associated with the special character you want using the numpad that's located on the right side of your keyboard.

What is the Alt code 255? ›

The magic sequence of keys Alt-255 typed at numeric keypad places an Invisible Character symbol into text. This character looks like a blank space in the program code and SAS output but is processed and printed by many programs as a valid text character.

What are the Alt codes for accents? ›

Vowels with accents
Uppercase vowel with acute accentPress
ÁAlt+0193
ÉAlt+0201
ÍAlt+0205
ÓAlt+0211
2 more rows

How do you add Spanish accents when typing? ›

Using the U.S. – International Keyboard
  1. á = ' + a.
  2. é = ' + e.
  3. í = ' + i.
  4. ó = ' + o.
  5. ú = ' + u.
  6. ñ = ~ + n.
  7. ü = ” + u.

What is the Alt 164 symbol? ›

The lowercase ⟨ñ⟩ can be made in the Microsoft Windows operating system by typing Alt + 164 or Alt + 0241 on the numeric keypad (with Num Lock turned on); the uppercase ⟨Ñ⟩ can be made with Alt + 165 or Alt + 0209 .

How to make a star with alt code? ›

Press and hold the ALT key and type the number 9733 or 9734 to make star symbol.

What is the Alt code for the upside down U? ›

What is the name of the symbol on a laptop keyboard that looks like an upside down U? - Quora. It's the micro symbol µ you will not find it on most keyboards, but you can use the alt-code:27 press and hold down alt key then type 227 on the numpad, then release alt will place this symbol π.

How do I put an accent over a letter on my keyboard? ›

For example, for è you would press Ctrl + ` , release and then type e.

How do I type é on my keyboard? ›

Using the Alt Code
  1. Ensure your Num Lock is on.
  2. Hold down the Alt key.
  3. While holding the Alt key, type 0233 on the numeric keypad.
  4. Release the Alt key, and voilà, the é appears!
Dec 5, 2023

How to type accents on HP laptop? ›

Adding accent marks
  1. Acute (´): ' then letter.
  2. Grave (`): ` then letter.
  3. Tilde (~): Shift + ` then letter.
  4. Circumflex (^): Shift + 6 then letter.
  5. Umlaut/diaeresis (¨): Shift + ' then letter.
  6. Cedilla (¸): Shift + AltGr + 5 then letter.
Sep 16, 2023

What is the alt code for ★? ›

In another example, I took this a step further by integrating the star symbol (★), or Alt code 9733.

How do I enable Alt key on my keyboard? ›

The method involves pressing the left ALT + left SHIFT + NUM LOCK keys simultaneously on your keyboard. In the popup menu that appears, click . Things i tried: Uninstall/Reinstall/Update Keyboard driver. Updated my all driver's both through windows settings and Driver booster app..

How do you insert special characters in symbols? ›

Click or tap where you want to insert the special character. Go to Insert > Symbol > More Symbols. Go to Special Characters. Double-click the character that you want to insert.

How do you use special characters on a keyboard without the Shift key? ›

Alt Codes – How to Type Special Characters and Keyboard Symbols on Windows Using the Alt Keys. In Windows, you can type any character you want by holding down the ALT key, typing a sequence of numbers, then releasing the ALT key.

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