When I type in MS Word certain keys are showing up as French characters. I
have a Toshiba laptop and the French characters are printed on the keys in
red, but in all other programs the keys work just fine. For example, the
question mark key comes up ? here just fine, but in MS word it shows up as a
capital E with an apostrophe over it. HOW do I turn it off?

I do not have a French keyboard so this is just general information!

To change options for languages and keyboards go to Control Panel, select
Clock Language and Region.
Regional and Language Options

here you can customize your system for your language and regional
preferences, including keyboard layouts.

Michael
Vista Home premium

"Jacqueline M" <Jacqueline M@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:A408ED7E-442D-45FC-B44A-2BD33B1029B2@xxxxxx

> When I type in MS Word certain keys are showing up as French characters. I
> have a Toshiba laptop and the French characters are printed on the keys in
> red, but in all other programs the keys work just fine. For example, the
> question mark key comes up ? here just fine, but in MS word it shows up as
> a
> capital E with an apostrophe over it. HOW do I turn it off?

I've done that, and I "removed" all of the other languages other than US
English. There was Multilingual Canadian and French Canadian on there too.
It's so frustrating. I can't put any question marks or quotes or apostrophes
in any of my word documents. And I wouldn't say that my keyboard is a French
keyboard, but it's more French than others I guess. I've searched around on
my keyboard hardware thing and also in word, but I can't find anything. Any
other suggestions?

Not really, there is an auto-correct feature and a language detection
feature in Word 2007. That might be having an effect.
The options are in the Word option/proofing area. In an American english
setup it converts things like (c) to © (copyright symbol). I suppose that if
it determines that your are typing in French (takes a couple of sentences
apparently) it could convert the keys for you. If that is part of the
problem then you should be able to use the 'undo' key (control-z)
immediately after the 'correction' and the 'correction' would be removed.

Michael

"Jacqueline M" <JacquelineM@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:C6EAB167-AB50-4918-ADAE-F1544C5E9ECA@xxxxxx

>
> I've done that, and I "removed" all of the other languages other than US
> English. There was Multilingual Canadian and French Canadian on there too.
> It's so frustrating. I can't put any question marks or quotes or
> apostrophes
> in any of my word documents. And I wouldn't say that my keyboard is a
> French
> keyboard, but it's more French than others I guess. I've searched around
> on
> my keyboard hardware thing and also in word, but I can't find anything.
> Any
> other suggestions?

This happens to me all the time too. I end up pressing Ctrl + something and it seems to activate/de-activate the french characters. If I ever find out what it is, I will post it back here. Next laptop I buy WILL NOT have these french characters option. Never really realized how annoying this is until this is turned off and on my some key combination at various times.

Thanks,
Keenan

Originally Posted by keenan1976

This happens to me all the time too. I end up pressing Ctrl + something and it seems to activate/de-activate the french characters. If I ever find out what it is, I will post it back here. Next laptop I buy WILL NOT have these french characters option. Never really realized how annoying this is until this is turned off and on my some key combination at various times.

Thanks,
Keenan

Run intl.cpl, go to the Keyboards/Languages tab -> Change Keyboards. Then click on the Language Bar tab and choose Floating on Desktop.

You should now see a keyboard menu pop up. Now go to say, Microsoft Word, and press CTRL-SHIFT. You'll see the keyboard menu change text. Keep pressing CTRL-SHIFT and you'll see it cycle through all the available keyboard configs. On mines it cycles from "US" to "Canadian French" to "Canadian Multilingual Standard".

Just keep it as US - it's the only one it seems that doesn't have the French characters.

If this is a problem in Word 2007 and it is only happening in Word then try
the following steps. Look down in the bottom left hand corner of the word
document. You will find "Page 1 of 1 (or similar numbers), Words: 0 (or
different number), English (followed by whatever country you have chosen in
brackets)". Click on the language once and a menu will pop up offering you
all the different languages. English(United States) you won't give you this
problem and it is usually caused by English(Canada) etc.

"Jacqueline M" wrote:

> When I type in MS Word certain keys are showing up as French characters. I
> have a Toshiba laptop and the French characters are printed on the keys in
> red, but in all other programs the keys work just fine. For example, the
> question mark key comes up ? here just fine, but in MS word it shows up as a
> capital E with an apostrophe over it. HOW do I turn it off?

I too experience my keyboard reverting to French for some unknown reason. I
have a Toshiba Satellite. This has happened to me numerous times. It not
only occurs when using MS Word, but also when I am sending emails. It does
not allow me to type @, but types " instead. When I type a question mark, I
get a french e with the accents. There are french designations in red, on
some of my key, but there is nothing that I am doing that I know of that
turns it on or off - it just seems to do it on it's own.

"Jacqueline M" wrote:

> When I type in MS Word certain keys are showing up as French characters. I
> have a Toshiba laptop and the French characters are printed on the keys in
> red, but in all other programs the keys work just fine. For example, the
> question mark key comes up ? here just fine, but in MS word it shows up as a
> capital E with an apostrophe over it. HOW do I turn it off?

Left ALT + SHIFT

took me a while to figure it out but thats what worked for me. if you did it again it would change back to the french e

i have the same problem with wordperfect (anyone heard of that program?). to turn off french characters press ctrl + shift. you may have to do it a couple of times or hold it down.