Windows: US Keyboards
The old standard
The standard way in Windows to enter vowels with fadas is to use the Alt
key and the numeric keyboard. This is painstaking and error-prone.
With most versions of
Windows including Vista, you can type fadas using the following keyboard commands:
| á
: ALT + 0225 |
é : ALT +
0233 |
í : ALT +
0237 |
ó : ALT +
0243 |
ú : ALT +
0250 |
| Á : ALT +
0193 |
É : ALT +
0201 |
Í : ALT +
0205 |
Ó : ALT +
0211 |
Ú : ALT +
0218 |
Windows XP/2000/Vista:
If you're using Windows 2000 or Windows XP, you can go into the Control
Panel for languages, and add Irish there. It's slightly different between
Windows 2000 and XP, but they're pretty close. Here are the instructions
for Windows XP (assuming your computer is already set up for US English):
-
Select Start-->Settings-->Control Panel-->Regional and Language Options
-
Click the Languages tab.
-
Click the Details... button.
-
Click the Add... button.
-
Leave Input Language as English, but change Keyboard Layout/IME to
Irish. Click OK.
-
Click the Language Bar... button.
-
Make sure Show the Language bar on the desktop is selected/checked.
-
Click OK on all the dialogs to close them.
You should now see a little keyboard icon near the bottom right of your
Windows Start bar. While in your browser, click the keyboard icon and
select Irish. (This setting is on a per-application basis.)
Now you can press Ctrl+Alt+vowel to get accented vowels. Of course, use
the Shift key, too, if you need a capital letter.
Ctrl+Alt+a = á
Ctrl+Alt+Shift+a = Á
One thing about this keyboard layout: it switches the double quote (")
key with the at-symbol key (@)! That takes a little getting used to, but
it's much better than entering the Alt+numbers the old fashioned way!