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pol_ahaon
Participant
November 20, 2010
Question

CS5 AI. How to add accented text character in windows

  • November 20, 2010
  • 5 replies
  • 32047 views

I am trying to get the accented (acute/forward) characters for a, e, i, o, u. (and their capital versions) in illustrator CS5 (Windows 7). I do not want to use the Glyphs - impractical. Neither do I want to use the windows character box or Alt xxxx codes.

Accented characters are part of normal text - for all but English speakers

All my other programs (MS OFfice, CAD etc) allow me to use AltGr key + letter (AltGr = right alt = Ctrl+Alt). This is also the case for Photoshop CS5 but not Illustrator.

In windows control panel I have changed languages (e.g. English, Spanish) and keyboards (e.g. US-international). No difference. As soon as I press AltGr key, I move into Group Selection mode. I have deleted all Illustrator shortcuts that include Ctrl + Alt - still no use.

I have tried previous suggestions in this and similar forums

Is there any simple way to resolve this. I have put up with this since CS1 but I thought it was fixed. Now it seems not - AI is to remain English speaking only (?)

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    This topic has been closed for replies.

    5 replies

    W
    witkacy
    Known Participant
    October 24, 2017

    Hi, Pol,

    Not sure it will help you, but see this: Photoshop Windows: Polish letter ć (AltGr + c) triggers Canvas size (Ctrl + Alt + c) in text editing mode | Photoshop F… ​. I’m able to enter Polish characters using AltGr, but only after adding an AltGr-enable IME to the secondary language I want characters from.

    Regards

    m.

    S
    synchronos5
    Participant
    April 8, 2016

    BTW, I posted this same thing through the Bug Report / Feature Request form as well. Hopefully it is at some point corrected.

    S
    synchronos5
    Participant
    April 2, 2016

    It's year 2016 now, and we still cannot type any AltGr characters in Illustrator (CC 2015.2). It is quite frustrating. On a Finnish-Swedish keyboard it means I am unable to type these characters in Illustrator: €, $, £, @, {, [, ], }, \, |. Out of those, the euro sign and the @ sign are naturally used quite often. Feels stupid to have to open up the glyphs window to type in prices or emails.

    ragdoll88
    ragdoll88
    Participant
    April 8, 2016

    I don't know about Finnish or Swedish keyboards but on Polish keyboard the AltGr's functionality (at least when it comes to accented letters) can be alternatively obtained by pressing tilde "~" (SHIFT + TheKeyBelowESC) before typing the letter to get its accented version (small) or pressing tilde together with the letter key to get the capital one. So maybe if you try to press the SHIFT + ~ before or together with the key attributed to those characters you can get the missing AltGr's function?

    But for such a popular and expensively priced software as Illustrator it should not be the way it is now. It's just ridiculous that this problem has not been fixed for so many years. But the quality of code and performance was never a strong side of Adobe products. I guess there is a need for some serious competition for them to stop releasing botched software.

    S
    synchronos5
    Participant
    April 8, 2016

    Well, the Swedish-Finnish keyboard does not work that way. First of all, the tilde character is located to the AltGr + umlaut (on the top letter row, left to the Enter key). Strangely that is the only AltGr character that actually works. It produces the ~ itself or the tilde accented characters, namely, ñ, ã, and õ. But it does not produce any other AltGr symbols. When used with other characters than a, n, or o, it only produces the ~ and the unmodified character (for instance ~4, not $, if pressing AltGr+¨ and then 4). Shift+[key below Esc] produces only ½, as it should as well (the unmodified character is § on the Swedish-Finnish keyboard).

    The Polish keyboard is, to my guess, an exception. And even it does not produce AltGr symbol characters, only accented letters (as there doesn't seem to be any AltGr symbols, e.g. $, €, {, on the Polish keyboard; they are all Shift-modified). Probably the AltGr has been so late addition to the Polish keyboard that the Shift+` method was already very well established before it.

    The underlying problem is of course that the Illustrator counts pressing AltGr as pressing Ctrl+Alt. Which is not the way it should be done on the keyboards containing the actual AltGr key, at least when in text typing mode. InDesign knows the difference, Photoshop knows the difference.

    Los Guasque
    Los Guasque
    Participant
    November 19, 2015

    AMEN.I am editing  a manuscript in SPANISH for a publisher and cannot aDD ACCENTS !!

    Renee, with accent in the second e

    Mylenium
    Mylenium
    Legend
    November 20, 2010

    What is your native language setup? Accents on a tertiary modifier such as AltGr is rather unusual... Even in German they are either primary keys or secondary modifiers and the Adobe type engine handles it correctly... Only the reverse is true - AI does not handle some keyboard shortcuts on foreign language systems, because it has assigned them to fixed character codes, but that should not affect text handling....

    Mylenium

    P
    pol_ahaonAuthor
    Participant
    November 20, 2010

    My normal setup is English UK language with English UK keyboard.

    I am not sure I understand your comment "Accents on a tertiary modifier such as AltGr is rather unusual..." and I am not clear about primary keys and secondary modifiers but from my experience...

    AltGr (or Ctrl + Alt) + vowel will give accented (forward) vowel in any package that I use - for example Microsoft Word, Excel, OneNote, Firefox, Paint Shop Pro, TurboCad etc - and many more. It is a standard in windows and has been for years. Even Photoshop follows it. But not Illustrator.

    In trying to get it to work in Illustrator I have tried every reasonable combination of keyboards (e.g. US-international, Spanish) and  languages (e.g. French, Spanish etc) as well as English

    I'd happily work with any two-key / three - key shortcut I could set up in Illustrator.

    Mylenium
    Mylenium
    Legend
    November 20, 2010

    Ah, I see... Wasn't aware that the Brits have it that awkward (I have used lots of foreign language keyboards, but not that one yet)... Mmh, could it be, that this is one of the problems I was refering to earlier (right Alt being equaled to left Alt in AI's mind)? Really not sure and cannot resort to any experience in this case... Sorry. Maybe someoen else can chime in...

    Mylenium

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