How to type French-specific characters on a standard US keyboard on Windows using French-Canada layout

enter image description here This is the answer applicable to a standard desktop English(US) 104-key keyboard (see picture here: standard ANSI keyboard layout (US)). On laptops (especially with multilingual/international keyboards) it may not work.

Note: You will need to add "français (Canada)" input method (in Control Panel) (also known as "Canadian Multilingual Standard keyboard") and switch to it for this to work, but it will work in any program - not only in MS Word, for example.

à - \           (the key above "Enter", "|" is also shown on it)
â - [, a        (the key right of "P", then "a")
æ - RCtrl+a     (Right-Ctrl together with "a"; Note: Left-Ctrl will not work)
ç - ]           (the key above "Enter")
è - '           (the key left of "Enter", """ is also shown on it)
é - /           (the key left of Right-Shift, "?" is also shown on it)
ê - [, e        (the key right of "P", then "e")
ë - {, e        (Shift together with [, then "e")
î - [, i        (the key right of "P", then "i")
ï - {, i        (Shift together with [, then "i")
ô - [, o        (the key right of "P", then "o")
œ - RCtrl+e     (Right-Ctrl together with "e"; Note: Left-Ctrl will not work)
ù - RAlt+[, u   (Right-Alt together with [, then "u"; Note: Left-Alt will not work)
û - [, u        (the key right of "P", then "u")
ü - {, u        (Shift together with [, then "u")
ÿ - {, y        (Shift together with [, then "y")

The idea is:

  • é è ç à (the most often used letters) - are directly accessible on keyboard.

Other letters are accessible via "[" (square bracket), which works as a modifier.

  • accent circonflexe: use "[" followed by a letter under accent
  • tréma: use Shift"[" followed by a letter under accent
  • accent grave: use Right-Alt"[" followed by a letter under accent

And finally, æ and œ are accessible via Right-Ctrl:

  • æ - RCtrl"a"
  • œ - Rctrl"e"