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Classic and foreign keyboards

Avatar Eric Jervis
Here's a tricky one lads.
I wrote a French NO I DIDN'T:
I wrote a letter in French yesterday and had to insert the accents afterwards with a pen.
I was using PageMaker under Classic mode but was unable to install any foreign keyboards. What I did under OS9 was to open the system folder, open the system suitcase, and copy all the keyboards I needed to the desktop. They would subsequently appear in a dropdown menu in the menu bar.
Under Classic, however, the system suitcase cannot be opened because it is 'Used by OSX'.
Aha! I thought to myself, I'll just convert the document to a PDF file and use the foreign keyboards I installed via the International Prefs in OSX.
Doesn't work though, presumably because a PDF file can't be mucked about with.
Sooooooooo..... can I install OS 9.2.2 on my G5 PowerPC chip?
(I've bought a fine felt tip pen just in case.)

Re: Classic and foreign keyboards

Avatar Mick Burrell
In the menu bar (OS X) click on the flag and choose Show Character Viewer. In the list on the left of the window that opens, click on Accented Latin, highlight the letter you want and click on Insert.

There are also various keyboard shortcuts to type frequently used accented characters. For example, option-c will produce a c with cedilla or an e with acute accent is option-e followed by e. In general, option-e will produce an acute accent over the next letter pressed, option-u will produce an umlaut over the next letter.

Re: Classic and foreign keyboards

Avatar Eric Jervis
Thanks Mick, but that doesn't work in Classic, because when I open the file the OSX menu bar is replaced by the PageMaker menu bar. In OS9 I can get the little flags in the PM bar by opening the system suitcase.
I think I made a mistake in installing Tiger in order to run PM under Classic because, although it does work it's a bit clunky; and over the course of a year I need to write a fair number of these letters in français.
These short cuts are good though - I hate having to write naive when I mean naïve!
So what do you think, format the Classic drive & install OS9 instead?

Re: Classic and foreign keyboards

Avatar John Surtees
I have successfully modified pdf files in Illustrator and then copy and pasted text. This works as long as the file was not created from a tiff image or similar.

Plus expanding slightly on Mick's keyboard shortcuts, if it helps, here is a list of shortcuts for commonly used accents.


Grave (`) = key option grave, then the desired letter.

Acute (´) = key option e, then the desired letter.

Circumflex (^) = key option i, then the desired letter.

Tilde (~) = key option n, then the desired letter.

Umlaut / Diaeresis (¨) = key option u, then the desired letter.

Cedilla ç = Option c.

Re: Classic and foreign keyboards

Avatar Eric Jervis
Thank you John ~è``è```è mañana ê `ça, c'est trés bien! I'd never noticed that there was a grave on the keyboard.
Haven't got Illustrator I'm afraid.
I apologize in advance for asking, because you must be fed up with the question, but I've been dying to know for a long time;
was that your dad who gave me your autograph in about 1955 at the Schoolboys' Exhibition at Olympia?

Re: Classic and foreign keyboards

Avatar John Surtees
Alas Eric, my dad was but a humble carpenter. But we were both keen motorcyclists and followed the fortunes of the other chap with great interest.

Being a keen biker in the sixties, and sharing a name with a famous motorcycle racer, I did have some amusing incidents involving traffic police. One of which, was being stopped for some minor thing, and being asked 'Who do you think you are, Geoff Duke?' To which I replied: 'Well no, actually I'm John Surtees!' 'Carry on like that lad, and you'll be coming down the station – lets see your licence… Oh!'

I got rid of my last bike (Honda CX500c) about five years ago. But you never really get the biking bug out of your system. On a nice day, on an open road, there is nothing better.

Re: Classic and foreign keyboards

Avatar Eric Jervis
Ha ha ha. The plod never had much of a sense of humour, did they?
Curiously enough, I almost bought a CX500 about a year ago. The bloke insisted on my taking it for a spin, (the police never come around here), so I rode it down his steeply sloping drive, which, at it's bottom end, listed slightly to starboard, braked gingerly on a few dead leaves, and dropped it. Not in itself a disaster, but I couldn't pick it up again! I drove home very sadly, trying to reconcile myself to the idea that I was now definitely an old f*rt.
I looked with a nostalgic eye on the remains of my Golden Flash in the garage, which I last rode in about 1982, before it caught fire, and thought I'd better give it to my son now, rather than leaving it to him in my will. BUT, after sober reflection on the following things I developed a Plan B: my left knee had not yet recovered from an injury I did it a while before; the CX500 is an extemely heavy machine with a very high centre of gravity; I'm only a little bloke.
So I took it off the centre stand, sat on it, and found that, compared to a CX500, it is as light as a feather. I could take my hands off and waggle it around between my knees, leaning it over to quite an angle.
My Mate Bernie is currently restoring it and we've got our fingers crossed for next Easter.

Re: Classic and foreign keyboards

Avatar John Surtees
Now there is a coincidence. I too, found the high centre of gravity on the CX a problem. Many years back, when, on trying to mount a curb at work, I managed to get the front wheel up, then stalled it and found could no longer reach the ground. Falling sideways, I couldn't hold it, as in what felt like slow motion, it fell onto the side of one of the directors cars, trapping me between it and the car, putting a nice crease in the car wing. Embarrassingly, I had to meet him later in the day as Union Rep, because of impending redundancies.

I guess you could call it the curse of the Honda. My old Tiger 100 would never of done that to me.

Re: Classic and foreign keyboards

Avatar Eric Jervis
Couldn't have done your thigh much good either!
It might possibly be old age of course; I well remember riding a friend's CX about thirty years ago, and I rather liked it: V twins have a certain charm, don't they?
I wouldn't want to tempt you but there's a Guzzi V50 in the Vintage Club mag this month............
So back to the keyboards then; I'm going to install OS9.

Re: Classic and foreign keyboards

Avatar Eric Jervis
How very interesting!
I wrote a letter in French using Pages, and discovered to my amazement that Pages had put the accents in for me! It wasn't an unmixed blessing though. Of the fourteen words needing an accent Pages had done four, only three of which were correct, the fourth one having been converted from a past participle to a noun. Still, jolly clever though.

Re: Classic and foreign keyboards

Avatar John Nicholas
I am running Mavericks with latest pages so cannot recall whether the following works in older pages....................................pressing but then holding down say the 'e' key produces a box offering 7 alternative accents, the 'i' key produces choice of 6, the 'o' key a choice of 8, etc.

Re: Classic and foreign keyboards

Avatar Eric Jervis
So it does, that's going to be very handy!
 
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