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

It is often frustrating for learners of French language when it is not possible to type a specific character. Some people cut-and-paste them from MS Word, which has an automatic spellchecker-corrector, some use Alt+nnnn combinations... But this is cumbersome.

The easiest way for a person using MS Windows and owning a Standard-US physical keyboard is to install French (Canada) layout. French(Canada) layout is more convenient to use for previous Standard-US keyboard user comparing to French(France) layout because the vast majority of letters are in the same places as in the Standard-US keyboard (QWERTY - not AZERTY).

The problem is that even in French(Canada) layout some letters are not obvious how to type. Especially so are the letters: æ, œ, ï, ÿ, ë, ù.

But let's formulate the question in a generic form:

How to type the following letters on the French(Canada) keyboard:

à â æ        (à, câlin, æsthésie)       [accent aigu, accent circonflexe, e dans l'a]
ç            (ça)                       [cédille]
è é ê ë      (mère, parlé, être, Noël)  [accent grave, ...]
î ï          (naître, naïve)            [tréma]
ô œ          (côte, œuf)                [e dans l'o]
ù û ü        (où, coûter, capharnaüm)
ÿ            (Croÿ)

I searched on internet but could not find a satisfactory answer.

Answer

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) 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"