To produce a letter with an accent or other diacritical mark on most PC’s on campus, do the following:

1) Make sure that the Num Lock key on the keypad (upper left corner of the number keypad) is on. You can't use the numbers on the top line above
the letters to do this.
2) Hold down the Alt key (to the left of the spacebar on your keyboard), while at the same time entering three digits on the keypad.  (List of 3 digit codes follows.)
3) Release the Alt key, and the accented character should show up in your document.

Example: to get é....
Hold down the Alt key while entering 1-3-0 on the numeric keypad, then release the Alt key.
 

Keep in mind that usage allows using capital letters WITHOUT their accents (and in handwriting that’s the norm).

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Another way to Type French Accents in MS Word

   
On a PC:

l'accent aigu /
ex. é as in j'ai mangé
CTRL + apostrophe (´); release, then type "e."-->é

l'accent grave \
ex. è as in très
CTRL + tilde/accent (~ / ` upper left corner): release, then type "e."-->è

l'accent circonflexe ^
ex. ô as in hôtel
CTRL + SHIFT + ^/6; release all three, then type "o."-->ô

la cédille ç
ex. ç as in français
CTRL + comma (,); release, then type "c."-->ç.

le tréma ..
ex. ï as in naïve
CTRL + SHIFT + colon/semi-colon (: / ;); release all three, then type "i."-->ï

On a Macintosh:
l'accent aigu /
ex. é as in j'ai mangé
OPTION + e; release, then type "e."-->é

l'accent grave \
ex. è as in très
OPTION + tilde/accent (~ / ` upper left corner): release, then type "e."-->è

l'accent circonflexe ^
ex. ô as in hôtel
OPTION + i; release, then type "o."-->ô

la cédille ç
ex. ç as in français
OPTION + c-->ç

le tréma ..
ex. ï as in naïve
OPTION + u; release both, then type "i."-->ï

Accents are not required on the first (capital) letter of a sentence or phrase. Examples:

Ecrivez un bon paragraphe. (ou Écrivez un bon paragraphe.)

A demain ! (ou À demain !)