is it possible to set an azerty keyboard to type the numbers on the top row - I would expect caps lock to do the trick, but it doesn't - maybe there is another way to set the keyboard when you need to type a lot of numbers without holding shift down all the time ?
Perhaps there is, but it appears to me that the AZERTY keyboard layout is designed expressly to make the other characters on those keys easier to type than the numbers. I have no experience using an AZERTY KB layout myself, and no way to test any add-on software that may exist to counteract the keyboard's design.
In System Preferences, International, Language, Input Menu, there are two French keyboards, French, and French-Numerical. I'm on a US-English Mac and OS X 10.5.8, so your preference settings might be slightly different.
When the French-Numerical keyboard is selected and enabled, pressing the CTRL key enables the numbers in the top row of the the azerty layout.
You may select multiple keyboard profiles, and switch between them. Be sure to check the box at the bottom 'Show input menu in the menu bar' The flag of the selected country will be displayed in the top menu bar. Clicking the flag gives you easy access to choose another keyboard profile, enter special characters, and use Keyboard Viewer to see which keys are enabled in various keyboards.
