Q: To type an accented character

"To type an accented or alternate version of a character, hold a key down until its alternate characters are displayed."

The input above has been working perfectly for me since I bought this notebook. Now, suddenly, it has stopped working. I did a PRAM clean two days ago, but I'm pretty sure I've used accented characters since then. But anyway, anyone have any suggestions for getting back to this? I live in France, and most of my correspondence is in French (on an English keyboard) so the two-stage option of doing this with the ALT key is a time-consuming headache and not one I wish to have recourse to use long-term.

Any suggestions would be most welcome. KEY REPEAT is on (keyboard preferences), by the way......

MacBook, OS X El Capitan (10.11.2)

Posted on Oct 14, 2016 1:42 AM

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Q: To type an accented character

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by Tom Gewecke,

Tom Gewecke Oct 14, 2016 6:24 AM in response to clonquehopper
Level 9 (79,521 points)

Oct 14, 2016 6:24 AM in response to clonquehopper

If you do not have them already, try adding a french or spanish keyboard to the list at system prefs/keyboard/input sources and restarting.

Also you can try setting up a new user account and see if it works when you are logged into that.
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by clonquehopper,

clonquehopper Oct 16, 2016 11:03 PM in response to Tom Gewecke
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Notebooks

Oct 16, 2016 11:03 PM in response to Tom Gewecke

Hi Tom,

Thanks for the reply. The addition or deletion of languages, locations and keyboards seems to make no difference. But going to a guest account shows me that they have the ability to see the drop-down menu - it's just on my account.

Any idea how to fix the problem now?
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by Tom Gewecke,

Tom Gewecke Oct 17, 2016 6:07 AM in response to clonquehopper
Level 9 (79,521 points)

Oct 17, 2016 6:07 AM in response to clonquehopper

Unfortunately it is often very hard to find what has messed up your main account. It could be login items, antivirus apps (it is all useless), or bad .plists. Sometimes the only fix is to move your account.
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by clonquehopper,

clonquehopper Oct 17, 2016 6:18 AM in response to Tom Gewecke
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Oct 17, 2016 6:18 AM in response to Tom Gewecke

Move my account? Where to? I'm a little confused...... (which is easy to do)
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by Tom Gewecke,

Tom Gewecke Oct 17, 2016 6:19 AM in response to clonquehopper
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Oct 17, 2016 6:19 AM in response to clonquehopper

Move your stuff to the account that works right.
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by clonquehopper,

clonquehopper Oct 19, 2016 4:39 PM in response to clonquehopper
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Notebooks

Oct 19, 2016 4:39 PM in response to clonquehopper

Nah, can't do that, it's not a workable solution - the guest account has a bug on it that slows everything to a crawl. Sigh. It's impossible to use.

Thanks for the help anyway.
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by Tom Gewecke,

Tom Gewecke Oct 19, 2016 7:01 PM in response to clonquehopper
Level 9 (79,521 points)

Oct 19, 2016 7:01 PM in response to clonquehopper

clonquehopper wrote:

the guest account has a bug on it that slows everything to a crawl. Sigh. It's impossible to use.

If that is the case, it sounds like you have other problems and should reinstall your OS.
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Q: To type an accented character

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by Tom Gewecke,

by clonquehopper,

by Tom Gewecke,

by clonquehopper,

by Tom Gewecke,

by clonquehopper,

by Tom Gewecke,

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