Press and Hold Function for Accents

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Level 1

27 points

Press and Hold Function for Accents

I can no longer press and hold a key to get the accents box this is very frustrating as I am studying italian please can someone help me?

MacBook Air, OS X Yosemite (10.10.2), null

Posted on Jan 2, 2018 7:36 PM

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Answer 1

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myraheather Author

Level 1

27 points

Jan 4, 2018 10:20 AM in response to Tom Gewecke

Yep! I've checked the slider and that's on and I have added numerous international and foreign keyboards to no avail I think I have to just accept that this is probably low on Apple's 'to do' list as I am not the only one with this problem a lot of people are complaining about it after upgrading to the latest version of High Sierra recently. I have found that using alt+e gives me one accent and alt + ` gives me the other but it is hit and miss getting the pressure right on the latter one, its so annoying. Hopefully another update will get it sorted.

Will this problem get referred back to the 'powers that be'?

Thanks for trying Tom

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Answer 2

rose_10

Community Specialist

Feb 1, 2018 10:46 PM in response to myraheather

Hello and welcome to Apple Support Communities, myraheather.
If I understand your post correctly, you need to be able to type accented characters. I'm happy to help.
Click the Apple Menu () > System Preferences > Keyboard and make sure that the Key Repeat slider is not set to off. Then follow the steps here:

Type accented characters

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

To choose one of the characters displayed, type the number that appears under the character, or click the character you want to use. If you decide you don't want to type an accented character after holding a key, type another character, or press the escape (esc) key.

If no additional characters are available for the key you're holding, the pop-over menu doesn't appear. The menu also doesn't appear when the Key Repeat slider is set to Off in the Keyboard pane of System Preferences.

Check out the full article here:
How to type accents, emoji, and symbols on your Mac
Let us know if that resolves this issue for you.
Thanks for using the Apple Support Communities. Take care.

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Answer 3

Tom Gewecke

Level 10

115,678 points

Jan 4, 2018 12:34 PM in response to myraheather

For a list of the standard option key shortcuts, see

http://sites.psu.edu/symbolcodes/mac/codemac/

You can also activate the US International PC keyboard layout, which lets you type accents without the option key.

Actually relatively few people have any problem with the accent menu popup, and normally it can be fixed locally. Other things to try

+Turn off any antivirus apps. They can sometimes interfere with this feature.

+Try a safe boot:

macOS Sierra: Start up in safe mode

+Try setting up a new user account and see if you still have the problem when logged into that.

+Open up the terminal and type in:

defaults write NSGlobalDomain ApplePressAndHoldEnabled -bool true

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Answer 4

Tom Gewecke

Level 10

115,678 points

Jul 19, 2018 11:13 AM in response to NorthpointePaul

Apple has not changed anything about this feature. Every time there is an OS update, it goes missing for a few people. Some of the possible fixes are

+add a spanish or french keyboard to system prefs/keyboard/input sources

+Turn off any antivirus apps. They can sometimes interfere with this feature.

+Try a safe boot:

macOS Sierra: Start up in safe mode

+Try setting up a new user account and see if you still have the problem when logged into that.

+Open up the terminal and type in:

defaults write NSGlobalDomain ApplePressAndHoldEnabled -bool true

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Answer 5

SSteveSS

Level 1

8 points

Aug 8, 2018 2:51 PM in response to Tom Gewecke

I've tried all of them to no avail. Its like why since the current OS, can I not in Safari save to my favorites bar, at the beginning? No, new favorite added, go to the END of the list. I had 3 geniueses look at it ane they said...thats the way it is......just like not being able to do this again!

Type accented characters

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

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Answer 6

myraheather Author

Level 1

27 points

Jan 4, 2018 8:53 AM in response to Tom Gewecke

Hi Tom

Thanks for responding

I have a MacBook Air 2014 and run macOS High Sierra 10.13.2. I used to be able to Press and Hold a key down for the accent now the drop down box will not appear and it just repeats the letter. I think this has only occurred after the recent upgrade.

Heather

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Answer 7

Tom Gewecke

Level 10

115,678 points

Jan 4, 2018 10:11 AM in response to myraheather

Have you gone to System Preferences > Keyboard and made sure that the Key Repeat slider is not set to off?

If you have done that and it still does not work, try adding a French or Spanish keyboard to your system preferences/keyboard/input sources list and restarting.

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Answer 8

myraheather Author

Level 1

27 points

Jan 4, 2018 12:40 PM in response to rose_10

Hi Sarah thanks for trying to help but as I said, that feature does not work since upgrading all it does is repeat the letter. This is not just my problem lots of people are experiencing the same problem Apple need to address this. I tried adding other languages. It just doesn’t work on the new update for lots of people.

Thanks anyway

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Answer 9

myraheather Author

Level 1

27 points

Jan 4, 2018 12:46 PM in response to Tom Gewecke

I’ve tried other keyboards to no effect I’ve followed others advice to no effect and I have seen lots of complaints about it. I’ve wasted enough time on it trying to sort it. Life’s too short - really. I do thank you for trying to help but nothing has changed after trying everything and so i drop this request for help.

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Answer 10

myraheather Author

Level 1

27 points

Feb 1, 2018 10:45 PM in response to joão_romão

Hi João

Thanks you so much you are a genius. I had found another way round it using the US International PC Keyboard but you could use the ` accent ok and add a letter but then for the ´ accent you had to press the ` accent then the alt key and then the letter and it was hit and miss if it did it first time. Although Apple suggested it wasn't the update, I updated then went on with my Italian course work and found that holding the key for the accents no longer worked and I cannot think that it could be anything else that caused it. So many thanks indeed and fortunately on my keyboard there is no delay in them appearing. I know it is a trivial thing in the whole scale of things but it also affected my use of an Italian program online which you have to type answers with accents under a time limit which was basically impossible after you had messed around getting them to work. This all works perfectly again.

Thanks again

Kind regards

Heather

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Answer 11

Big C 23

Level 1

4 points

Mar 3, 2018 4:40 AM in response to rose_10

I still have this issue and have tried all of the issues in the threat. My OS is up to date and have no other issues. Not sure if related but when I switch the letter repeat to 'off' in system preferences, it doesn't stop repeating. Would have to agree with Heather that this was precipitated by an update. Hopefully you have another suggestion. Thanks

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Answer 12

PeterQ07

Level 1

4 points

May 21, 2018 9:41 AM in response to andreacls

I have the same issue. Mac High Serria 10.13.4. One day I suddenly found no more variants showing up when long pressing keys like a, o, e, etc. Have tried all possible solutions mentioned above.

Hope someone else can help or the bug could be soon fixed with the next version of MacOS if it is.

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Answer 13

Jul 9, 2018 8:06 PM in response to rose_10

This does not work. Anyway, the instruction is for being able to hold and repeat letters. However, I can not do either; although the repeat is NOT set to 'off' in the keyboard preferences, nothing happens at all when I hold down a letter. Apparently, there is no function for Apple products for adding accents to letters, although a lot of my valukable time has now been wasted with various websites pretending that this is so 'easy' to do.

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Answer 14

Tom Gewecke

Level 10

115,678 points

Jul 10, 2018 2:17 AM in response to rfogarty67

rfogarty67 wrote:

Apparently, there is no function for Apple products for adding accents to letters

A standard way to do this for at least 15 years has been to use option key shortcuts, for example option e then e to get é. Does that not work for you? A full list is at

http://sites.psu.edu/symbolcodes/mac/codemac/

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Answer 15

Jul 10, 2018 8:15 AM in response to Tom Gewecke

Many thanks, Tom. The function you mention is not a tool that works for me, as it is not a tool which can be generally applied. Instead, Apple have removed choice; only certain letters can have accents applied to them. It has become apparent that I will have to hunt down a font for this purpose.

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