how can I type Italian accents on my MacBookPro ?

Hi ap,

You should be able to choose one of the Italian keyboard layouts using System Preferences > Keyboard > Input Sources. Clicking Italian in the list of available layouts should bring up two choices:

Some acented vowels are directly accessible using option-x where 'x' is the character to be accented. Option-n, u, or the accented A and E in the top row will produce an accent associated with that letter, with the following keystroke placing a suitable letter in the same location, under the accent.

You can see all of the variations using the Keyboard Viewer, accessible as a menu choice when you place the Input menu (displays as a flag indicating the country associated with your chosen keyboard layout) in the menu bar. Here's the KB viewer showing the 'lower case' characters on one of the Italian keyboard layouts:

You can switch between keyboard layouts at any time, even in the middle of a document.

Regards,

Barry

Keyboard - Diacritical Marks

The Option key can be used to enter Diacritical Marks over various letters.

To use the diacritical marks, lets say umlaut, press Option-u, release Option, and press the letter you want the umlaut to go over. Here are examples for lowercase u, Uppercase U and Uppercase A:

• Option-u u -> ü - lowercase u w/ umlaut
• Option-u U -> Ü - Uppercase U w/ umlaut
• Option-u A -> Ä - Uppercase A w/ umlaut

The same procedure for the other 4 diacritical marks using lowercase 'a' as the example letter:

• Option-` a -> à - grave accent
• Option-e a -> á - acute accent
• Option-i a -> â - circumflex
• Option-n a -> ã - tilde

You just hold down the key you want the accent for, and a series of options will appear. Here's how: How to type accents, emoji, and symbols on your Mac - Apple Support

"HI To,;" (he wrote, before switching his keyboard back to Canadian English 😁)

Hi Tom,

"Italian is not a great choice when your keyboard is printed for azerty."

Quite true!

On the topic of using the Option key, which would be the case for an English kb…

The AZERTY layouts have a pair of 'dead keys' (keys which place an accent, but are 'dead' with respect to moving the insertion point to the 'next' space),on the up front kb (no modifier keys down), to left and right of the currency symbol ; in the rightmost three positions on the second row:

Pressing option provides a dead key tilde ~ at the n position; pressing shift an umlaut ¨ to the left of the currency symbol. Common accented letters are typed directly at the locations shown above, and Stuart423's suggestion to press and hold the key for the letter to be accented, wait for the list of accented letters shows up, then tap the key for the number labeling the accent you want applied also works, but you may need to press shift and tap the number key as the numbers are 'upper case' characters on the AZERTY keyboards.

Regards,

Barry

Italian is not a great choice when your keyboard is printed for azerty. All italian letters can also be made with the French input source, and what appears on the screen will match the key caps.

BobHarris wrote:

Keyboard - Diacritical Marks

The Option key can be used to enter Diacritical Marks over various letters.

Those shortcuts are fine for the US keyboard layout. But the OP has (French) AZERTY and they normally won't work on that.