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French characters not displayed correctly in Word 2007

I have Word 2007. The Windows keyboard language is set to have both the US English and Canada French keyboards with the Canada French keyboard to be the default input device. My understanding is that the Office Language settings is for proofing tools and the such in the office suite. Either way it is set to Canada French. Results are the same even if I have only the Canada French keyboard listed.

When using Wordpad, Notepad or another non-Office application, clicking ^a will result in the proper â. Yet when you are Word (or Excel or Outlook) typing the same ^a results in ^^a being displayed. Similarly typing 'e should result in è but instead you get ''e displayed. Similar result for the other accented characters such as a, i, o, u, etc.

Pre-pending the CTRL key to the key sequence will give the desired results in Word (or Excel or Outlook) but should only be required if using a US English keyboard. Not when using a French keyboard and it has worked in the past without the CTRL key in the sequence.

Results matrix

     Key sequence             Office application result             non-Office application result
           ^a                                       ^^a                                                  â
            'e                                        ''e                                                    è
       CTRL + ^a                                â                                                    a
       CTRL + 'e                                 è                                                    e

Any thoughts on this would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks, Jason
Answer
Answer
Further investigation yielded there is a difference between using the EN - English, Keyboard, French Canadian and the FR - French, Keyboard, French Canadian input devices. The EN one will give the properly displayed characters in Office and non-office applications for me, yet the FR one exhibits the incorrect behaviour we were experiencing.

The mystery is solved.

And I can't even mark my own post as the answer :(

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Question Info

Last updated October 5, 2021 Views 1,317 Applies to: