Accented Character Shortcuts

This script lets you enter accented characters with "Ctrl+symbol, character" shortcuts like in Microsoft Word. All shortcuts at http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/help/HP012303781033.aspx except ones that use Alt will work.

In general, hold Ctrl and press the punctuation mark that most resembles the accent you want, then release both keys and press the character you want to accent.

For example: to type Ä, press Ctrl + : (colon), then release both keys and press Shift + a. To type ß, press Ctrl + Shift + &, then release all three keys and press s. The full list of shortcuts is available at the link given above, except that no shortcuts using the Alt key will work, since Opera does not let Javascript capture the Alt key. (I'm not sure about Firefox.)

 This should work in all textareas, text boxes, and password boxes, including ones added by Javascript. It will also work in most rich text boxes with the "contenteditable" attribute, like Gmail's email editor. You will have to wait for the page to load before this enhancement will work. This has been tested in Opera 10.5 and Firefox 3.6. It won't work in Chrome, because Chrome is stupid and doesn't generate keypress events when Ctrl is held.