My FREE program!

I have written a free application to write accented letters in different languages; français (French), español (Spanish), deutsch (German) and Italiano (Italian). Although it is a text editor, it also has features to easily copy your text in to websites such as Twitter and Facebook when you are having a conversation in a foreign language.
You don't need any ALT codes, unicode or strange keyboard shortcuts. Although you could use US or UK international keyboard to type them in, this program is easier to use, gives you more symbols and has other useful features. I write this to make writing in foreign languages much easier as you are likely to be using an English keyboard. It is better than using an on-line character keyboard.
I have called this piece of software Acento. I'm happy for teachers to use it in schools.

My Youtube video - click it to start playing the video:

Instructions
As you can see, there is a text box where you can type in your text as normal. There are buttons also where you can click a letter to insert that character. It supports acute, grave, circumflex and many others.
Select a language by clicking on a tab.
I have put in selectable keyboard shortcuts. Only when the checkbox is selected, you can type in a vowel followed by characters \ / ^ : and special ones c5 and n~ in order to obtain certain accented characters:
a\ gives you à
e/ gives you é
o^ gives you ô
u: gives you ü
c5 gives you ç
n~ gives you ñ
?? gives you ¿
!! gives you ¡
<< gives you « and >> gives you »
and it works for capital letters too. Remember to uncheck it if you want to type those characters normally e.g. a web-page address.
A little note about the French tab; there is a drop-down box for inserting common words at the cursor position and a button for inserting spaces around the symbols ; : ! ? « »

Download acento V1.4 - works on any computer (PC or Apple Mac) under any operating system (like Linux or Windows)

Requires Java SE 7 or higher on your system to run
Won't run? Download the JRE from here or go to java.com

To run it, just double-click it. If it doesn't work, then update your Java. Download the Java JRE (Java Runtime Environment or JDK which will also work) which can be downloaded here or go to java.com.
When you run it, it will create a file called AcentoSettings.dat. For Windows, you could put the program in a separate place, then make a link to it on your desktop. Just right-click acento.jar, then select "create shortcut" then cut and paste that shortcut to your desktop.

Changes in Version 1.1

The text box expands with the size of the window
I've added a right-click menu on the text window
This now has drag and drop support. Just drag and drop a file on to the window for an alternate way of loading a file
The window size and position are saved

Changes in Version 1.2

Added shortcuts ?? = ¿ and !! = ¡
Bug fix - previously if you type in for example, c and then quickly typed 5 and another letter, it would not replace it to ç
Bug fix - Previously if you clicked the button to copy everything to the clipboard and then the checkbox for the shortcuts, the text would remain selected.

Changes in Version 1.3

Added word wrap support (selectable in the Format menu)
Keyboard shortcut: Now typing double chevrons gives you a single character
Minor bug fix - Cut and Paste detects that the the text has changed

Changes in Version 1.4

Changed the "quit program" dialog box
Added a "Clear text" button
Added buttons to change to character entities and back again (for HTML documents)
Made variable sized font buttons
Changed the internal settings class to be more efficient
Added a dialog box to ask if you want to save before loading another document
Added a toolbar
Added font support
Added undo and redo features

Changes in Version 1.5
I'm working on this version. I haven't finished it although what you are downloading says "1.5", it is an unfinished version. I uploaded that to fix a bug in 1.4

Awards!!!!

Screenshot:
screenshot of acento


Send bug reports to: Tell me what type of computer you are using (PC / Apple etc.) and what operating system you are using (Linux, Windows XP, 7,Mac OS X etc.)

My French website

My Spanish website