Is there a freeware equivelent to frkeys?

[robk]

We have a old site licence for Frkeys, which works brilliantly for our languages dept. I have been asked if they can have it on their own personal home computers (no) and can they give copies to pupils (no)!.

 

Has anyone seen anything similar on a freeware basis?

 

I know frkeys is only £15 per copy, but I can see staff baulking at that, let parents.

 

Thanks

 

Rob Keeling

[Norphy]

Charmap? Or give them a list like this:

 

Acute accent: Press CTRL+' and then type your letter

Grave accent: Press CTRL+` and then type your letter

circumflex: Press CTRL+SHIFT+6 and then type your letter

Umlat: Press CTRL+SHIFT+; and then type your letter

Tilde: PRess CTRL+SHIFT+#, type your letter

Upside-down question or exclamation marks: CTRL+ALT+SHIFT, press 1 or / depending

 

That little lot should work in Word at least. There are extra ones for Æ, æ, ß, Œ and œ but I'm afraid I can't remember what they are

[robk]

Yes, thats how I would do it. They are after a click and insert option, and find charmap can be a bit small and confusing.

 

I have however just found mycharmap http://www.lincolnbeach.com/mycharmap.asp which can be resized. Will see what they think.

 

Thanks

 

Rob

[plexer]

If it's for word what about the old languages toolbar that used to be punted by one of the guys on the rm mailing list it gave you a custom toolbar with all the accents etc... for the different languages?

 

Ben

[john]

Microsoft Learning Tools thingy gives you addins for word etc, but we just use FRkeys, and its brill, and I think its cheapers than £15 for the students licences if u buy a site licence as well

[plexer]

If you are using word 2003 have a look at:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=D8E70FD2-39A4-4A01-8382-DFE35BCBAC03&displaylang=en

 

Ben

[Andrew_C]

It isn't Word that is the problem. We can all learn & teach the shortcuts, but the problem is when using Notepad, Wordpad or anyother "simple" software.

 

ISTR that Word isn't used for exams due to its spellchecking & reference works, so we use Notepad. We also use Fun With Texts in my dept, and FRkeys is a boon!

[john]

I use Wordpad for examination use as you have to be able to justify text and use bold, underline etc so Notepad doesnt do.

 

But FrKeys is brill, only just got it at my current place, but had it at my last place and saves so much time, its brilliant!

[Andrew_C]

you have to be able to justify text and use bold, underline etc

For an MFL exam? As it happens, I have little contact with the written exams, mostly the listening.

[john]

It was what seemed to come out of contact with Edexcel, AQA and OCR. That Wordpad would be the better opton for using a word processor in examinations. It's becasue it allows basic formatting of the documents, and you can use the "alt+" codes in wordpad if I remember correctly, so it rules over notepad.

 

Just think, if they were writing a letter in French, German etc, you cannot justify in Notepad like you can word, so you would loose marks for layout and presentation so you do need a minimum of wordpad for it.

[OutToLunch]

After a quick look around, MoreKeys looks like it will do the job perfectly - comes with ready made sets for 14 different languages and you can add your own too... I'll be keeping this one around for us