computer just waits for you to press another key, then 
combines the two to make the special character. Dead 
keys are not 
on 
the U.K., Italian, or U.S. English 
keyboards. The other kind 
of 
special characters (we'll 
call them additional characters) are typed using the Alt 
key 
on 
the 
left side 
of 
the typewriter area.  We will 
describe these two types of special characters in more 
detail 
on 
the following pages. 
Dead 
Key 
Characters 
Dead key characters are used to accent certain other 
characters 
on 
the keyboard. The accent (dead) key is 
pressed first, causing no cursor movement 
or 
display of 
the character. Next the letter you want to accent 
is 
pressed, and the entire character 
is 
read by the 
computer and displayed on the screen. Dead keys and 
the keys you can use them with are shaded 
on 
your 
keyboard template. 
If 
you need to have the dead key 
displayed by itself, press the Dead key, then the 
spacebar and the accent 
will be placed 
on 
the screen 
by 
itself (except for the 
.. 
character, which cannot be 
displayed by itself.) 
Note:  One thing to remember when you're using 
the dead keys: 
if 
you press a dead key and then a 
key that 
is 
not allowed (not shaded 
on 
the keyboard 
template), it causes unpredictable characters to 
appear 
on 
the screen. 
Additional 
Characters 
Additional characters require the use of the Alt (and 
sometimes the Ctrl) keys.  There are 
Altl
Ctrl 
characters, which are printed 
on 
the 
FRONT 
of 
the 
keys, 
and 
ASCII characters, which are listed 
on 
the 
back 
of 
each keyboard template. 
Keyboard 
3-15