Smart Caps Lock
With Caps Lock on, é è à ç give É È À Ç; digits and punctuation do not change. No more copy and paste or Alt codes. Typing accented capitals (in French)
What is AZERTY Global?
An improved French keyboard layout, free and open source, that fixes the historical flaws of the traditional Windows AZERTY.
Have you ever tried to type É or Ç on your keyboard? On the traditional Windows AZERTY, it is simply impossible without obscure Alt codes or copy and paste. The same goes for the œ in “cœur” or the French quotation marks « ». And the period, one of the most frequent signs in French, requires pressing Shift.
AZERTY Global makes these characters accessible, free of charge, on your current physical keyboard.
The letters A to Z stay in place, and so do the digits.
@#@→
&1&◌̉◌̛
é2É◌̋◌̏
"3"◌̣◌̇
'4'’‘
(5(◌̆◌̑
-6-ə-
è7È/−
_8_◌̄
ç9Ç◌̧◌̦
à0À@ʁ
)%)°◌̊
=+=±
Backspace
Tab
aAAæÆ
zZZ
eEE€
rRR
tTT–—
yYY
uUUùÙ
iII^
oOOœŒ
pPP
◌̂◌̈◌̂◌̌◌̨
$£$¥¤
Enter
Caps Lock
qQQ
sSS
dDD{
fFF}
gGG\
hHH|
jJJ[
kKK]
lLL`
mMM
◌́◌̀◌́◌̃
*µ*яө
Shift
<><≤≥
wWW«“
xXX»”
cCC
vVV
bBBßẞ
nNN~
,?,<¿
.;.>·
:/:#
!§!¡
Shift
SpaceSpaceSpaceNarrow non-breaking spaceNon-breaking space
AltGr
What changes in practice
The period without Shift
The period . is a direct key, as on keyboards everywhere else in the world. The semicolon, far less frequent, takes Shift on the same key.
At sign and hash at the top left
The at sign (in French) @ and the hash # are on the former ² key, left of the 1, as on the macOS AZERTY. The old AltGr + 0 still works.
Programming symbols on the home row
The braces (in French) { }, the brackets (in French) [ ], the backslash \ and the vertical bar | fall under your fingers with AltGr. See the symbols for developers (in French)
International accents on the ù key
Three dead-key accents take the place of the ù: acute for á í ó ú, grave for ì ò, tilde for ã ñ õ. Spanish, Italian and Portuguese can be typed directly. The ù moves to AltGr + U, and the percent sign moves to Shift + closing parenthesis.
And hundreds of extra characters
This is not a change: it is what the traditional AZERTY was missing. The French quotation marks (in French) « », the em dash (in French) —, the œ ligature (in French) œ, the æ ligature (in French) æ, nonbreaking spaces, and the German ß or the Danish ø.
Testimonials
“It barely differs from the classic AZERTY, so adjusting is super fast. But it improves everything else: Smart Caps Lock, foreign-language accents, accessible symbols… 2 days and I had adopted it.”
“Truly packed with good changes that improve the keyboard day to day. I don’t understand why this isn’t the default AZERTY.”
“This is a much-needed project. I use it for Italian and German on top of French — it has really simplified my work.”
“I’ve been using it for years. I realize how irreplaceable it is whenever it accidentally gets turned off.”
Behind the project
AZERTY Global was born in 2017 from one student’s irritation: Antoine Olivier, then in French preparatory classes, was tired of hunting for an É or French quotation marks on his keyboard. He co-founded the project with Robert Hodge, who drew the first prototype, then developed it from 2018. Several versions later, the layout is published free of charge under a free license by an association, and he is still the one who moves it forward.
Who runs the project
Since 2026, AZERTY Global has been run by the Association pour la Modernisation du Clavier Français (AMCF), a French nonprofit association under the loi 1901, founded in Clermont-Ferrand, declared at the Riom sub-prefecture and published in the Journal officiel des associations. It publishes the layout, the tools and the educational resources, free of charge and under a free license. It is entirely volunteer-run.
The foundations of AZERTY Global
AZERTY Global’s design draws on several sources:
- AFNOR public survey from June 2017: feedback from the public on AZERTY keyboard problems shaped the development priorities.
- Study of foreign layouts: inspiration from international best practices, such as dead keys on the number row (Hungarian layout) or Smart Caps Lock (Spanish QWERTY).
- Intuition and daily practice: daily use and continuous improvement of the layout by Antoine Olivier, who has developed it since 2018.
- Community feedback: feedback from early users has shaped the successive versions.
Quick questions
Is it free?
Yes. It is free and open source. The code is available on GitHub under the EUPL 1.2 license (in French).
Do I need to buy a new keyboard?
No. AZERTY Global is a purely software solution. It works with your current keyboard.
Is it compatible with games (ZQSD)?
Yes. The physical Z, Q, S, D keys do not move. Some games, however, depend on the console key, a shortcut or an anti-cheat system: the compatibility page lists the known cases.
Is it available on Mac and Linux?
Yes! AZERTY Global is available on Windows (Windows 10 version 1809 or later, and Windows 11), macOS (10.12 or later) and Linux (Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, Arch, etc.).
How long does it take to adjust?
A few days of use for the reflexes to settle in. The letters A to Z and the digits stay in place; what takes some adjustment is the five changes. The guide presents them and offers a cheat sheet.
Who created AZERTY Global?
Robert Hodge and Antoine Olivier, who co-founded it in 2017. Antoine Olivier, then a student in a French preparatory class and frustrated by the impossibility of typing correctly in French on his keyboard, has developed it since 2018. The project is now run by the AMCF (Association pour la Modernisation du Clavier Français) and remains volunteer-run.