Get started with AZERTY Global
The five changes, the added characters and the keys to type them.
The five changes
-
1. Smart Caps Lock
ÉÈÀÇ
No more surprise digits. On traditional AZERTY, Caps Lock then é types 2. Here: É È À Ç. Punctuation and digits stay the same.
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2. The period without Shift
.;
No more Shift to end a sentence. 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.
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3. At sign and hash at the top left
@#
No more AltGr + à to type an email address. @ and # are on the former ² key, left of the 1, as on the macOS AZERTY. The old AltGr + à still works.
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4. Programming symbols on the home row
{}[]\|~`^#<>
No more finger stretching. Curly braces, square brackets, the backslash and the vertical bar sit under your fingers with AltGr, easier to reach than on a US QWERTY. AltGr also gives direct access to the tilde, the backtick, the caret, the hash and the angle brackets.
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5. International accents on the ù key
◌́◌̀◌̃ù%
Three dead-key accents take the place of ù: acute for á í ó ú, grave for ì ò, tilde for ã ñ õ. Spanish, Italian and Portuguese type directly. The ù moves to AltGr + U, and the percent sign to Shift + closing parenthesis.
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6. And hundreds of extra characters
This is not a change: it is what traditional AZERTY was missing. French quotation marks, the em dash, the œ and æ ligatures, and dead keys that open Greek, Cyrillic, the phonetic alphabet and scientific symbols.
Step 1 of 6: Smart Caps Lock
- Changed position
- Added character
- Dead key
- Key held down
Everything else stays put: the letters A to Z, the accented letters (except ù) and the vast majority of symbols. The share of keystrokes affected is 1.01% on the frequencies of the AFNOR corpus (half formal, half informal text, method), so 99% of the keystrokes in a French text are unchanged.
The new-characters memo
What to memorize
The characters of the five changes and how to type them. Linked characters open a page in French.
| Character | Keystroke |
|---|---|
| É (in French) | Caps Lock + é |
| È (in French) | Caps Lock + è |
| À (in French) | Caps Lock + à |
| Ç (in French) | Caps Lock + ç |
| Character | Keystroke |
|---|---|
| . | ; |
| ; | Shift + ; |
| Character | Keystroke |
|---|---|
| @ (in French) | ² |
| # | Shift + ² |
| Character | Keystroke |
|---|---|
| { (in French) | AltGr + D |
| } (in French) | AltGr + F |
| [ (in French) | AltGr + J |
| ] (in French) | AltGr + K |
| \ | AltGr + G |
| | | AltGr + H |
| ~ | AltGr + N |
| ` | AltGr + L |
| ^ | AltGr + I |
| # | AltGr + : |
| < | AltGr + , |
| > | AltGr + ; |
| Character | Keystroke |
|---|---|
| Acute accent | ù |
| Grave accent | Shift + ù |
| Tilde | AltGr + ù |
| ù | AltGr + U |
| % | Shift + ) |
The 24 other characters added
These characters are in addition to those of traditional AZERTY. Linked characters open a page in French.
Quotation marks and apostrophes
| Character | Keystroke |
|---|---|
| « (in French) | AltGr + W |
| » (in French) | AltGr + X |
| “ | AltGr + Shift + W |
| ” | AltGr + Shift + X |
| ’ | AltGr + 4 |
| ‘ | AltGr + Shift + 4 |
Dashes and spaces
| Character | Keystroke |
|---|---|
| En dash | AltGr + T |
| Em dash (in French) | AltGr + Shift + T |
| - | AltGr + Shift + 6 |
| Narrow non-breaking space | AltGr + Space |
| Non-breaking space | AltGr + Shift + Space |
Letters
| Character | Keystroke |
|---|---|
| œ (in French) | AltGr + O |
| Π(in French) | AltGr + Shift + O |
| æ (in French) | AltGr + A |
| Æ (in French) | AltGr + Shift + A |
| ß | AltGr + B |
| Capital ß | AltGr + Shift + B |
| Ù | AltGr + Shift + U |
Punctuation
| Character | Keystroke |
|---|---|
| ¿ | AltGr + Shift + , |
| ¡ | AltGr + ! |
| · | AltGr + Shift + ; |
Math and currency
| Character | Keystroke |
|---|---|
| ≤ | AltGr + < |
| ≥ | AltGr + Shift + < |
| ¥ | AltGr + $ |
The 26 new dead keys: rare accents, alphabets and symbols
A dead key does not appear on its own: it accents or transforms the letter typed right after it. This is what opens Greek, Cyrillic, the phonetic alphabet and scientific symbols.
Each dead key's symbol, then the keystroke.
| Dead key | Keystroke |
|---|---|
| Miscellaneous symbols | AltGr + ² |
| Hook above | AltGr + 1 |
| Horn | AltGr + Shift + 1 |
| Double acute | AltGr + 2 |
| Double grave | AltGr + Shift + 2 |
| Dot below | AltGr + 3 |
| Dot above | AltGr + Shift + 3 |
| Breve | AltGr + 5 |
| Inverted breve | AltGr + Shift + 5 |
| Dead key | Keystroke |
|---|---|
| Extended Latin | AltGr + 6 |
| Stroke | AltGr + 7 |
| Horizontal stroke | AltGr + Shift + 7 |
| Macron | AltGr + 8 |
| Cedilla | AltGr + 9 |
| Comma below | AltGr + Shift + 9 |
| Phonetic alphabet | AltGr + Shift + 0 |
| Ring above | AltGr + Shift + ) |
| Scientific symbols | AltGr + = |
| Dead key | Keystroke |
|---|---|
| Caron | AltGr + ^ |
| Ogonek | AltGr + Shift + ^ |
| Currency symbols | AltGr + Shift + $ |
| Acute accent | ù |
| Greek alphabet | Shift + * |
| Cyrillic alphabet | AltGr + * |
| Extended Cyrillic | AltGr + Shift + * |
| Punctuation symbols | Shift + ! |
The cheat sheet
The complete keyboard, layer by layer, to keep open during the first few days. The printed sheet has the overview, the five changes and the memo, on one landscape A4 page. The PDF has the same content, in French.
Paste a character or type its name: ñ, euro, em dash.
A smooth transition
Find the keys on the cheat sheet
Keep the cheat sheet above within reach to find the accents and symbols. The letters A to Z stay where they are.
Keep your keyboard
AZERTY Global is a software layout: nothing to buy, and the stickers are optional. Your current AZERTY keyboard works as is.
Switching back stays easy
Moving between a computer on AZERTY Global and one on traditional AZERTY takes almost no effort: letters and digits are in the same place, and only the five changes differ.
Install and check
Depending on the channel, AZERTY Global is either added to the system's keyboards (EXE installer, macOS, Linux) or runs as an application that transforms what your keys send (Microsoft Store, MSIX kit). What you type is the same either way. Until version 1.3.0 of the app is out, the Microsoft Store and the MSIX kit still deliver the 2026 layout. The complete instructions, with screenshots, are on the download page; here are the essentials.
Microsoft Store app
Recommended for a personal computer: no administrator rights, no SmartScreen warning, automatic updates.
After installing, click “Open”. AZERTY Global starts in the taskbar, near the clock, and a welcome window walks you through the first steps. To find it later, type AZERTY in the Start menu.
Turn it on or pause it at any time with Ctrl + Shift + Caps Lock, or by right-clicking the AG icon.
Business kit (signed MSIX)
For a managed computer, a blocked Microsoft Store or a fleet deployment. The ZIP kit contains the MSIX package signed by the Association pour la Modernisation du Clavier Français, a deployment sheet (in French) and the printable materials.
Open the downloaded file, check that the publisher shown is the association, then install. The download page gives the SHA-256 checksum to compare.
Classic EXE installer
The option that adds AZERTY Global to the list of Windows keyboards. It requires administrator rights and may show a SmartScreen warning.
Once installed: click FRA in the taskbar and choose AZERTY Global, or switch keyboards with Win + Space.
Install on macOS
Copy the file AZERTY Global.keylayout to
~/Library/Keyboard Layouts/, then log out and back in. This step is
required for macOS to detect the file.
Then turn the keyboard on in System Settings → Keyboard → Text Input → Edit… → “+” → AZERTY Global (before macOS 13: System Preferences → Keyboard → Input Sources).
To switch between keyboards, use the keyboard icon in the menu bar, or Ctrl + Space.
Install on Linux
Unzip the archive, then run the installation script
(chmod +x install.sh then sudo ./install.sh). Log out and
back in.
Finally, add “French (AZERTY Global)” to your input sources: GNOME → Settings → Keyboard → Input Sources; KDE → System Settings → Keyboard → Layouts.