The 5 changes of AZERTY Global
Everything you need to know in 2 minutes.
What doesn't change
The letters A to Z, the accented letters (except ù) and the vast majority of symbols stay where they are. The only changes are the five below — and every one of them makes typing easier.
1. Smart Caps Lock
With Caps Lock on, the letters (A-Z) and the accented letters become capitals: é → É, è → È, à → À, ç → Ç.
Punctuation, numbers and symbols are not affected by Caps Lock — no more surprise digits when you only wanted capital letters.
2. Direct period access
No more Shift! The period . is now in direct access, like on almost every keyboard in the world. The semicolon moves to Shift + ..
💡 The period is far more frequent than the semicolon — it deserves direct access.
3. @ and # on the top-left key
The at sign @ (direct) and the hash # (with Shift) are now on the old ² key, left of the 1 — just like on the macOS French AZERTY.
Typing email addresses has never been easier. For developers, # is also available with AltGr + :.
4. Programming symbols on the home row
No more finger gymnastics: the programming symbols are grouped on the home row with AltGr — even more accessible than on a US QWERTY:
{ } under the left middle and index fingers (D, F)
\ | on the two middle keys (G, H)
[ ] under the right index and middle fingers (J, K)
5. International accents on the ù key
The ù and % keys moved to make room for two accent dead keys:
• Acute accent ´ — to type á, é, í, ó, ú (Spanish, Hungarian…)
• Grave accent ` — to type à, è, ì, ò, ù (Italian, French…)
💡 ù stays available with AltGr + U or ´ then V. % is on Shift + ).
💡 Many more accents are available through the AZERTY Global dead keys — see below.
📝 French essentials
| Character | Description | Shortcut |
|---|---|---|
| É È À Ç | Accented capitals | Caps Lock + é / è / à / ç |
| œ Œ | As in "cœur", "œuf" | AltGr + O |
| æ Æ | As in "ex æquo" | AltGr + A |
| « » | French quotation marks | AltGr + W / X |
| Narrow non-breaking space (before ? ! : ;) | AltGr + Space | |
| Non-breaking space | AltGr + Shift + Space | |
| – | En dash | AltGr + T |
| — | Em dash | AltGr + Shift + T |
🌍 International accents
Dead keys type an accent first, then apply it to the next letter. Example: ´ then A → á.
| Accent | Dead key | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| ´ acute | Key right of M | á í ó ú — Spanish, Hungarian, Czech… |
| ` grave | Shift + key right of M | ì ò ù — Italian… |
| ~ tilde | AltGr + key right of M | ñ ã õ — Spanish, Portuguese… |
| ¨ diaeresis / umlaut | Shift + ^ (unchanged) | ä ö ü — German, Turkish… |
| ^ circumflex | ^ (unchanged) | â ê î ô û — French, Portuguese… |
💡 Hundreds of additional letters and symbols are available through dead keys, including ß, ø, å and the characters of many African languages (ɛ, ɔ, ŋ…).
🗺️ Explore the keyboard map
Hover or tap the highlighted keys to see what they do.
✅ A smooth transition
Fast learning
A few hours are enough to memorize the main changes. The keyboard map helps during the first days.
Keep your keyboard
AZERTY Global is software only: your current keyboard works as is, and the letters stay exactly where you expect them.
Reversible anytime
Your original layout is never modified. Turn AZERTY Global off or switch back to the traditional AZERTY whenever you want.