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How to add accents automatically while typing on a computer
Phone keyboards, Word AutoCorrect, online accent restorers, editor plugins and Typeet: how each adds missing accents for you, and where each one stops.
Typing accents by hand is slow on a US keyboard, so the better question is how to let the computer add them. There are five common ways. They differ in where they work, whether they work as you type, and where your text goes.
Phone keyboards
The keyboard on your phone already does this. Set it to your language, type cafe, and it offers or puts in café. It knows the words of the language, so it can add the marks you skipped.
The phone keyboard does not add letters in your desktop apps. Desktop correction and text suggestions depend on the operating system, app and language.
Word's AutoCorrect list
Microsoft Word replaces words from a list as you type. In desktop Word for Windows, add your own pairs in File → Options → Proofing → AutoCorrect Options: cafe → café, senor → señor. Set the document's language, and the spell checker also marks words without their accents and suggests the right form.
It has two limits. The list has built-in entries, and you can add more one by one. And a list cannot decide between two real words. In Spanish, que and qué are both correct, and only the sentence says which one you mean, so a fixed replacement can change a word that was already correct. It also works only in Word and the apps that share its list.
Online accent restorers
Some websites take text without diacritics and give it back with them. You paste a paragraph, press a button and copy the result. The better ones look at the words around each word, so they handle more than a fixed list.
It is a round trip: write, copy, paste, check, copy back. It does not work as you type. Some tools send your text to a server; others process it in the browser. Check the tool's documentation before pasting private text.
Editor plugins
Some text editors have plugins that add accents in the file you edit, as you type or on a command. They can be good, and they run inside the editor.
They stop at the edge of that editor. Your browser, chat app and mail client do not get them, and those are where people mix languages most.
Typeet
Typeet adds the letters as you type, in every desktop app, and runs on your computer. You keep the US layout and type words without their special letters. When you finish a word with a space or punctuation, Typeet writes it with its letters:
- Compre pan y leche, pero se me olvido el cafe. becomes Compré pan y leche, pero se me olvidó el café.
- Am Samstag grillen wir im Garten, bring gern Wurstchen mit. becomes Am Samstag grillen wir im Garten, bring gern Würstchen mit.
It handles the case a list cannot. Typeet looks up each word in word frequency lists for your language and for English, and where two spellings are both common, the words around it decide: ¿Que hora es? becomes ¿Qué hora es?, and El es mi hermano. becomes Él es mi hermano. Words that exist in both languages follow the sentence, so English words stay as they are. How Typeet adds the missing letters has the full rules.
Its limits are real too. It runs on desktops only: macOS 13 or later, Windows 10 or later, and Linux. It works with 19 languages, each mixed with English. It adds missing letters; it does not fix typos or grammar. It makes mistakes now and then: press Backspace right after a fix to undo it, and after ten undos of the same word, Typeet leaves that word alone. It is off in terminals and password managers by default.
The ways side by side
| Way | Where it works | As you type | Your text leaves your device |
|---|---|---|---|
| Phone keyboard | On the phone | Yes | Depends on the keyboard |
| Word AutoCorrect | Word and apps that share its list | Yes, for listed words | No |
| Online restorer | In the browser, after you paste | No | Depends on the tool |
| Editor plugin | In one editor | Depends on the plugin | Depends on the plugin |
| Typeet | Every desktop app | Yes | No |
Which to use
If you write on a phone, its keyboard already does the job. If you write a few words a week in Word, an AutoCorrect list is enough. If you write in your language and English every day on a computer, in many apps, you want something that works as you type and everywhere: that is the gap Typeet fills.
For the manual ways to type single letters, see typing accents on a Mac and typing accents on Windows. If you write in two languages, typing two languages on one keyboard explains why one layout beats two.
Questions
Is there a keyboard that adds accents automatically?
Phone keyboards do it when you set them to your language. On a computer, Typeet does it in every app while you keep the US layout.
Can Word add accents automatically?
Yes, for words you add to its AutoCorrect list, such as cafe to café. It cannot choose between two real words such as Spanish que and qué.
Is it safe to paste text into an online accent tool?
Check whether the tool sends text to a server or processes it on your device. For private or work text, choose a tool with confirmed local processing.
Does Typeet fix spelling mistakes?
No. It adds the special letters a word is missing, such as cok to çok. It does not fix typos or grammar.