# Forum Learning Russian Language Getting Started with Russian  Cyrilic letters with accents

## radomir

I have a great problem. Recently I have had to change my PC, changing from one with Windows XP to other with Windows 7. I have a lot of work done in Russian, in Word, with letters stressed (и, я, ю). To get them in XP i went to "include symbols" in the section of "cyrillic" of every font and voila!. But in Windows 7 I have searched in a lot of fonts and I find in "cyrillic" section of every font the most curious symbols, but none of stressed cyrillic letters. And all my documents previously well (accented) written appear now full of strange symbols.  
Can somebody help me? Thanks

----------


## kozyablo

> I have a great problem. Recently I have had to change my PC, changing from one with Windows XP to other with Windows 7. I have a lot of work done in Russian, in Word, with letters stressed (и, я, ю). To get them in XP i went to "include symbols" in the section of "cyrillic" of every font and voila!. But in Windows 7 I have searched in a lot of fonts and I find in "cyrillic" section of every font the most curious symbols, but none of stressed cyrillic letters. And all my documents previously well (accented) written appear now full of strange symbols.  
> Can somebody help me? Thanks

 It is sad. really.
Which version of Word do you use? Maybe you can solve this issue by install old version Word (which was installed with Win XP). 
Or other way = when I have trouble with Win Word I use OpenOffice. OpenOffice is free.

----------


## Hanna

Radomir, you actually got further with this than I ever did, despite me being an IT professional etc. I agree that it would be tremendously helpful to be able to easily type Russian vowels with an accent.  
There have been several threads about this and I can't remember that any actually offered any good advice.  Most people have given up and do things like make the stressed vowel bold instead, or a different colour.  
Obviously the Russians don't normally know either, since they have no reason to want to put accents when typing in Russian... 
This problem is specific for people who are learning Russian with a starting point in a language with Latin letters. 
I guess you are in a better starting position than many others though, since you are more used to accents from Spanish.  *
Can you explain exactly what settings you changed in XP? What did you then do, to get the accented vowels when typing in Russian?* *Do you type with the Cyrillic keyboard enabled, or how?  * Did you change something in XP itself, or in Microsoft Word? If it was in Word, what version do you use?If we know exactly how you got this working in XP, then we have a better chance of figuring it out for Windows 7.  
I've had Win7 for as long as I've studied Russian and I would really like to get this working too. 
As for Word: It's relatively unlikely that they removed this functionality, they probably just moved it somewhere else.

----------


## radomir

I don't remember which version of Microsoft Office I was using. The present, preinstaled in the PC is Microsoft Office 2010 Starter, including Word and Excel. I can uninstall this Office and install Microsoft Office 2007 that I have in complete version. But will I find again the same problem I have with 2010? Who knows?

----------


## radomir

The version if Office that I had working was previous to 2007.

----------


## kozyablo

> I don't remember which version of Microsoft Office I was using. The present, preinstaled in the PC is Microsoft Office 2010 Starter, including Word and Excel. I can uninstall this Office and install Microsoft Office 2007 that I have in complete version. But will I find again the same problem I have with 2010? Who knows?

 Sorry, but I don't know in this case.
You afraid of losing a license for Win Office 2010?
Maybe you try OpenOffice (with Russian location). if this will not work = you can change version or settings of Win Office. you can install OpenOffice with Win Office in one PC, this is not a problem. If this will not work just remove this soft.
I think this is the fastest way for resolving problem.  If you used special symbols or macroses = this may be a trouble. 
P.S. in my opinion = better full Win Office 2007 than base preinstalled Win Office 2010

----------


## Seraph

Something I've been meaning to look into is the Canadian multilingual keyboard, that has a lot of accent possibilities,  Keyboard layout - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
.Lots of shift key methods to put accents on letters.

----------


## Полуношник

> I have a great problem. Recently I have had to change my PC, changing from one with Windows XP to other with Windows 7. I have a lot of work done in Russian, in Word, with letters stressed (и, я, ю). To get them in XP i went to "include symbols" in the section of "cyrillic" of every font and voila!. But in Windows 7 I have searched in a lot of fonts and I find in "cyrillic" section of every font the most curious symbols, but none of stressed cyrillic letters. And all my documents previously well (accented) written appear now full of strange symbols.  
> Can somebody help me? Thanks

 I don't think any standard font has accented Russian letters. You probably used a customized font. In this case you have to install that font on the new computer.  
Would you copy some of those curious symbols and paste them to this forum?

----------


## chaika

This works for me XP/Word2000: 
Use Unicode's built-in overstrike diacritics. Windows Word97 and 2000
(and I imagine for the Mac as well) give you access to a great many Unicode
overstrike characters. (Look under Insert Symbol and then scroll through the
symbols until you get to the "combining diacritical mark" set). You can
automate the process by assigning a keystroke to each diacrtical. PLUSSES
(a) You need no extra fonts. (b) I imagine it's doable on the Mac - at least
in later versions of Word. (c) It should print on all printers. (d) It
looks pretty on the screen. MINUS (and for me a big one): It causes Russian
spellcheckers to flag any accented word. 
Type дорого
then your macro key (I assigned ctrl+' for the accent.
then the й.
It doesn't work in MR's data entry screen.

----------


## radomir

My friend says to me that Office 2007 has the same fonts as Office 2010. I have seen every font in my PC and I haven't found these letters. I didn't do nothing before, simply searched and found as an extra in every font these letters и, я, ю, ы with an orthographical accent. I will say to the technician who monted the PC and installed the software to install the Office being in the, by now, dead PC with XP. I wish he could bring to life the PC for both happiness (that of PC and mine  ::  ). He is on holidays till end of month. Thank you

----------


## radomir

Here is a sample of what I have written with the help of these symbols:
(Perhaps a solution could be to copy these accented letters in a file and go to this file and copy-paste these letters in the document in work. I will see). I see a little difference between "go to symbols" and to go to "accented vowels" and copy-paste (on other hand I have no other way out).  
hospital      *больни**́**ца* 
explosión   *взры**́**в** r* hacer explotar *взрыва**́**ть** -* *взорва**́**ть* posible       *возмо**́**жный** (-**ая**, -**ое**)* tiempo; actualmente *вре**́**мя**:* *в* *настоя**́**щее* *вре**́**мя* 
de alto rango *в**и**сокопоста**́**вленный** (-**ая**, -**ое**)* director       *глава**́* dr
ciudadano (s) *граждани**́**н** (**гаражда**́**нка**,* *гра**́**ждане**)* datos; según   *да**́**нные**:* *по**да**́**нным* (pl)
asunto           *де**́**ло* rd
víctima; baja *же**́**ртва* Mº del Interior *МВД* *(Министе́рство Вну́тренних Де́л)* 
potencia               *мо́щность ж*
permanecer, continuar *оста/ва́ться  - оста́ться*

----------


## Hanna

That's exactly what I wanted to do on my Russian flashcards, and in general. 
I literally spent hours trying to figure out how to do it, but eventually I gave up - something I almost never do with computers.  
I'll check Chaikas advice later. I never checked for this specifically with Unicode, so that could be it. Maybe that's the secret.  
There's got to be some way to do it, because accents are used in lots of Russian text books for students.

----------


## Полуношник

> *больни**́**ца*

 This is what chaika advised. Combining diacritic symbols. The accented *и**́* consists of two unicode characters: "cyrillic small leteer i" and "combining acute accent" (U+301). I am surprised that Office 2010 Starter can't handle it. You can try OpenOffice instead.

----------


## kidkboom

If anyone ever gets this working, please let us know.  The accent marks help me out in learning IMMENSELY.  And I would be a happy first customer; I'm sure I'm not the only one.

----------


## Ramil

Any unicode font has this Acute Accent character (Unicode U+0301) 
You can put a keyboard shortcut for this character in MS Word or use Insert symbol option. It's a combining diactic character that is added after any character you need.
You can also have charmap.exe (located in your Windows\System32 folder) to insert this symbol to any other application you're working with.

----------


## radomir

What I finally am doing is to copy a line with и, ы, ю, я accented to the head of every document in which I am working to avoid continuous help to other file, and I copy-paste these characters whenever I need them. I finish the work, I delete this "help-line" and voila! I can't get the no doubt more elegant solutions given here. Thanks.

----------


## Ramil

Copy the acute accent character in the clipboard and paste it after the letters you want to put accent onto.

----------


## radomir

Dear Ramil, if I do what you say I get и'  ,   я'  ,    ю' and so on.
Looking here and there I have found Kodeks where a file is announced including every font, and of course these letters accented. I have download it and really there appears a lot of letters and signs (in Unicode) but  none of these letters accented. 
Sorry.

----------


## radomir

> This is what chaika advised. Combining diacritic symbols. The accented *и**́* consists of two unicode characters: "cyrillic small leteer i" and "combining acute accent" (U+301). I am surprised that Office 2010 Starter can't handle it. You can try OpenOffice instead.

 No doubt I didn't understand what you have said. 
A letter is written, then one goes to "insert Symbol", chooses Unicode and types in the field 0301. I don't know if with 301 it will work the same. In any case the problem is solved. Thank you very much.

----------


## Ramil

> Dear Ramil, if I do what you say I get и'  ,   я'  ,    ю' and so on.
> Looking here and there I have found Kodeks where a file is announced including every font, and of course these letters accented. I have download it and really there appears a lot of letters and signs (in Unicode) but  none of these letters accented. 
> Sorry.

 That's strange, works as charm on my system.

----------


## radomir

In Spanish keyboards firstly accent is typed and then the letter on which it goes.  But apart from this I have tried different ways and only works this of " letter + Unicode + 0301" and that is enough for solving my problem. Thanks.

----------


## Ramil

> In Spanish keyboards firstly accent is typed and then the letter on which it goes.  But apart from this I have tried different ways and only works this of " letter + Unicode + 0301" and that is enough for solving my problem. Thanks.

 But I don't see how typing unicode + 0301 differs from pasting it from the keyboard...

----------


## radomir

The first time I want to put the accent on, let us say, я , I have to choose "Unicode" + 0301, but the next time I just enter to "Symbols" and press to "Include" since the election for 0301, unless changed, is kept.   
Surely a macro could be made in order to asign this movements (Change to symbols + Include, or even select Unicode +0301+Include) to a key; by now it is over my (not too wide) science; if I get this macro it would quite a success. Bye.

----------


## Ramil

```
Sub InsertAcuteAccent()
    Selection.InsertSymbol CharacterNumber:=&H301, Unicode:=True
End Sub
```

Add a module to your Normal.dot, add this sub to it and assign a hotkey

----------


## radomir

> ```
> Sub InsertAcuteAccent()
>     Selection.InsertSymbol CharacterNumber:=&H301, Unicode:=True
> End Sub
> ```
> 
> Add a module to your Normal.dot, add this sub to it and assign a hotkey

 I will put to it. I have done a lot of programs in Visual Basic 6.0 but it doesn't run in Windows7 (however the programs made, yes). I will see what you say. Thanks.

----------


## Полуношник

The dialog "Insert symbol" has a button at it's bottom named... eh "Сочетание клавиш" in the Russian version. Just press this button. You don't need any Visual basic skill at all. Select the symbol,  press the button, hold Ctrl or Alt and press any key that you like (the apostrophe, for example), press "Assign" and use the key combination when you want to enter the accent.

----------


## radomir

I see what you say and I will take advantadge of it. Thanks.

----------


## Triton

As an alternative, one can use this online character picker: http://rishida.net/scripts/pickers/latin/
To get the combining acute accent, move cursor overshapeaabove.pngand then click on0301.png

----------


## Ramil

A nice thing about macros is that you can assign a keyboard shortcut to it. Of course you can use Insert Symbol dialog box, but imagine when you're typing a rather large text and you need to insert acute accents to all of the words. Your typing will be turtle slow if you switch from keyboard to mouse and back constantly. 
P.S. And I've heard people actually managed to run VB6 programs and its IDE under Windows 7.

----------


## radomir

Really I don't write quantities of text in Russian; after studying a text I take the words that I need to keep in mind and write them. As for a, e, o, y accented, no problem, they can be got easily in Spanish keyboard. You have shown various ways to solve my initial aproblem.
As for programs produced through VB6 I have some of them running perfectly on Windows7. I have tried to install the same VB6 and I get a lot of errors and warnings. Presently I don't work this matter so I have put it aside. I have read that making plenty of changes can be used too in Windows7, but I have no time nor much interest now in it. I made programs as a hobby; I'm an economist. 
Thank you.

----------


## radomir

From Ramil:
A nice thing about macros is that you can assign a keyboard shortcut to it. Of course you can use Insert Symbol dialog box, but imagine when you're typing a rather large text and you need to insert acute accents to all of the words. Your typing will be turtle slow if you switch from keyboard to mouse and back constantly.  
To Ramil:
I have been trying what you have said and the macro works fine... but in Spanish (grrrrr !!) not in Russian. I have changed tha language at the botton of screen, I have changed the font and it is the same, it works perfectly in Spanish but not in Russian, it pays no внимание abt my commands. By now it is not a problem, I have an other solution so... Thanks.

----------


## Ramil

Out of curiosity,  when you were assigning your keyboard shortcut which combination did you use?

----------


## radomir

> Out of curiosity, when you were assigning your keyboard shortcut which combination did you use?

 Opening a file that presents "marks" and trying to hide them I get the message: "Word 2010 Starter doestn't support macros nor the operation you are trying to do. Please, buy the full program". Ha.
I was using the combination Ctl+', but as I said it worked just in Spanish and when in Russian is was like this: A' .
Definitely I will uninstall Word 2010 Starter and install Word 2007. It  takes from me more time these collateral works than the main task.
Thanks.

----------


## radomir

> Out of curiosity, when you were assigning your keyboard shortcut which combination did you use?

 I have changed Office installing full version of 2007 and the macro works perfectly. Thank you.

----------


## grammatica

Most commonly used fonts in MS Office 2007/2010 support Russian characters with stress marks.  
You can use our application to automatically insert stress marks in any Russian text. After pasting your text into Grammatica, you can copy it and paste it into Word and all the words should have stress marks. Just make sure to use a standard font (Times New Roman, Calibri, Segoe UI). 
A quick screenshot:  stress_copying.jpg 
You can download a 20 day trial of Grammatica by clicking on the link in my signature. After 20 days, you'll need to get a license key to continue using Grammatica. We are planning on releasing a pretty big update to our application in the next few weeks - it will Grammatica a lot more responsive and stable. 
Best regards, 
Vlad

----------

