Computers and the French Language

You don't need software or any special equipment to type accents - just follow these directions.

While machine translation is an interesting concept and considerably cheaper and faster than professional translators, the results are less exciting. This article put the top four online translators to the test - see how they hold up against one another and against a real person.

Learning French is one thing, but French on the internet - in chatrooms and forums - or via text messaging or email can seem like a completely different language. Fortunately, help is at hand. Here are some common French abbreviations, acronyms, and symbols to help you communicate via text.

If you use Windows, you can immerse yourself a bit more in French by telling your computer to display menus and dialog boxes in French.

You can type French accents and immerse yourself in French at the same time on a Mac OSX by setting your system language to French so that your OS as well as most Apple software use French.

If you do a lot of internet searches related to French-speaking countries or their products, consider using a French-language search engine such as Google France, as it may yield more relevant results than your default search engine.

If you're looking for an interesting way to get more French practice and improve your skills, check out my recommendations for French learning software.

Install the free French toolbar in your internet browser for easy access to some of the most useful pages on Learn French at About.com, plus other French features.

A webquest is an interesting project for French classes or for independent studiers looking to spice up their self-instruction. This project is perfect as a long-term activity for intermediate and advanced students, though it can also be adapted for beginners.

Guide to the HTML codes for typing French accented letters and special characters for webpages.

If you're looking for free French apps, you're in luck: there is a wide variety, from dictionaries to learning programs - here are some useful-sounding mobile applications related to French.

Every country in the world has an official two-letter country code for use on the internet. These codes are used in website addresses and emails, and can therefore tell you where a website is located. In addition, they can be used to perform country-specific searches. Here are the country codes for French-speaking countries.

Si vous voulez développer en Python, regardez cette page.

French table of codes for colors that both Netscape and IE recognize.

Le premier média francophone dédié au Macintosh et à Apple.