How to use blue symbols on HP laptop keyboard

thankyou so much that was really helpfull, so basicly you can go into the é thing by pressing ctrl+fn+shift and if you want a one of the blue buttons then cold ctrl+alt and press the one you want while your in the é thing ¶§µ¾½¼¤¢£@± lol and if you want to get out of the é thing then just hold ctrl+fn and push shift twice

 

Quite simply:

Start in normal mode (normal mode: you're able to type the question mark on the key above the lower right ctrl key).

Press ctrl+right shift. This activates secondary function keys (all the upper blue symbols).
Access upper blue symbols by using the regular shift+key you want combo.

Press ctrl+right shift again, this activates tertiary blue symbols (all the lower blue symbols on the keys).
To access these, use ctrl+alt+key you want.

Press ctrl+right shift to deactivate.

(Alriiight haha! Took me so long to research this stupid little curiosity I had! Lol. Hope I helped someone.)

 

I want to keep this thread about keyboard mapping errors (= keyboard mapping features) alive because my friend just got a new HP s5220f Slimline Pavilion in Canada and he experienced this problem in Word (see previous posts for solution). He was about to make the store he bought it from take it back - and still might. Maybe we need many more irate customers to do this very thing so that computers sold in BC won't automatically be set up with the assumption that people WANT to be able to toggle between French and English using a cryptic keyboard combination.

In fact, more people in Vancouver, British Columbia speak Mandarin than French as their native language. (Whoops!)

Anyway, I wanted to put in several phrases about weird character mappings for Google to index, in the hopes that others searching for them might find this thread:

é instead of ?
@ displays as “
^ becomes ?

(Isn't technology wonderful?)

Cheers!

 

It is the french AZERTY keyboard, the worst design ever if you ask me, yet I have to deal with QWERTY at home and AZERTY at uni...

 

There are three modes to the Canadian French keyboard. Simultaneously pressing ctrl + fn + right shift will change the mode. If you are in Mode 1, press ctrl + fn + right shift and you will access Mode 2. Press ctrl + fn + right shift again and you will access Mode 3. Press it again and you will return to Mode 1.

Mode 1:

Lower case Upper case

`12345678990-= ~!@#$%^&*()_+
qwertyuiop[] QWERTYUIOP{}
asdfghjkl;'\ ASDFGHJKL:"|
\zxcvbnm,./ |ZXCVBNM<>?



Mode 2:

Lower case Upper case

/1234567890-= \!@#$%?&*()_+
qwertyuiop^ç QWERTYUIOP¨Ç
asdfghjkl;èà ASDFGHJKL:ÈÀ
ùzxcvbnm,.é ÙZXCVBNM'"É


Mode 3:

Lower case Upper case

#1234567890-= |!"/$%?&*()_+
qwertyuiop^¸ QWERTYUIOP^¨
asdfghjkl;`< ASDFGHJKL:`>
«zxcvbnm,.é »ZXCVBNM'.É


You can quickly check to see what mode you`re in by pressing the first button on the number row (to the left of the number 1 and directly under the escape key.) If it types a ` you`re in Mode 1, if it types a / then you`re in Mode 2, and if it types a # then you`re in Mode 3.

Once you`re clear on how that works you can easily access the other special figure blue keys. Here`s the trick. Go to Mode 3. Press and continuously hold down ctrl + alt. The keyboard will then produce these figures...

\±@£¢¤¬¦²³¼½¾
§¶[]
~{}
°µ¯´

It took me a lot of playing around to figure this out. I love a good puzzle as much as the next person but this information should have been supplied by HP, for shame!

 

THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT I WAS LOOKING FOR! Thank you. The manual was way too small for all the features of this laptop.