Help! Can't insert symbols in MS Word 2008

Hi I'm really, really hoping someone can help me

I have a very long document to edit for work and I need to include French symbols like acute 'e' etc. I have previously accomplished this in documents using the usual 'insert' command and selecting the appropriate symbol from Hoefler Text Ornaments. But lately when I try to enter the symbol, I just get a little square box in the document instead of the symbol selected. What am I doing wrong? Is there a way to fix this? It's going to take me hours to cut and paste if I can't figure it out

Many thanks, any advice very gratefully received

Susie

You don't say what hardware you're on... but on most Apple products, simply holding down the key of the character you wish to be accented will pop-up a selection of appropriate options. You then click on that which you want

Hi, thank you so much for taking the time to reply - I have an iMac 8,1 about five years old. I tried what you suggested, it didn't work for me sadly - if I hold down 'e' for example, I just get eeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.....

I think it must be something I've unwittingly altered in Preferences or Templates or something, as it used to work perfectly fine. Or maybe my copy of word has gotten corrupted somehow? I'm afraid my knowledge is very basic as you can tell!

But thanks again for trying to help!

Susie

é Try holding down Option and then the letter é.

Which version of OS X are you currently running? As far as I can determine, the Hoefler Text Ornaments work OK with Snow Leopard but may not with Lion or Mountain Lion.

If you need French accents and symbols, they may be available from your Character set as a part of OS X. System Preferences, Keyboard, Keyboard Tab, place a check in the box that says: "Show keyboard and character viewers in menu bar" You should then be able to copy and paste from there.

Very late in the day, problem still not fixed, probably me just being thick, but just wanted to belatedly thank everyone who tried to help anyway, very much appreciate it!

Suzy

Word 2008 compatibility

Same problem as superSoozy and there's still nothing obvious out there to suggest a fix.

Upgraded to Word 2008 from Word 2004 (using OS 10.6.8) and all the accent symbols in my insert symbol pull-down box have been replaced by ?s meaning that I can't type an a with a grave accent on it.
The default shortcut using alt + A gives me an A with an small o over it. There is a default setting for A plus hat or E plus acute but that's about it. Very tedious and clearly a bug of some kind. Any suggestions gratefully received

Regards

Nigel