You can type accents and diacritical marks in Google translate by entering directly their numeric code, by typing them in Word (or copying them from anywhere) and then pasting them in the translation panel, even by using a small virtual keyboard available in the translation panel itself. Google provides a virtual keyboard inside the translate panel whenever the language being translated contains accents and special marks, such as Greek, German, French, etc.

In some cases, although you translate from such a language, you won’t see this little keyboard icon and you won’t be able to enter special characters with the virtual keyboard. The Google virtual keyboard is missing if you have your source language (the language you translate from) automatically detected. You can check this by noticing the top border of the translate panel, where Google displays what languages you have used and you are currently using, having selected the currently active one as “detected”.

For example, if you translate from German, and you see it mentioned as “German – detected”, then Google won’t offer a virtual keyboard. Strange enough, but this is how it is.

Therefore, to enable the Google virtual keyboard, go to the top of the page, at the right of the red “Translate” header, click on the box that says “from: German – detected” and select German yourself manually. “Detected” disappears, and the icon of the virtual keyboard appears. Enjoy!