Yes, AutoHotKey can easily take care of the issue with accent keys and with the Emacs shortcuts you want to implement. A search for `autohotkey accent character

Yes, AutoHotKey can easily take care of the issue with accent keys and with the Emacs shortcuts you want to implement. A search for `autohotkey accent characters` shows many people using it for this purpose. You can implement all kinds of keyboard shortcuts with AutoHotKey. On the topic of trackpads - maybe you could help me understand - when you use the keyboard and trackpad that's built-into the laptop, is it because you're forced to (in a plane) or because you prefer it? I imagine all Mac users who say they can't ever leave the Apple trackpad are environmentally limited to using whatever is built-in to the laptop. In other words - when I work, I prefer 2 or 3 monitors that are situated about 2 feet from my face and a full size keyboard with numpad (Microsoft Natural). So, I just could never see myself reaching all the way over to the laptop that is driving all of this in order to use a touch pad. But even so, I find all touch pads including Apple's to be imprecise compared to my 5 button vertical mouse. I also have auto-scrolling on Windows which OS X doesn't really do (this is where you push the middle mouse button down and then as you move the entire mouse, things scroll, until you release the button). I tried using an Apple wireless trackpad (magic trackpad?). Maybe you use one of those with your work setup?