I just type a long missive about this and then decided that maybe the French were kinda different.
So I went to the System Preferences > International and added two more inputs to my collection.
French and French Numerical. Lo and behold, pressing the row of numbers causes the symbols to appear, and not in the order that they are on my keyboard, and holding down the shift key produces numbers.
Strangely that happens in both inputs.
I don't have a laptop that I can test my next theory on, but take a look at the F6 key which, on a dismantled iBook keyboard, is shown as a Num Lock key. You may have to hold down the FN key to activate it.
If all else fails, and to answer your original question, Yes you can purchase a number pad which connects via the USB port
Good luck and let us know if the F6 thing worked
P
The keyboard (French layout) does not have,as you know, a separate pad for numbers. I have to use the top row numbers and this means holding down the Upper Case key all the time. If I use the "Caps Lock" key it just produces Capitals -no numbers! Is there a " Numeric Lock" key on this Keyboard somewhere that I haven't yet discovered?
Could I buy a Numeric Keyboard (little thing) and plug it in via a USB 2
port?

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