Here is a short guide to producing accents in TeX, html and MS Word.

(You may also want to check out the Firefox extension: abcTajpu.)

To get (for example) Sándor Kovács,
you should type

in TeX: S\'andor Kov\'acs

in html: Sándor Kovács

in MS Word: S[Ctrl+']andor Kov[Ctrl+']acs
i.e., push "Ctrl" and " ' " together and then "a"

And here is a short explanation why we (Hungarians and probably other nationalities whose alphabet includes accented characters) care:
Our alphabet starts like this: a, á b, c cs, d, dz, dzs, e, é,...
In other words, in the Hungarian alphabet "a" and "á" are two different letters with different pronounciation (same for "e" and é", etc.). We don't even call it an "accent", because it has nothing to to with accent or stress. It is a different letter. Period.
As an example, consider the letters "i" and "t". Most people would never consider not to dot their i's or cross their t's, even though if these are forgotten, these letters do not become another one, whereas not putting an accent on an "á" makes it an "a", a completely different letter!

Now you know why we care...