Keyboard accents don't work in Flash part of lesson
I have my keyboard set-up to allow me easy access to the accented letters, however these do not work when I'm doing the Flash based part of the lessons. In order to add accented characters I am having to use the mouse to click on the letters in the box below, this uses up time and therefore reduces the amount of points I get for each question. Trying to get 10 points is hard enough without having to waste time using the mouse.
Does anyone else have this problem? Or is it just because I'm running Linux and Adobe Flash isn't quite capable of accepting the characters entered?
Note that on the "write" part of the exercise, everything is fine. Presumably because this is a standard HTML text area, and is not using Flash.
8 Answers
Thankyou for all the replies so far. However, may I re-iterate a couple of points.
Firstly: I'm not running Windows. I am using Linux. So thankyou for the Windows advice, which may help most people, but doesn't apply in my case.
Secondly: My keyboard is already set-up correctly, such that I can input accented characters. I use the AltGr key, plus the letter I want to put the accent over. Therefore my computer is already set-up correctly.
Finally: In normal HTML text fields (like this one for typing in the response to a question) the keys work fine. In every other program or application that I run - they work fine also. The only time that they don't work is within the lessons, in the first writing section (I think it's called 'Recall'), which uses Adobe Flash.
So it seems to be it's either a problem with Adobe Flash as used within the lessons, or it's a problem with the using Flash on Linux computers.
Dave, if its your computer and it is a recent enough version of Windows, try Rock's method.
If it is not your computer, or if you are accessing from other than your computer, you might try some of the other options.
My favorite technique is the Alt Code method because you can use it almost anytime and anywhere. I don't want to download any programs onto a friend's computer or a school computer or at a Kinko's or internet café.
Sorry the Alt codes don't work on a laptop, because they really are the easiest to use. I wrote them on a 3x5 card to keep by my computer but never had it with me in one of those public places so I just open them in a new window if I need one I haven't memorized simply by frequency of use. Hold the Alt key and type 130 to get é, Alt and 162 to get ó.
There is also a simple little program, actually designed by a SD member that may work for you, you just have to load it each time you boot your laptop (or computer). Very easy to use and very quick to download.
Vikingo's accents : Vikingo
Make yourself a note before you click on "yes" to use the shortcuts: the instructions disappear! There aren't that many, but I am trying to remember so many things these days and the old sponge isn't what it used to be!
"Hold down Windows Logo Key and press Q for ¿, x for ¡, a e i n o u y for á é í ñ ó ú ü. Holding down Shift gives capital letters (Á ...)" A sincere thanks to Vikingo!
United States - International Keyboard
If it is your computer and the one you routinely use and you have Windows XP, 7 or Vista you already have the United States - International Keyboard, you just have to 'turn it on' by adding it to your task bar. Windows
On Sanlee's list it is all the way to the bottom of the page and has some of the other methods.
I've just tried it discreetly on my computer at work, which is Windows XP and Firefox, and the AltGr keys work just fine. As do things like Alt-0241 to obtain an 'ñ'.
I also use Firefox on my Linux machine, which additionally has the latest version of Flash, unlike my work machine.
Clearly a problem for only 0.000001% of members. 
I'll keep experimenting and follow-up if I find the answer. Thanks all.
If you go into
Settings > Control Panel > Regional and Language Options > Languages (Tab) > Details > Add (Halfway Down) > Set Input Language to Spanish (Mexico) ; Keyboard to Latin American.
This will allow the "[" button on your keyboard to add an accent to the next typed letter. You just hit that button, then the vowel to add an accent. It will also move around some other buttons, the "ñ" being your ; button. This is what I use when transcribing and writing reports, and you get used to the layout pretty fast.
Also, the default to switch between english/spanish is Alt+Left Shift
I seem to recall when this occurred (it didn't happen back when I took the lessons, but then we didn't have the characters at the bottom of the editor either) that someone mentioned that it might be a browser specific problem. Have you tried using a different browser?
I just tried doing the Recordar (Recall) portion of two lessons and I could make the Spanish characters with my keyboard. I'm using Mozilla Firefox. (has a Linux OS version)
Hi dave and Welcome to the forum. Here is a link to the reference section that might helplink textanswers
I have to do it that way, anyway. I can't get my keyboard set up correctly. But you can still accumulate plenty of points. I know this doesn't help your problem, but I wanted to encourage you to keep going and don't give up.
This gets more curious each time. I tried again using my home laptop (with Linux), and if I press one of the AltGr keys, for example AltGr-a then nothing happens. If I press it again, I get the á. So I think to myself, that is the answer, I need to press the key twice. Oh no. If I press the key a third time, or even any other AltGr key, I immediately get the accented character without needing a double key press. Then the real kicker (este es un dicho que significa sorpresa) is that if there's a significant delay between using accented characters, then I need to press a key twice to get them to show up again.
As a Linux user, I am used to things not working in exactly the same way as the world of Windows, but this is a new one on me.
I did hear that we switched servers recently. I do not know if this has anything to do with your problem. We are experiencing problems that you can look for in previous posts (Answer tab covers dictionary answers).
