typing accents

Question

how do you type accent marks and tildes

Hola, welcome to the forum! Please use a capital to begin your sentence. This is a learning site. Thanks! - rac1, May 19, 2012

Answer 1

Turn on the international keyboard and then you'll use alt + vowel

Answer 2

There is a Spanish Dict "official post" that answers this question. However, I don't think it contains the best information. I was a computer programmer for 18 years. What I saw everyone using, especially computer users from other countries, was the "United States International Keyboard". It is available for both PC's and Macs. All you have to do is change some settings on your computer. It does not require any type of download. It is, by far, the simplest, fastest, and easiest way to type letters with accents.

There are many people in Spanish-speaking countries that have been computing for years, and they have become comfortable using some "older" technology. Today, we have the United States International Keyboard. If you are making a decision right now about how to solve the problem typing letters with accents, I believe you should choose the US-Intl keyboard.

Microsoft support has a webpage that will tell you how to install it and how to use it. That webpage is http://support.microsoft.com/kb/306560.

Just to make myself clear.... the United States International Keyboard is NOT a different physical keyboard. It is just functionality on your computer that is available to you to use. - Esteban3304, May 19, 2012

Very good information Esteban. Thank you for taking the time to post this!:) - rac1, May 19, 2012

Answer 3

Also, in Microsoft Word you can use short cuts: control + ' (apostrophe) + any vowel = accented vowel. If you set your spell check to Spanish the ! and ? should automatically flip at the beginning of sentences. To get the ñ you need to type control + ~ (in the top left of your keyboard) + n or N

I find the above very useful when typing in multiple languages so that I don't have to worry about where the keys move to when I change between Spanish and English keyboards. I have also found the keyboard viewer on my mac very helpful in learning the Spanish keyboard as I previously learned to type on an English keyboard.

Thank you for your input. It is very much appreciated!:) - rac1, May 19, 2012

Good point. Before I retired, I knew many Spanish speakers that installed the Spanish language pack in MS Word, and then use the spell checker. They would right click on each "misspelled" word to add the accents. But most soon changed to US-Intl keyboard. - Esteban3304, May 19, 2012

Answer 4

Alt +

ü 129 é 130 â 131 ä 132 à 133 å 134 ç 135 ê 136 ë 137 è 138 ï 139 î 140 ì 141 Ä 142 Å 143 É 144 ô 147 ö 148 ò 149 û 150 ù 151 ÿ 152 Ö 153 Ü 154 á 160 í 161 ó 162 ú 163

Thank you Diagonx, Good to know!:) - rac1, May 19, 2012

Answer 5

I cut and paste. My pc is not set up for that, but I know there are ways to do it. I think it might require a download. There are people here that use Mac and they have a way of doing that. I'm just not certain what that is. I will check back here to find that out myself. Thanks for posting.

Good Morning Rac, If you go to this link, it will explain how to change your keyboard to Spanish. http://www.conversationexchange.com/resources/keyboard-language.php - Nilda-Ballardo, May 19, 2012

Gracias Nilda, I appreciate that very much!:) - rac1, May 19, 2012

I found an ever better one in the SD Reference area. http://www.spanishdict.com/answers/100808/how-to-type-spanish- - Nilda-Ballardo, May 19, 2012

Cool, thanks Nilda! - rac1, May 19, 2012

Nilda, that is the one I use, thanks again! - rac1, May 19, 2012