Capitalizing Accents
When I try to type a sentence like él es inteligente", it doesn't let me capitalize "é" in él. Is there way I could do it? Thanks! Keep in mind that in my home computer, I don't have option, but I do have control. I tried pressing the shift button while pressing it, but it didn't work. Caps lock wasn't effective either.
Any type of help or suggestions would be great! This would be of great help!
I apologize for not being specific enough. I use the Samsung brand of a computer. I hope that helps.
4 Answers
Yeah, Murgas is talking about keyboard remapping. Here’s how you do it, llamalovers:
The idea is to make your existing keyboard function as though it were two keyboards in one, so to speak. English and Spanish. I’ve done this since 2004. It can be done on any Windows computer. Assuming you’re on a Windows computer, you can do it through Control Panel, Regional and Language Options. (You might need to Google for tips, and it will vary depending on whether you have XP, Vista, 7, etc., but give it a try. It’s pretty intuitive.) After you’ve got it configured, you toggle between the two layouts with a hotkey. (Usually, Shift+Alt.)
For example: You’re currently set to the EN keyboard layout. (Let’s say you’re in England. Your default setup is English–U.K., which would correspond to a keyboard that somewhere has £ on one of the keys instead of $.) Or maybe you’re in the U.S. Your default setup is English–U.S. instead. Either way, English is EN, so you will see an EN on the bottom of your screen near the sys tray after you get everything set in Regional and Language Options. At this time, the key with the semicolon on the bottom (and the colon on the top) is such that if you press it, you get just that, a semicolon, ;. Press Shift+; and you get a colon, :. Press the A key and you get a; Press Shift+A and you get A. Why? Because these characters are mapped to that key and to that combination of those two particular keys. Do you see what I’m getting at? The workaround lies in temporarily changing the way characters are mapped to keys. This is commonly called remapping. It may be daunting at first, but don’t freak out; it’s a breeze after you’re used to it.
To continue with the example: Later, let’s say you need to type something in Spanish. You toggle (like an on–off switch) to your alternate layout (again, usually by pressing Shift+Alt; or, whatever else you set it to in Regional and Language Options), and you have overridden your default keyboard. Now it’s acting like an ES keyboard layout (Spanish–Mexico, for example). The EN on the bottom of your screen near the sys tray has changed to ES; that is, a quick glance will always tell you which keyboard you’re running at any one time in any given environment. Press the key that has the semicolon on the bottom (and the colon on top) and you will not get a semicolon on your screen, because, at this time, with the ES keyboard layout in effect, the semicolon character is not mapped to that key. The character ñ is mapped to it, so that’s what will appear; Press Shift+; and you get Ñ. Later, let’s say that you need á, so while still in ES mode, so to speak, press and release the key with the single quote on the bottom (double quote on the top), press and release the A key, and á appears. (The identical procedure with Shift+A produces Á.)
Yes, you will need to learn the layout of your new Spanish keyboard! (Easy! Just a quick Google to a picture of it will get you started.) And it will seem a bit clunky at first. However, after you’re used to it, you will never look back! (I can type 110 wpm in English, and more than 90 wpm in Spanish, including all the special characters. So, you can see that this method is the fastest way possible after you learn it.) There is no need for inserting symbols from a pulldown menu or inputting ASCII text or ANSI text extended character set codes or clicking on pictographs. You will never have to waste time with this stuff again.
Kirk already pointed out the extended character set code for É, 0201. (Four-digit code, so it’s an ANSI code. The ASCII codes are of course only three digits. É is 144 here.)
Llamalovers, you can also Google ASCII (older stuff, more limited, but shorter codes) and ANSI if you want to see the charts of the special characters.
Questions on this subject come up quite frequently here. The answer depends on several things including what computer you are using, i.e., PC, Mac, Linux or other. Give us a little more information and the answer should be straight forward.
If your are using a PC, you can enter a capital 'É' by holding down the alt key and typing 0201 on the numeric keypad with the caps lock on. If you are using a PC there are better ways of handling this.
Delete this answer, I incorrectly made a statement, but on further research, discovered I was wrong.
if you started writing in spanish, try to change your keyboard (or install it) to Spanish, so you could put the accents on the vowels and the "Ñ" easy (usually it's in the right of the L), even if you don't have that letter, Hope it works =)
