Typing Spanish Characters

Hi~
How do you type Spanish characters?   I found this program: http://spanish.typeit.org/    It seems to work.  Do you have other suggestions?

Thanks,
Tina

Hi Tina,

You could configure your PC to use a Spanish keyboard layout (I don't). Rocket Spanish also provides a virtual keyboard that you can also use (I don't). I think there are also alt-keys you can type directly (I don't). What I do use is a word pad file that I keep open on my desktop that has all these characters (copied in from the course) and I just copy/paste from that.

Steven

Tina: If you use an Apple you can do this:

Go to System Preferences > Language and Text, click on the Input Sources tab, scroll down until you find the keyboard that is checked (US or US Extended if you are in the US. Uncheck whatever is checked, then check US International PC.

Now you can type accented vowels by first typing ' then the vowel: á. You can type ñ by holding down OPT and typing n, release OPT and retype n. Type the inverted question mark by holding down OPT, SHIFT, and typing ?. Leading exclamation mark is holding down OPT and typing !.

I have been doing this a long time and can access these characters really quickly this way.

I think there is similar scheme on Windows keyboards, but I don't know what it is.

Thank you both for your replies! 

Dan~ Unfortunately, I don't have an Apple computer!  :-(

Steven's suggestion also works well with a Windows-based computer.  Like Steven, I don't have my keyboard configured for French, nor do I use the Alt-keys.  If I want an accented letter when using Microsoft Office Word, I simply insert a special symbol.  If I'm using Rocket French, like Steven, I copy and paste the accented letter from Word.

French words with accented letters are sometimes used in English; I add these words to the AutoCorrect Options.  I then type, ignoring the accent, and Word automatically makes the correction.  This speeds typing.

Diana~ Thanks for your suggestions.  

I was wondering about Steven's suggestion of the Rocket Spanish keyboard. I know there is one available during the lessons.....is there one somewhere else for use in typing??

You can easily change your keyboard's language.  Windows has many languages, and when a new computer is set up, one question asked regards  the keyboard language.  However, you can change it at any time.  Doing this, you can use Spanish, French, or whatever as necessary, as well as English as necessary.

To find the keyboard language:
. . Open Control Panel.
. . Select Region and Language.
. . Click on the Keyboard and Languages tab.
. . Click on Change Keyboards.
. . Click on Add and then scroll down until you see the language you want; select it.
. . Click OK to save the new language.

After this, all the keyboards that you use should be behind the Keyboard icon on the monitor's Status Bar.  From now on, you simply click the icon and select the keyboard needed for what you are doing.

To learn the various keys' locations on your new keyboard, you my also need to do an internet search to find a keyboard image.  Once you've learned to use your non-QWERTY keyboard, the other-language will be as natural as is the QWERTY keyboard.

Hopefully this helps.

I just changed my computer and keyboard over to Spanish (ESP) on my Win 10 machine.  I could not find a reference anywhere to tell me how to make the @ sign that actually worked.  I finally found ALT+64 and it works!!!  I am including the keystrokes that I have found work on my ESP keyboard setting.  Also, if you use the characters on the right hand side of the keyboard where the numeric pad/adding machine setup is, they do not change with this keyboard setting, so you can use the asterisk, forward slash, hyphen and plus sign without worry. 

Keystrokes for ESP keyboard setting

; shift + comma                   @ alt+64
, comma
. period
: shift + period
ü, ä shift + left bracket
* shift + rt bracket
¿ equal sign
¡ shift + equal sign
° shift + tilde (next to number one on top row)
| tilde
“ shift + 2 on top row
& shift + 6 on top row
/ shift + 7 on top row
( shift +8 on top row
) shift +9 on top row
= shift + 0 on top row
? shift + hyphen on top row
] shift + backslash
ñ semicolon
Ñ shift + semicolon
[ shift + apostrophe
- forward slash
_ shift + forward slash
' shift + minus sign

Happy learning!