How to type accent marks

[Tomisimo]

Dealing with accent marks
~ a.k.a. How to type accent marks on the computer ~

On Windows

Option one: "Alt Codes"
Learn the "Alt codes" or ASCII codes for each accented letter that you need to type. This is kind of clumsy, but when I was taking Spanish classes, and needed to type my papers and stuff on different computers, knowing these codes was a lifesaver at times. The codes are:

Hold down Alt and type the number on the numpad

Code	Letter it produces
Alt + 160	á
Alt + 130	é
Alt + 161	í
Alt + 162	ó
Alt + 163	ú
Alt + 164	ñ
Alt + 129	ü
Alt + 0193	Á
Alt + 144	É
Alt + 0205	Í
Alt + 0211	Ó
Alt + 0218	Ú
Alt + 165	Ñ
Alt + 154	Ü
Alt + 168	¿
Alt + 173	¡

Option two: Typing in Word
If you do your word processing in Word, there are some built-in shortcuts.

For the letters with an accent mark, (áéíóú)

Ctrl + ‘, then the letter
That is, Hold down Ctrl and press the apostrophe key, then release them and press the letter you want

For the capital letters with an accent mark, (ÁÉÍÓÚ)

Ctrl + ‘, then Shift + the letter
That is, Hold down Ctrl and press the apostrophe key, then release them and hold down shift and press the letter you want.

For the umlaut (üÜ)

Ctrl + :, then u => ü
Ctrl + :, then U => Ü

There are also menu options for inserting special characters into a Word document.

Option three: Install a Spanish Keyboard on your computer
This is by far the best option and the one I use, and it's not hard to do. This allows you to easily type all the special characters in any program.

Basically just go to Start => Settings => Control Panel => Keyboard and double-click on Keyboard. This will open up the Keyboard properties dialog box where you can add an "input locale", choose ES Spanish International
Now you will be able to type the chars by simple pressing the single apostrophe key once (nothing will happen/appear), and then press the vowel you want an accent mark over. the ñ is produced with the semi-colon key, and to produce the umlauted u (ü), hold down shift while pressing the apostrophe key and then press the u.

[Zach]

I was thinking about typing this up myself but you beat me to it (and did a better job than I would )

Well done, and thank you!

[Tomisimo]

I had a lot of fun with the formatting, but man, I spent over 30 minutes doing it. Anyways, I hope it helps someone. I used to carry a little card I printed in my wallet with the Alt codes. Something like this:



Anyway, I'm sure there's a lot of things I missed too.

[Neophyte]

Thanks tomisimo, that's really cool. I'm going to print out the codes to carry with me now.

[shruti]

It doesn't do anything. D:

Whyever not?

Press and hold alt, and then type in order the numbers? It isn't working. *sigh*

I'll just copy-'n'-paste from Word (like always), then.

[Tomisimo]

Originally Posted by shruti

It doesn't do anything. D:

Whyever not?

Press and hold alt, and then type in order the numbers? It isn't working. *sigh*

I'll just copy-'n'-paste from Word (like always), then.

Are you trying to use them, for example in the text field to post here? I know if Firefox they don't work because when you press Alt Firefox thinks you are using the keyboard shortcuts for the menus. In internet Explorer it does work, as well as in Word/Notepad etc. Where we you trying to use the alt codes when they didn't work?

[Zach]

You have to use the keypad on the right for the alt codes to work, it won't work with the numbers above the letter keys. I use firefox and it works just fine. Make sure Num Lock is on too.

[Tomisimo]

OK, my problem was I had the Google toolbar installed in Firefox and with Alt + Numbers it jumped up to the search box. Without the toolbar it should work fine.

[shruti]

Oh, num lock must be on, eh? I think that's where my difficulties were. Let's try this again...

á

Yay! How exciting.

[Tomisimo]

Originally Posted by shruti

Oh, num lock must be on, eh? I think that's where my difficulties were. Let's try this again...

á

Yay! How exciting.

If you know how to modify your computer's BIOS settings, there's usually a setting to have the numlock be on when the computer boots up.