accents

[Eric & Bobbie]

Please forgive me if this is the wrong place to post this, but how can I
type accents, and other Spanish symbols with the ordinary keyboard. This
is my first year in Spanish but I have not figured out a way to type
words with accents like: manana, telefono, numero. How can I do this?
Any help will be appreciated. Thanks, and once again, sorry if this is
the wrong place to post this. :)

-Midnight

[William Austin]

Hi!

That depends on the type of computer you have. On a Macintosh it's the
easiest thing in the world--and there are two methods of doing it. First,
the American English keyboard layout contains the accents already. You type
Option-[accent] then the letter you want the accent over.

For example to get é (lowercase e with an accent) you'd type option-e, e.

The other alternative is to use the Spanish keyboard layout, that plays
havoc with punctuation, but is so much easier. There are accent keys built
in. The left bracket key is the normal Spanish accent. Just hit it and
type the letter. Voila!

On Windows machines, I don't know, but I'd imagine it's much more difficult..
I used to try with DOS, but it was a royal pain. Don't know if this helps
at all. Maybe someone with more Windows experience could give that side of
the equation.

Will

----------
In article <362E4D0B...@niia.net>, Eric & Bobbie <ewr...@niia.net>
wrote:

[chrisnali]

On the same subject, can someone provide me with the basic rules of what an
accent means, when it is used, and what syllable to place the emphasis on?

Gracias.

[Jaime Malagon]

> Please forgive me if this is the wrong place to post this, but how can I
> type accents, and other Spanish symbols with the ordinary keyboard. This
> is my first year in Spanish but I have not figured out a way to type
> words with accents like: manana, telefono, numero. How can I do this?
> Any help will be
> appreciated.

> -Midnight

No problem. In Win95 you have to change your keyboard definition.

START|SETTINGS|CONTROL PANEL|KEYBOARD|LANGUAGE|
Select English(one click) and then click properties. Up comes a window and
select
United States - International. Then okay.

Depending on how your PC was originally set up you, might be prompted for
the SETUP CD in order to complete this change.

This new keyboard setup makes use special keys, such as: the single quote
key ('), the double quote(") key, the tilde key (~) to allow you compose
special characters when used in combination with another key. For example,
single quote+e yields é. Whereas, single quote+Shift+o yields Ó. To get just
a single quote you just press the space bar to get the character.

One thing to keep in mind is that your right Alt key, (right of the space
bar) becomes Alt+Ctrl, thus allowing you to access other special characters,
e.g., right Alt+7 yields ½.
Right Alt+e also yields é.

The advantage of this setup is that it works for all the Windows programs,
so you don't have to learn different key strokes for each application. Just
be careful of some word processors that automatically give you fancy quotes
and apostrophes. You must also take care with the FONT that your using as
some don't support special characters.

For a list of the special characters, go to character map and note the key
combination to produce the desired letter for a selected font.

--
Jaime Malagón -

[Eric & Bobbie]

Hola,
Gracias todo, por la información de los accentos de español.
Thanks all, for the information on the Spanish accents. I greatly appreciate
it from all of you. Now I can finally type them properly :)

-Midnight

[khann]

Eric & Bobbie wrote:
>
>Please forgive me if this is the wrong place to post this, but how can I

>type accents, and other Spanish symbols with the ordinary keyboard...
>

On a PC with a standard keyboard set-up engage <NUM LOCK> and use the
<ALT> key in combination with the numerals in the numeric key pad (not
the numerals on the top of your keyboard) to yield: <ALT>160=á,
<ALT>130=é, <ALT>161=í, <ALT>162=ó, <ALT>163=ú, <ALT>165=Ñ, <ALT>164=ñ,
<ALT>168=¿, <ALT>173=¡, etc

[Donald Mason]

Press 'Alt' together with numbers on numeric keyboard on right side of
keyboard as follows:
á 160; é 130; í 161; ó 162; ñ 164; Ñ 165;
ú 163; ü 129; ¿ 168; ¡ 173.
Hope this helps.
d...@mason144.freeserve.co.uk

--

Eric & Bobbie wrote in message <362E4D0B...@niia.net>...

>
>
>Please forgive me if this is the wrong place to post this, but how can I

>type accents, and other Spanish symbols with the ordinary keyboard. This
>is my first year in Spanish but I have not figured out a way to type
>words with accents like: manana, telefono, numero. How can I do this?

>Any help will be appreciated. Thanks, and once again, sorry if this is
>the wrong place to post this. :)
>
> -Midnight
>

[fores...@pop.spkn.uswest.net]

In Windows 95, there are at least two ways.

(1) Select Start->Programs->Accessories->Character Map. There you can select characters to Copy to the Clipboard for Pasting into your document, or find out the keyboard shortcut to produce the character in your document by using the keyboard (look at the status bar after selecting a character to see its shortcut).

(2) Typing the shortcut for the character: Have NumLock on; hold down the Alt key and type on the numeric keypad the four digit code for the character you want to produce: Alt + 0225 yields á, for example.

[Ed Zwart]

The two ways below that fores...@uswest.net tells us we can make accents are indeed correct, and will do in a pinch. But there is a third way that is infinitely more user-friendly. Most of you will already know this, but for those of you who don't, here is the easiest way to use accents in Windows:

Start | Settings | Control Panel | Keyboard | Language | Add | (I use "Modern Sort", because I like the keyboard layout the best)

Okay, you're asking, "what have I done once I do all this?" The answer is you've added a new keyboard layout to your operating system (Windows) to allow you to use accents more easily. Now, you have the choice to switch between English (or whatever language is your keyboard default) and Spanish. One way to make the
switching back and forth very easy is, on the Add Dialogue Box, to check the box "Enable indicator on Taskbar" so you can change the language of you keyboard with your mouse. Alternatively (or in addition), you can select "Left Alt + Shift" or "Ctrl + Shift" to make the change with a keyboard shortcut.

If this is all very confusing to you, it is because I'm doing a lousy job explaining it. Once you try it, it'll make more sense.

A few examples....
If you choose "Modern Sort" as the brand to use as your Spanish keyboard, the "ñ" will be the ";" on your regular keyboard. That is, the "enyay" is the "semi-colon". To make the accent, you hit "single quotation mark" and then the letter you want to carry the accent. That is, "é" is ' then e.

I know after I learned this, my life was made a whole lot easier when it comes to typing in Spanish.

Good luck!

Ed.

fores...@pop.spkn.uswest.net wrote:

--

------------------------------------------------
Ed Zwart e...@uvic.ca
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
"Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read."
--Groucho Marx.

[DogWalker]

You could also add the "United States-International" keyboard layout.
It lurks as kbdusx.kbd in win95_06.cab. It can be added by clicking on
the EN entry in the sequence Ed outlined and selecting it from the
listbox exposed. This layout uses the " key to make accented characters
by pressing it, releasing then typing the character to receive the
accent; if you just want the ' or " follow with the space bar (you just
get the character " or ' not the space); the right Alt key becomes
Ctrl+Alt: use it to get ñ and Ñ , ¡ ¿ ½ (and wherever you need
Ctrl+Alt); other characters are available using the right Alt (hunt them
out); because this keyboard layout is a replacement for the EN it is
apparently not switchable by hot key or taskbar icon, but it can be
switched by revisiting the keyboard property sheets again (shortcut:
windowsKey + k). I find it preferable to the national boards because
everything stays where it "belongs."