accents

[Anita Ovando]

hello, i am using a physical English keyboard and im remaping it for Spanish (qwerty). I already got "ñ" (which I need as a separate key) but im having trouble with accents. 

When using my accent keys on my custom layout, it shows ´e instead of é, for example.
I can't make ´ a dead key I don't know how. do I have to put the unicode or xml code? I need the accents in every vowel so I can't put five separate keys for them

thank you

anita 

[Anita Ovando]

hello, i am using a physical English keyboard and im remaping it for Spanish (qwerty). I already got "ñ" (which I need as a separate key) but im having trouble with accents. 

When using my accent keys on my custom layout, it shows ´e instead of é, for example.

I can't make ´ a dead key I don't know how. do I have to put the unicode or xml code? I need the accents in every vowel so I can't put five separate keys 

thank you

anita

[Gé van Gasteren]

Hello Anita,

You have come to the right place :-)

Could you please indicate how familiar you are with different keyboard layouts, and with computers in general?

I have a feeling that the solution to your question might be very simple, but I don’t want to explain things to you that you already know well…

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[Sorin Paliga]

If your target is to write in Spanish you do not need UKELELE. You must activate the Spanish keyboard layout or use US keylayout and remember that ñ is option-N (dead key) followed by n, and dead acute option-e followed by the desired vowel. 

It is also useful to activate keyboard viewer and see what happens when you press a key. 

Sorin Paliga

Sent from my iPhone

On 30 Jul 2026, at 06:23, Gé van Gasteren <gevang...@gmail.com> wrote:



To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/ukelele-users/CAOH1hL-oEVo8d6-PurfNRL-3iC0OB1fE%3DVhhFX9T7NFfFo55zw%40mail.gmail.com.

[Anita Ovando]

hi, i have an intermediate knowledge on computers. when it comes to solving a problem like this I try to learn WHY I have to do what im supposed to do even if I don't always fully understand what I'm doing. anyway, I managed to get what I needed. 

originally, I had created a Spanish qwerty keyboard layout from scratch. today I tried again using the current input (us international pc) and the end keys for acute accents were already where I needed them so I made some other normal key changes. my problem is solved and I am happy with this layout and Ukelele. 

still, I am a little bit frustrated that I couldn't set the dead keys on my own, even if I followed the instructions manual step by step. 

thank you for your response

[Sorin Paliga]

Hello 

It is not clear to me why you wish to create a new keylayout for Spanish, it is included in the system. You just have to activate it. 

Creating a new keylayout from scratch is not an easy task, I do recommend starting from an existing one. 

Sorin Paliga

Sent from my iPhone

On 31 Jul 2026, at 02:18, Anita Ovando <ovand...@gmail.com> wrote:

hi, i have an intermediate knowledge on computers. when it comes to solving a problem like this I try to learn WHY I have to do what im supposed to do even if I don't always fully understand what I'm doing. anyway, I managed to get what I needed. 

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/ukelele-users/7fa47c93-0199-4811-bd50-5ef401bedfa3n%40googlegroups.com.

[Gé van Gasteren]

Good morning!

Yes, dead keys are a bit complex.

For now, you have successfully taken the first steps: 

• To understand that your physical keyboard is not necessarily showing the characters you can type

• You’ve edited an existing keyboard layout to suit your needs. 

Sorin is right that your macOS comes with lots of national keyboards built in, ready to be activated.

Here’s part of my keyboard layout menu:

On that list, my standard keyboard layout is the only custom-made keyboard layout, as you can see from the colorful icon :-)

I made it with Ukelele on the basis of Apple’s built-in Dutch layout. 

Regarding your Spanish layout:

You can type all the Spanish accents with the standard US keyboard layout active, but it´s clumsy.

If you activate the macOS-provided standard Spanish keyboard layout, the accents and the ñ can be typed more easily – see this screenshot of the Keyboard Viewer:

In the screenshot, you can see that the accents and also ñ can be typed directly, without needing the Option key.

The orange line around the accent keys indicates that they are dead keys.

Let me know if this built-in Spanish keyboard layout (or the other one, called "Spanish legacy") suits your needs.

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/ukelele-users/7fa47c93-0199-4811-bd50-5ef401bedfa3n%40googlegroups.com.

[Sorin Paliga]

I am trying to understand why she needs another Spanish keylayout as long as there is one (or more) in the system. 

Sorin Paliga

Sent from my iPhone

On 31 Jul 2026, at 08:40, Gé van Gasteren <gevang...@gmail.com> wrote:



Good morning!

Yes, dead keys are a bit complex.

For now, you have successfully taken the first steps: 

• To understand that your physical keyboard is not necessarily showing the characters you can type

• You’ve edited an existing keyboard layout to suit your needs. 

Sorin is right that your macOS comes with lots of national keyboards built in, ready to be activated.

Here’s part of my keyboard layout menu:

<image.png>

On that list, my standard keyboard layout is the only custom-made keyboard layout, as you can see from the colorful icon :-)

I made it with Ukelele on the basis of Apple’s built-in Dutch layout. 

Regarding your Spanish layout:

You can type all the Spanish accents with the standard US keyboard layout active, but it´s clumsy.

If you activate the macOS-provided standard Spanish keyboard layout, the accents and the ñ can be typed more easily – see this screenshot of the Keyboard Viewer:

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/ukelele-users/CAOH1hL_Q3VXi4HQLuHAxaJz5Lvaj%3Dt1Oe9VxuGXEpN06YU9%2BEQ%40mail.gmail.com.

[Gé van Gasteren]

Hi Sorin,

She didn’t explain her difficulty/goals, but basically, that’s what Ukelele is for, isn’t it?

The layouts provided with macOS are a great collection and very important as standards, but we’re all different, so it’s also great to be able to adapt those layouts to our personal situation.

For example, my Limburgish dialect uses lots of diacritics, so I wanted to make typing them easier, especially äö.

I also added some keys for combining diacritics (like those on ABC Extended, typed after the base letter) and a few shorthand keys, e.g. ´ + j to yield íj́ – all stuff doable with the Dutch layout, but cumbersome.

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/ukelele-users/2FA25FDE-9A25-4D99-ACD0-51F32785DD12%40gmail.com.

[Sorin Paliga]

Yes, of course, but i have the feeling she uselessly complicates her life. If the target is ‘a Spanish keylayout’, there is no need for UKELELE, but perhaps she needs ‘a special Spanish keylayout’. 

I think she has a US laptop with default US keylayout active, and is not familiar with activating an existing keylayout. 

 

Sorin Paliga

Sent from my iPhone

On 31 Jul 2026, at 13:07, Gé van Gasteren <gevang...@gmail.com> wrote:



To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/ukelele-users/CAOH1hL9ecJcD441jtPOonng2YNmVgctt48Rc3oC2P7YQCJ%3DaCg%40mail.gmail.com.

[Anita Ovando]

hello

when I made the original post, I had not realized my mistake, which was making a key layout from scratch, when I should have used the current input one. 

as Sorin says, I have an US laptop. I know I can use International US to type in Spanish but I wanted a separate ñ key. it is easier for me given that all my life I typed ñ as a separate key. (in Spanish the letter ñ is not n with a tilde, it's a different letter. as opposed to vocals with accents, which are just vocals with an accent..)

the ñ key is supposed to go next to the L key, where in my laptop is ; and : 

this is my laptop keyboard:

so I needed ukelele to set the ñ and move : and ; to other keys. this I had done successfully. I just couldn't get the accent dead key but that is solved now. just a silly mistake.

this is my current keylayout. i still need to place < and > on the top left key besides 1. but i rarely use those so its fine. 

why don't I just use the existing Spanish or Latin-American keyboard with the Ñ key besides the L? all the number shift keys change places and that is very uncomfortable for me. 

this is the standard Spanish keyboard I'm used to.

as you can see, the shift keys are not the same as my laptop keyboard. i am ok with this. i just needed ñ where it always was for me haha. thats why i do need ukelele.

thanks to both of you for your help. 

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[Gé van Gasteren]

Thank you, Anita, for explaining the issue and proving my point :-)

• I’m just wondering if US International is the best starting point for you. 

Doesn’t it sometimes trip you up when you want to type a double quote, e.g. starting a sentence with "At least…  but instead you get: Ät least… ?

• Changing the upper-left key in your custom layout is a little different from what you did with the ñ key, because it’s a dead key.

It’s still simple, but you get a question if you want to remove its dead-key status.

You can look it up in the PDF manual, which is available over Ukelele’s Help menu:

Page 37, section 6.7.10 "Deleting a dead key"

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/ukelele-users/CACdx3ghqh9HG2oq%2Bc4MSc-5jFdcgQACKATD87sJd-cwL_mFPXw%40mail.gmail.com.

[Anita Ovando]

it doesnt bother me that much. i press space before typing the vowel. there will always be tricks one can get used to :)

thank you for the heads up in regards to deleting the deadkey, i will try to set it soon.

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/ukelele-users/CAOH1hL-ETWveC_fv3zEVbMH7oWJy-H6JY9-VnnK%2B4_gR-SgcXA%40mail.gmail.com.

[Sorin Paliga]

I still do not understand why you do not activate the Spanish keyboard? Because there are discrepancies between the physical keyboard and the keylayout? Yes, there are, I guess.

Sorin Paliga

Sent from my iPhone

On 31 Jul 2026, at 18:03, Anita Ovando <ovand...@gmail.com> wrote:



it doesnt bother me that much. i press space before typing the vowel. there will always be tricks one can get used to :)

thank you for the heads up in regards to deleting the deadkey, i will try to set it soon.

El vie, 31 jul 2026 a las 11:49, Gé van Gasteren (<gevang...@gmail.com>) escribió:

Thank you, Anita, for explaining the issue and proving my point :-)

• I’m just wondering if US International is the best starting point for you. 

Doesn’t it sometimes trip you up when you want to type a double quote, e.g. starting a sentence with "At least…  but instead you get: Ät least… ?

• Changing the upper-left key in your custom layout is a little different from what you did with the ñ key, because it’s a dead key.

It’s still simple, but you get a question if you want to remove its dead-key status.

You can look it up in the PDF manual, which is available over Ukelele’s Help menu:

Page 37, section 6.7.10 "Deleting a dead key"

On Fri, Jul 31, 2026 at 4:31 PM Anita Ovando <ovand...@gmail.com> wrote:

hello

when I made the original post, I had not realized my mistake, which was making a key layout from scratch, when I should have used the current input one. 

as Sorin says, I have an US laptop. I know I can use International US to type in Spanish but I wanted a separate ñ key. it is easier for me given that all my life I typed ñ as a separate key. (in Spanish the letter ñ is not n with a tilde, it's a different letter. as opposed to vocals with accents, which are just vocals with an accent..)

the ñ key is supposed to go next to the L key, where in my laptop is ; and : 

this is my laptop keyboard:

<IMG_2234.jpeg>

so I needed ukelele to set the ñ and move : and ; to other keys. this I had done successfully. I just couldn't get the accent dead key but that is solved now. just a silly mistake.

this is my current keylayout. i still need to place < and > on the top left key besides 1. but i rarely use those so its fine. 

<image.png>

why don't I just use the existing Spanish or Latin-American keyboard with the Ñ key besides the L? all the number shift keys change places and that is very uncomfortable for me. 

this is the standard Spanish keyboard I'm used to.

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/ukelele-users/CACdx3gi%3DnUamG19FErO-GaxfMB%2B0kzM66Y2Yh6i7jQOVG5%3D-9g%40mail.gmail.com.