I admit to being ignorant here, but how DO you get the Spanish characters into your posts? How do you do the tildes and the upside down question marks and the accents? Please forgive me for being a technoslug here, :o but I just don't know and figured I'd ask. -OhMike

Hi OhMike!
I just searched the message board for you and found the following useful, instructional thread that shows/tells how to make all those characters and accents on your PC keyboard.

" Spanish on US computer keyboards "

¡Hasta Mañana!

Saludos, MadridMan

MadridMan,

I just followed your advice (and your link) on using Spanish characters. That's great, I can now say Madriléñas.

This IS the greatest site. MadridMan, it is a great public service you are doing here. -OhMike

To all:

There is a place to buy computer keyboards and keyboard overlays in other languages than English.

You may e-mail me at j.wash@att.net and I will provide you with the link.

Mi esposa es una caleña (de Cali) and I wanted to have a keyboard that had Spanish characters. After some searching I found it. Of course she knows the codes by heart but I don´t.

¡Hasta luego!

Hi Joe! Why not post the link right here in this thread. It's okay. I won't accuse you of advertising. That is, unless you're selling them yourself or are "cashing in" on the deal somehow.

Saludos, MadridMan

Hola, Madrid Man!

I am in no way profiting from this company, so I guess I can post the link.

http://www.fentek-ind.com/

Click on the Language Keyboards link and you will come to a price list.

It seems ridiculous to me that all keyboards sold in the USA do not come with Spanish characters. Puerto Rico has both English and Spanish as official languages and with 20-30 million people who speak Spanish in the USA it seems to make sense to offer it.

¡Hasta luego!

I found a more efficient way of typing the Spanish accents. With Windows XP (and apparantly the older MS OS's), you can simply have 2 "virtual" keyboards if you will. I simply click on either the English (US) or English (International) icon embedded onto the top task bar and by using the apostophe (') key I can access the Spanish accents with 2 keystrokes without having to remember the 3 digit ASCII code! It is unbelievably quick and you can save money from having to by hardware

http://www.studyspanish.com/accents/typing.htm

And to add a Spanish, Spain-bought keyboard to a USA-bought laptop computer? Any suggestions for this function? I've conducted a search, tried a few of the suggestions (but nothing but specific to my case), but nothing worked.

Saludos, MadridMan

Years ago, I bought a Softkey Spanish Translator CD off a software clearance rack in a Target or some similar store, and it still works fine for me. It has several components: Accents and English-Spanish and Spanish-English dictionaries

I initialize KeyAccents when I start up my PC and have available ¿,¡, á, é, í, ó, ú, ñ, ç, etc. I just hit the 'alt' key as I hit the character key. Unfortunately, it was before the Euro so I still can't do a Euro sign.

It probably won't work when I go to a dual core processor and 64 bit bus

Hi Eddie! Good to see you 'round these parts once again.

The alpha-keyboard itself is the same on a Spanish keyboard as a US keyboard but the character (i.e. hyphen, equal, plus keys) are in different locations. I was here trying to "add" the keyboard of my significant other (formerly called "my ladyfriend") to my laptop and it didn't work automatically. I tried changing "languages" and that didn't work either. I suppose, maybe, if I could find the CD which came with the original computer purchase (DELL-España) I could add that to my own computer but short of that I can't find what to do to recognize the new keyboard layout. Any ideas?

Saludos, MadridMan

I don't know if this is what you are looking for, but this is the way I work with both English and Spanish.

If you have windows XP, follow (click) this options:

1)Control Panel
2) Regional and Language Options
3) Languages
4) Details
5) ADD
6) Select the Spanish you use. I recommend "Spain International Sort".

Then on the lower-right of the screen you will see a little box showing "EN". If you want to switch to Spanish keyboard, click on that box and it will show you the option "ES" Spanish. Click on that and then you can type like when using an Spanish keyboard. So for example the key next to the l would be the "ñ". This way you don't have to do the code thing.

Again,I hope this is what you were looking for or at least helps.

Well I´ll be hot-diggity-darned!! That works!!!! Thanks, jabch!!!!!!! Woo hoo! You´ve made my day!!! (typing from the Spanish keyboard now.. ç ¿ á ¬)

Hehehee... That´s too cool. Thank a lot!!

Saludos, MadridMan