Can anyone give me a brief tutorial on how to set up my computer so I can type accented letters and other Spanish characters? I am using Windows XP.

Do I just type special control characters? Is it a setting on my OS? Any help is appreciated..

Thanks!

P.S. I tried a search on this and found nothing, maybe it has already been addressed, but my search was faulty?

Hi Vicki! It's a combination of keystrokes to get the accented characters. Check out the " Spanish on US computer keyboards " thread in the "Studying In Spain, Education & Language" category.

Saludos, MadridMan

When they say Alt 130, they mean type the numbers on the "number keypad," which is the block of numbers on the far right on your keyboard. Hold down the Alt key while typing the numbers, then release.

You can copy and paste from Character Map (Accesories, System Tools, Character Map). I find the Ariel font has all the letters and punctuation marks, including ¿ Á í ñ ó the euro sign €, and lots of crazy things like £▲Ұ꺞§Ü⶜ΨζШگ▓™╪└♣♫♀©. It also gives you the "secret code." € is Alt + 0128. It is nice when you email somebody to use the correct letters and punctuation. ♥ El Dougo

For Chus's entry (below) you can also bring up an on-screen keyboard: Start, All Programs, Accessories, Accessibility, On Screen Keyboard.

There's a way to switch between English and Spanish keyboards. Follow this instructions for Windows XP:
Start - Settings - Control Panel - Regional and Language Options - "Languages" tab - Click on "Details" under "Text services and input languages" - On the "Installed services" area of the new window click "Add" and scroll down to "Spanish (Traditional Sort) under the "Input language" area - Click "OK" - Click "Apply" and then "OK".
Now you can switch between English and Spanish keyboards pressing the left "Alt" and "Shift" keys. You'll get a display on the Task bar changing from "EN" to "ES".
It takes a little bit to get used to in the beginning but then it's easy.
"ñ" is ";"
The accent "é" is " ' " plus the letter
"¡" is "="
"¿" is "+" etc...
If somebody needs instructions on how to setup the keyboard in Windows 2000, let me know, I can post them.
Hope it helps!

Chus

Great! Thanks for the quick responses. When I log off I will give it a try.

Another good reason to use the accents: searches on Google are case specific. You need the accent to find the reference.

Oh, my goodness! PCs are so complicated! It takes 15 steps to do what I can do with one or two clicks on a Mac. I have my choice of dozens of languages (many I've never heard of)and both español, catalán y euskara.

Sorry. We may be only 2% of the computer'owning public, but we do love our Macs!

Judi

Well, everybody has it's own favorites. As one of the other 98% I love my PC.