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Typing Special Spanish Characters

How do I type Spanish Characters on a keyboard?

While computers can help us perform many wonderful tasks such as buying antique lunch boxes from a store in New Hampshire while sitting in a bathrobe in Arizona, it is decidedly difficult to be bilingual on a computer. Since English is the de facto language of computing, keyboards, and the Internet, little effort has been made to incorporate the "special" characters of other languages and it is not readily apparent how to type them. This leaves most people making a decision between foregoing accents and other marks altogether (e.g. "espanol," "arbol") or doing the best they can with what's available (e.g. "espan~ol," "a`rbol") when writing emails or completing assignments on a computer.

You can type any of the Spanish letters you need on most any computer; it's just not at all easy or convenient to do so. There are several different methods for typing special characters. You'll need to pick the one that works best for you:

• Method 1: Character Map
• Method 2: Character Codes
• Method 3: Certain Microsoft Products
• Method 4: Change Your Keyboard Language
• Method 5: For Mac Users

Method 1: Character Map

Most font sets include many more characters than what appears on the keyboard in front of you. To help you find the character they're looking for Microsoft programmers include a utility called "Character Map" with Windows. It's a small display of all the characters available in a certain font which allows you to copy and paste into the application you're working in. Character Map can usually be found by clicking Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Character Map. (Simple, isn't it?)

Once you're there you'll see all the letters you're used to typing as well as a bewildering collection of French, German, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, Yiddish, etc. characters, organized in a seemingly arbitrary and random manner. Find the letter you're looking for, select it and copy it so you can paste it into the document or email you're working on.

In spite of the wide array of possibilities, remember that special Spanish characters consist only of accented vowels, the "ñ", the "ü", and the upside-down question and exclamation marks (shown above). You may also want to use angular brackets if you're typing dialogue. Remember that in Spanish, accent marks run diagonally from lower left to upper right above the letters. If you like this method, place a shortcut to Character Map on your desktop to speed up the process.

Method 2: Character Codes

Every character you type has its own "character code." The computer uses these codes to recognize the various letters, numbers, and symbols that you're using. Normally the computer converts your keystrokes into code without you even knowing about it. You can take a shortcut (so to speak) by entering these codes directly. In the case of "normal" letters, this doesn't make much sense as it would take much more time, but when you're typing characters from other languages, this is probably your best bet. This method is also the most universal as the character codes are standardized and should work on just about any machine. To enter a character code, you need to hold down the "Alt" key and type in the appropriate code on the numeric keypad on the right side of the keyboard (the numbers at the top of the keyboard won't work and you'll need to be sure that "Num Lock" is on in order to use the numeric keypad).

For example to type "á" you'll hold down the "Alt" key and type 160. Try it here:

Here are the rest of the character codes you'll need (at least for Spanish):

If you don't want to have to visit this site every time you need a code, you can use this handy Spanish Character Code Chart. Print it out, cut it up, and tape it to you monitor. Trade the rest of them with your friends for Pokemon cards.

Laptop Users: since you don't have a separate numeric keypad on the right side of your keyboard, you'll also need to hold down another key (probably "Fn") to access the number pad which is hiding out on the letter keys under your right hand. The top row of numbers won't cut it.

Method 3: Certain Microsoft Products

Since Microsoft engineers are apparently too busy developing stellar products like Windows Millennium and Vista to talk to each other there are several other incohesive options available to you in certain products such as Word and Publisher. If you have an "Insert" menu in the menu bar of your application, you may find a "Symbol…" option. Clicking on this will bring up a display similar to the Character Map with a list of letters and symbols that didn't make the cut for your keyboard.

You can double-click a character to insert it into your document.

But wait, there's more! If you select (single-click) the letter you want to add, you'll notice a "Shortcut key" at the bottom of the dialogue box. This tells you yet another secret sequence of keystrokes for typing the character you want.

These shortcuts are quicker and much more intuitive than the character codes mentioned earlier (which is good), but they only work in certain applications (which is bad). You'll notice that using this method accented characters can be typed by hitting "Ctrl" and the apostrophe (just to the left of the "Enter" key) together and then typing the letter. To get a capital, do the same thing and hold the "Shift" button when typing the letter. Here are the other shortcuts:

Don't like the Shortcuts provided for you? You can create your own shortcuts by clicking the "Shortcut Key…" button. You can also print the useful Microsoft Character Shortcuts Chart.

Method 4: Change Your Keyboard Language

Ever wonder what keyboards in non-English speaking countries look like? Here's the layout of a Spanish keyboard:

For the most part, it's the same as an English keyboard, but some symbols and punctuation marks have been moved around and there is now a key for an "ñ" as well as keys for Spanish punctuation. (You'll also notice there are several more keys total.) It's considerably easy to type Spanish characters on a Spanish keyboard. To get an accent, simply type the accent key (which is to the right of the "Ñ" key) and then type the vowel you want accented. To get a "ü," hold the "Shift" key while typing the accent key to get a dieresis (the two dots) and then type the "u." The "ñ" and Spanish punctuation marks have their own (self-explanatory) keys.

So if you're really hardcore about foreign languages you can buy a keyboard in a different language and swap it out as needed. But if you don't want the hassle and expense, you can simply trick your computer into thinking your keyboard is something it's not.

Somewhere in the Control Panel you should find some sort of "Language" option. Use this to "add" a keyboard language. You should find a huge list of language options. "Spain (International Sort)" or something similar is probably a good bet. Once you pick this, you should see the "Language Bar" appear near the System Tray at the lower right corner of your screen. You can now use the language bar to toggle your keyboard back and forth from behaving like an English keyboard to operating like a Spanish one. The downside is that you'll have to memorize how a Spanish keyboard operates (see chart), but since most of the keys are unchanged, it shouldn't be too much of a problem.

If you share a computer with someone else, be sure to switch it back to English when you're done.

Method 5: For Mac Users

Variations of some of the options listed above will also work on a Mac, but the simplest way to type Spanish characters is to use the following character shortcuts:

Print out the handy-dandy Mac Character Shortcuts Chart.