# short cuts keys for spanish special characters



## natelangel

Does anyone know any Windows short cut keys to make accents, inverted question and exclamation points, and tildes? Please let me know.
Thanks

nate


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## giselak

http://www.abcdatos.com/utiles/ascii.html
Código ASCII


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## giselak

Otra más
http://www.lookuptables.com/


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## BasedowLives

theres a way you can change your keyboard settings so all you have to do is press the apostraphe key and then whatever letter you want right after that, and it'll accent it.  it does it when you hold down shift too for the "ü" character.  ç é í ú ó ú á ï ë ö ü ñ ã õ

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;306560&sd=tech


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## dudzcom

Hi there,

While I was learning French, I noticed how difficult it was to remember all the alt+something keystrokes for the accented characters, so I created a program to help. This program is not much to look at, but it affords quick access to acccented characters without memorizing lengthy alt key-code combinations. It also works with nearly all windows applications and text-windows. This should solve your problem.

dudziak.com/accenter.php

and yes, it's free.


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## JohanG

By far the easiest way to do this is to start using the US - International keyboard settings on your computer as reported by BasedowLives.

If you have trouble getting the Microsoft instructions to work for you.  There is a more detailed explanation of how to install the United States - International keyboard with screen shots of every step for XP, Windows 7 and Vista here:
http://jaltembajalapeno.com/lang/en...se-spanish-characters-on-an-english-keyboard/


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## Vikingo

Another freeware-option (mine) for Windows [removed my administrator] if you don't want to use the US international keyboard - hold down the windows-key (the one between ctrl and alt) and press the letter in question: windows+a gives á, windows+shift+a gives Á, etc. (windows+q gives ¿ and windows+x gives ¡). Or press ctrl+space to choose from a menu.

Administrator note: link reportedly had malware


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## Juan Jacob Vilalta

Windows gives you the chance to choose a keyboard.
Go there, choose.
You'll have French, Spanish, English, for example.
If you want to change keyboard, press Alt + shift.
Easy.

alt + 64 = @ OK, but annoying.


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## jann

This is a very old thread that has come back to life these last couple of days.  You do all realize that we now have an extensive list of suggestions and links related to posting special characters, right?


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## JohanG

I do realize that Jann but times change and better ways to deal with this problem exist so I suggest we open it up if there is interest....Johan


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## Vikingo

Jann, that's well and good, but it doesn't make a coherent argument as to why there aren't other options. I tried most of the alternatives on the list, and from what I found is that they all have flaws. To me, as a Norwegian, the US International Keyboard is out - many languages have special keys for extra letters, and changing to the US International is a bad option.

The alternative I liked best from the list here on WR, was the AllChars one, but I couldn't for the life of me type an ñ on my keyboard. Also, I found that it was hard to see whether or not I had already pressed the "ctrl", which they use a lot, and was sometimes lost while trying to type. Looking at the screen to see if a tiny symbol had changed color seemed somewhat anti-efficient.

Also, there are problems with the US International Keyboard even if you're in the US/UK - you'll often have to press ' twice to be able to get a single quotation mark, and similar problems. If these things are acceptable to you, fine. If not, there are other options. To each his own, right?

So in the end, I created my own alternative. It's what I use from day to day, and if other people find it useful, that's great too.

Take care


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## jann

Vikingo said:


> Jann, that's well and good, but it doesn't make a coherent argument as to why there aren't other options.


I'm sorry, but I don't really understand what you mean by "why there aren't other options." 

There are *lots* of options for people who need to type accents that don't appear on their computer keyboards.  More than half a dozen of these options are mentioned in the FAQ post to which I linked.  In that post, we have tried to provide a variety of different accent suggestions, focusing on methods that are self-explanatory, stable, and sometimes cross-platform.  Since different people have different text-entry preferences and different levels of technical comfort, we have suggestions that range from a built-in clickable accent feature here on WR, to on-screen keyboards, alternate keyboard layouts (including a link to instructions about enabling the US-Intn'l layout, or any other layout in Windows), customizable keyboard plugins, etc.  There are also links to the accent stickies of individual forums, each of which contain more suggestions and more links.

If you have yet another option that you would like to share here, by all means, please do so.  I provided the FAQ link not to cut off suggestions, but rather (a) to make people aware of it if they have not seen it yet, and (b) to spare people the trouble of reinventing the wheel or otherwise duplicating work that has already been done.


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