Spanish Accents

As I have indicated before with my rant about posters using abbreviated Guad for Guadalajara, it is a pet peeve! On the other hand I am very guilty of not taking the time to figure out how to insert the proper Spanish accents over certain letters.

How about an explanation on how to accomplish this on this forum?

cheenagringo wrote:

As I have indicated before with my rant about posters using abbreviated Guad for Guadalajara, it is a pet peeve! On the other hand I am very guilty of not taking the time to figure out how to insert the proper Spanish accents over certain letters.

How about an explanation on how to accomplish this on this forum?

Set you keyboard preferrence from US to US International. Then use the apostrophe followed by the vowel you want to have accented. An actual apostrophe requires an apostrophe followed by a space. You get the ñ and ¿ and ¡ by holding the "alt gr" key while typing the standard character.

There are a couple quirks to get used to but it's worth it. Quirks like the quotation key also alters the letter so a quotation followed by a vowel requires a space before the letter. You'll see.

I've read about that on other forums, but I forget how it's done on a Windows OS. I use a Mac, and it's almost all done with the Option/Alt key.
¿Sabes como hacerlo? ¡Híjole, mano! No sé.

I may have a file somewhere. I hate to write that out again. Besides, how many of our brave band are Mac users?

Here's the Mac OS X knowledge base document on how t do it. Note that the Key Caps accessory is now called Keyboard Viewer. It can be turned on and place in the Menu Bar of the Finder by going to System Preferences>International.

Keyboard Viewer illustrates the output of various modifier keys upon character keys. Once learned, it's rarely necessary to return to Keyboard Viewer.

That probably takes care of all 2 of us Mac users here.

Don Cuevas wrote:

That probably takes care of all 2 of us Mac users here.

There's that many here?

That was a joke, Peter.

Don Cuevas wrote:

That probably takes care of all 2 of us Mac users here.

I use a Mac. Me loves it long time.

happynz wrote:

Don Cuevas wrote:

That probably takes care of all 2 of us Mac users here.

I use a Mac. Me loves it long time.

Cool, now there are two Mac users here. No longer a joke, Don Cuevas.

Actually there are three. I have a Mac too.

[quote="cheenagringo"]As I have indicated before with my rant about posters using abbreviated Guad for Guadalajara, it is a pet peeve![/quote]

Yes, indeed, that is irritating if not as irritating as the unforgivable vulgarism of calling San Cristóbal de Las Casas "San Cris". As a part time Lakesider, I have no problems with "Yokeltepec" for Jocotepec or "Ajihick" for Ajijic, however. Maybe Pútzcuaro for Pátzcuaro is OK. Actually, Neil, I only wrote this so I could show you how I have mastered the accent thingy.

When in San Cristóbal it´s OK to call Tuxtla Gutierrez "Tuxtla" but if you are driving south on the autopista from Orizaba to Tuxtla Gutierrez and stop in Cosamaloapan to ask directions they will send you to the wrong Tuxtla but that´s OK since the wrong Tuxtla near there is a nicer place.

Now if I can get the automatic software to not put the italics command inside the quote parameters brackets we would be cooking with those quotes.

Putzcuaro could have appropriate applications for perhaps a small minority of its inhabitants. Not sure if Lesselia would even be understood or appropriate. It's generally where you got to go around here to find more.

Hi Neil,

Here's a link about setting up the US International Keyboard on your Windows XP machine. [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] There are lots of other sources if you Google it--this was the first one I found on my Google search that was reasonably clear.

It is easier than it sounds to set up and use. Except for the occasional umlaut, the normal accents and tildes used in Spanish can all be made using the right ALT key. So, for example, á is made with right alt a. ñ is made with right alt n.

Play around with it a bit and I think you'll find it works well.

Jim

Except for the ñ the accents can be made with the apostrophe key, which becomes problem for unintentional umlauts on any vowel after a quote stroke. One must get used to extra spacings after apostrophe/quotes key with US International. Fun stuff, but that's the keyboard setting I use.