Hi Ezzie,
Just to second Anne's suggestion, I'll summarize that you can either use the
Option key combinations as Chris outlined or switch to one of the two Spanish
keyboards that are used on the Mac by adding that input language option and
using Command-Space to switch language keyboards.
I'll paste in the set of option key combinations I posted as an answer when
Jane asked the same question on the mac-access list -- it also gives the
inverted exclamation point,
<begin excerpt>
I'm appending the keyboard combinations you want to type Spanish accented
letters with the Option key combinations.
Accented characters on the regular Mac keyboard
For accents and more common special characters, using
the Option key in combination with the Control, Command, and Shift
keys give many of the necessary characters. If I need to type special
characters as part of names, I'll use the Option key method to
generate accents:
acute accent - Option-e
grave accent - Option-accent sign (on an English input keyboard, this
is the leftmost key below escape and above tab)
circumflex accent - Option-i
diaeresis - Option-u
tilde - Option-n
This group are "dead keys". You need to type the accented letter
after the Option+letter combination, so to type an "e" with an acute
accent you press the Option+e keys, release, and then type the letter
"e". If you press "Return" without typing a letter, you simply get
the accent mark.
For punctuation marks:
inverted exclamation mark Option+1
inverted question mark Option+Shift+slash (Shift+/ is question
mark)
<end excerpt:>
Also, since I had an off-list exchange with Bryan Jones about the Spanish input
language keyboards on the Mac, I'll paste in the description of those keyboard
layouts from my post to him last summer.
<begin excerpt>
As far as using a hardware keyboard setup in Spanish, this is relatively easy
to get accustomed to. In general, the accent keys and other language specific
keys for most non-English keyboards will be located where punctuation and
symbol keys are located (to the right of the standard letter and number keys,
on the right side of the keyboard), and perhaps include the accent key to the
left of the "1" key at the top of the keyboard on the left side.
The Spanish input keyboard is pretty easy to switch to, because most of the
keys you are used to touch typing in English are in the same place, including
all the letter keys. There's a dedicated key for an accented "n" with tilde
(as in "señor") to the right of the "l" key, as well as the regular "n" key in
the usual place. For Spanish there is a ¨Spanish¨ and a ¨Spanish - ISO"
keyboard. The Mac "Spanish - ISO" keyboard is the same as the Windows Spanish
keyboard, in case this is relevant for you. Some of your accent/punctuation
keys will be located in different places depending on which of these two
options you choose, although the period and comma keys are left in the same
place as on an English keyboard. For example, there is a dedicated key for "c"
with a cedilla. This isn't natively used by Spanish, but it is used in
Portuguese words like "cabeça" for head ("cabeza" in Spanish) and, of course,
is used extensively in French (as in "français"). This key is located where
the slash (or question mark when shifted) on the English keyboard is found
(just left of the right-hand Shift key on the bottom row) if you're using the
Spanish keyboard. Then, the question mark moves one key to the right (shifted
period key), and the inverted question mark is besides it one more key to the
right (shifted comma key).
With the "Spanish - ISO" keyboard the "c" with cedilla moves to the position of
the backslash key (right end of keyboard, below the "delete" key and above the
"return" key). The shifted comma and period keys are colon and semi-colon. The
exclamation mark is the shifted "1" key (as in the English keyboard), but the
inverted exclamation mark is just to the left of the "delete" key (the other
end of the number key row from "1", and requiring no shift). The inverted
question mark is the shifted version of the inverted exclamation mark key (to
the left of the delete key on the top row of numbers), and the question mark
key is the shifted key to the left of it, where the hyphen (aka dash) key is on
the English keyboard. Unshifted, this key is apostrophe. Hyphen and underline
have been moved from the top row to the bottom row, where the slash (or
question mark when shifted) key is located, just to the left of the Shift key
and to the right of the comma and period keys. This puts all the "marks"
(exclamation or question in regular or inverted form) along the top of the
keyboard.
The main feature of using either the "Spanish" or "Spanish - ISO" keyboard
(apart from the dedicated letter keys for "n" with tilde, "c" with cedilla, and
inverted punctuation marks) is that typing characters with either acute or
grave accents is only a two keystroke process: you first press the key for the
accent mark and then press the letter you want to accent. For the regular
Spanish keyboard, the acute and grave accent keys are side by side to the right
of the "p" key: the acute accent is where the left bracket key is located and
the grave accent is where the right bracket key is placed. For the "Spanish -
ISO" keyboard" the accent keys are vertically stacked: this time it´s the grave
accent to the right of the "p" key and the acute accent is below it to the
right of the "n" with tilde key and to the left of the return key.
Here are a few summaries (I've tried to write these the way VoiceOver announces
things in keyboard practice mode, but I usually write "hyphen" instead of
"dash" and "quotation mark" instead of "quote").
Spanish (character, description, key on English keyboard)
ñ (n with tilde) semi-colon
ç (c with cedilla) slash
´ (acute accent) left bracket (pressing a space after this key types just
the accent)
` (grave accent) right bracket
! (exclamation mark) Shift+2
¡ (inverted exclamation mark) Shift+1
? (question mark) Shift+period
¿ (inverted question mark) Shift+comma
' (apostrophe) back slash
" (quotation mark) Shift+back slash
; (semi colon) apostrophe
: (colon) Shift+apostrophe
Spanish - ISO (character, description, key on English keyboard)
ñ (n with tilde) semi-colon
ç (c with cedilla) back slash
´ (acute accent) apostrophe (pressing a space after this key types just the
accent)
` (grave accent) left bracket
! (exclamation mark) Shift+1
¡ (inverted exclamation mark) equals
? (question mark) Shift+dash
¿ (inverted question mark) Shift+equals
' (apostrophe) dash
" (quotation mark) Shift+2
; (semi colon) apostrophe
: (colon) Shift+apostrophe
The easy way to work out a new keyboard is to open TextEdit and start typing
key combinations. I usually go through the alphabet and numbers then work
through the punctuation keys (in shifted and unshifted combinations). Then I
hold down the Option key and work through the keyboard. You can do this in
keyboard practice mode, but it's easy to keep a record of what you type in
TextEdit.
<end excerpt>
HTH. Cheers,
Esther
On Jan 24, 2012, at 21:23, Anne Robertson wrote:
> Alternatively, why not add The Spanish keyboard and switch to it when you
> need to type in Spanish? I do that for French. You just have to press
> Cmd-Space to switch from one keyboard layout to the other.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Anne
>
>
> On 25 Jan 2012, at 05:24, Chris Blouch wrote:
>
>> I don't use them often but usually you can add accents by typing the letter
>> with the option key and then the letter itself so to make
>>
>> é
>>
>> I type option-e and then e.
>>
>> á
>>
>> I type option-e and then a. Same for í ó ú. ¿ is typed with
>> option+shift+questionmark. I don't think Spanish uses an umlaut but if you
>> need it you just do option+u and then u to get ü. Likewise ñ is typed
>> option+n then n.
>>
>> CB
>>
>> On 1/24/12 10:42 PM, ezzie bueno wrote:
>>> Hello:
>>>
>>> Can anyone please tell me how to insert Spanish accents in a text document
>>> using the keyboard on the MacBook Pro?
>>>
>>> Thank you,
>>> Ezzie Ez Bueno
>>> Sent from my BrailleNote Apex
>>>
>>> Got Facebook? Get daily jokes on your newsfeed! http://facebook.com/sillyez/
>>>
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