This is old news to anyone who types at all in Spanish, but I wanted to post a reference for typing accented characters. There are a few ways to make them; it depends on your computer. These are only the most common characters. You might need one from another Spanish dialect.
Windows: Press and hold the ALT key. While holding ALT, type in the numbers associated with each letter. After you’ve typed in the numbers, release the ALT key and the character appears:
á = ALT + 160
é = ALT + 130
à = ALT + 161
ñ = ALT + 164
ó = ALT +162
ú = ALT + 163
ü = ALT + 129
¡ = ALT + 173
¿ = ALT + 168
Mac: Press and hold the OPTION key, and while holding OPTION, press “e.” Release both keys and type the letter you want accented. Note that for the tilde, umlaut/diaeresis and upside down exclamation/question marks it’s slightly different:
á = OPTION + e — a
é = OPTION + e — e
à = OPTION + e — i
ó = OPTION + e — o
ú = OPTION + e — u
ñ = OPTION + n — n
ü = OPTION+ u — u
¡ = OPTION + 1
¿ = OPTION + SHIFT + ?
3 replies on “How to Type Spanish Accents Using an English Layout Keyboard”
Nice. You think I’d know this since both my first and last name have accents in them. Thanks.
I set my keyboard to US International…. that way I just use the right ALT+n to get a ñ :)
The problem with keyboard US international is that is adds a lot of useless symbols for typing in English or Spanish, and that now everytime you type ” or ‘ your keyboard thinks you are going to do an accent (like à or Ã¥).
here is another solution http://dp.wharton.upenn.edu/keyboard/ specifically designed only to add Spanish characters