How to Type Spanish Letters and Accents (á, é, í, ó, ú,
ü, ñ, ¿, ¡)
Overview
There are several ways to configure your keyboard to type in
the Spanish accented letters and upside-down punctuation (á, é, í, ó, ú, ü, ñ,
¿, ¡) and which one you use depends on the frequency with which you need these
letters.
1. Inserting Accented Characters with an English Keyboard
Layout
If you only need an accented character every now and then,
there is no need to change your full keyboard layout.
For all PCs
The + sign means you do these while holding all mentioned
keys at once. You do not press the + key.
There are several key combinations you can use to insert
single characters into your text on a PC. The first is for newer computers
using the Control key and may only work in Microsoft Office.
In Office for Windows: For accented vowels: Press Ctrl + ‘,
then the vowel (ctrl + ' + a = á)
For Ñ: Press Ctrl + SHIFT+ ~, then SHIFT, then the letter
n (ctrl + SHIFT+ ~ + n = ñ)
The second way is using the ASCII code. Each character in
your computer has a code made up of pressing the ALT key then a four-digit
number, all of which are listed below. But before you do this, you have to pres
NUM LOCK and do not use the numbers that are in a row above your keyboard, you
have to use the numbers that are in your keyboard. For example if you look at
the J, when NUM LOCK is on, it is a 1.
á = Alt + 0225
é = Alt + 0233
í = Alt + 0237
ó = Alt + 0243
ú = Alt + 0250
ñ = Alt + 0241
ü = Alt + 0252
¡ = Alt + 0161
¿ = Alt + 0191
To type the numbers, you must use the numeric keypad on
the right side of your keyboard, not the number keys on the top row.
For all Macs
To get accented vowels on a Mac, hold down the Option key,
and while holding it down, type the letter e; then release those keys and type
the letter that you want the accent to appear on:
Opt + e, then a =
á
Opt + e, then e =
é
Opt + e, then i = í
Opt + e, then o = ó
Opt + e, then u = ú
For the ñ, hold down the Option key while you type the n,
then type n again.
Opt + n, then n = ñ
To type an umlaut over the u, hold down the Option key while
pressing the u key then type u again.
Opt + u, then u = ü
*To type the upside-down punctuation marks press the
following keys all at once.
Opt + 1 = ¡
Opt + shift + ? = ¿
