Tuesday, October 06, 2009

Escribir en español

I'm using Ubuntu 8.10 and learning to speak Spanish, so I wanted to know how to type the accented characters and inverted exclamation and question marks. As it turns out: it's pretty easy, even with a generic UK keyboard. Follow these easy steps to do it yourself:

System > Preferences > Keyboard

On the Layouts tab, click the "Other Options..." button, then expand the "Compose key position" element. Select "Right Alt is Compose." Close the Keyboard Layout Options dialog and focus the cursor on the "Type to test settings" box.

For á, é, í, ó and ú:
Press and release Right-Alt, then press and release @', then press and release the vowel key.

For the upper case Á, É, Í, Ó and Ú:
Press and release Right-Alt, then press and release @', then hold shift while pressing and releasing the vowel key.

For ñ:
Press and release Right-Alt, then press and release ~#, then press and release n.

For the upper case Ñ:
Press and release Right-Alt, then press and release ~#, then hold shift while pressing and releasing N.

For ¿:
Press and release Right-Alt, then hold shift while pressing and releasing the ?/ key twice.

For ¡:
Press and release Right-Alt, then hold shift while pressing and releasing the !1 key twice.