Spanish keyboard and special alt characters
- Spain also known as Spanish version
This keyboard layout is popular due to being the default layout for installation of Spanish version of Windows and Linux operating systems.
-- (This keyboard has Ç character built in.)
- Other Spanish keyboard layouts:
- Latin American - (does not have Ç) and Spanish Variation - (has Ç)
Spanish language uses Latin alphabet plus letter ñ
To type Spanish, your keyboard must be able to type:
- Lower and upper case of Latin alphabet and ñ:
abcdefghijklmnñopqrstuvwxyz ABCDEFGHIJKLMNÑOPQRSTUVWXYZ - acute accent and umlaut used for vowels:
acute accent mark(´): áéíóú umlaut(¨): ü - Cedilla: ç - The use of cedilla with the letter C has been dropped from modern Spanish. However, it may be used in Spanish words of foreign origin or in old Spanish.
How to type accent mark
- dead key - also known as "deaf" key - does not type anything when striked. A dead key modifies a character typed after striking a dead key. If a "space bar" is striked after a dead key, the dead key's character is typed.
- strike the dead key ´ then a letter to type accent mark:
áéýóú
- simultaneously "shift" key + dead key ¨ then a letter to type umlaut (double dot) mark:
ü
How to type Alt special characters
- Alt To type special alt character, hold down right "Alt" key (or AltGr - alternate graphic) and strike the key which has the special character assigned (mapped) to it.
- Apple keyboards have "command" and "option" keys instead "Alt" and "AltGr".
\ | @ # ~ € ¬ [ ]{ }
- Special characters are not written on a keyboard. Also, various applications may ad special characters.
- The only reliable way to know what special characters are in an application is to start the application and type all the keys. Hold down right Alt (AltGR or Option) key and start at the top row and strike all keys in sequence. Note what keys display what special characters. The screen may change or a menu may open if a key with built in function is striked. Just make sure you are typing into your document as the focus of the cursor may change.
- Ç - Cedilla is built into this, Spain(Spanish), version and into the Spanish Variation version of the Spanish keyboard layout. Another Spanish keyboard layout used is Latin American (does not type Ç).