accents, tildes and translations

[Daysi Caldevilla-Duing]

I'm having the darndest time trying to figure out how to write accents and tildes when I post messages, but I'm just not getting it. I followed Art's suggestion and added Spanish to the Region Language Options of the control panel. But still no luck. Also, although I am a native Spanish speaker, I did grow up here in the US and feel more comfortable and confident writing in English, yet I'd like to have my posts translated into Spanish. How do I do that? Do I request a translation from the translators? Do I type my message on MS Word first then run a translation on it, then cut and paste it into the forum? I'd like to be more bilingual in my posting, and eventually (hopefully) I'd like to be tri-lingual by adding Asturianu. But maybe someone could help me get the Spanish/English thing down first.

[Art]

Hi, Daysi,

The translators are overworked volunteers, and some of us (like me) aren't native speakers, so you'll be much happier translating your own posts, I'm sure. (I'm learning on the job!)

Accents are difficult because there are different ways that operating systems deal with accents... even in what seems like the same operating system. One of my Win XP computers (a later version) automatically puts é when I type ' followed by e . Another XP computer (an earlier version) makes me select Spanish language. And sometimes on that eariler system, the language options disappear and can't be used. I have never figured out why they behave differently. It's definitely irritating, but once you figure out how your system works, it'll get easier.

So... what operating system is your computer using? Options include: Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows ME, Windows 98, and various Mac's.

Have you tried the instructions in this thread:
http://www.asturianus.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=280

[Anuska]

Hi Daysi!

There is a way to put accents if you don't have a Spanish keyboard. It's a bit annoying but it's helpful. I have a friend living in London and she uses it from time to time. She printed the list and chooses what she needs. You can have a try Just press Alt and then the number.

Regards,

Ana

- ASCII CODES


Alt + 0193 → Á

Alt + 0201/144 → É

Alt + 0205 → Í

Alt + 0211 → Ó

Alt + 0218 → Ú

Alt + 0220/154 → Ü

Alt + 0209/165 → Ñ

Alt + 0225/ 160 → á

Alt + 0233/130 → é

Alt + 0237/161 → í

Alt + 0243/162 → ó

Alt + 0250/163 → ú

Alt + 0252/129 → ü

Alt + 0241/164 → ñ

Alt + 0191/168 → ¿

Alt + 0161/173 → ¡


Alt + 0128 → €

Alt + 126 → ~



Expanded list of Alt + Number combinations:
Lista expandida de códigos Alt + Número:

http://www.starr.net/is/type/altnum.htm

http://www.lookuptables.com/


__________________________________

MacIntosh


- Option key + e, and then “letter to be accented”

Example: Option key + e, then “o” → ó/Ó

- Option key + n, and then “n” → ñ/Ñ

- Option key + u, and then “u” → ü/Ü

- Option key + 1 → ¡

- Option key + Shift + ? → ¿

- Shift + Option key + 2 → €


Expanded accent codes and foreign symbols for Mac:
Lista expandida de acentos y símbolos extranjeros para Mac:

http://tlt.its.psu.edu/suggestions/i...s/codemac.html


___________________________________

GNU/Linux


Alt Gr + ; and then a/e/i/o/u → á/é/í/ó/ú

Alt Gr + [ and then u → ü

Alt Gr + ] and then “n” → ñ

Alt Gr + Shift + 1 → ¡

Alt Gr + Shift + - → ¿


You can check what accent a key produces by pressing it twice.


Expanded list of combinations:
Lista expandida de combinaciones:

http://wiki.linuxquestions.org/wiki/Accented_Characters

[Bob]

That will work, but it is a bit klutzy. My personal prefence is a program for "foreign" characters available from http://www.less-mess.com/ at no cost (for academics and students) or minimal cost for others.

[Art]

Ana's method works well. I used to know the codes when I used an old Win98 PC. The advantage to Ana's system is that you only get the accents when you want them. With the ' + e system I talked about above sometimes you get accents when you want a quotation mark.

---------------------------

El método de Ana functiona bien. Sabía los códigos cuando utilicé una vieja computadora con Win98. La ventaja al sistema de Ana es que te da los acentos solamente cuando los deseas. Con el sistema de ' +e de que hablé arriba, a veces te da acentos cuando deseas comillas.

[Eli]

I'm partial to Ana's suggestion as well, that's what I use when I bother to use accents. You don't necessarily have to use the on-line reference though. If you are on a Windows pc. go to Programs-Accessories-System tools-Character map you'll find just about any character used in just about any language you can think off.

I don't know that character map is standard in all Windows pcs but every pc I've ever had has had it included.

[Daysi Caldevilla-Duing]

Thanks Ana, let's see if it works for me.
___________________________________
Gracias Ana, vamos ver si trajaba.

ñ ¿ ~

Damn, it works!
__________________________________
¡ Coño, trabaja!

[Art]

Another way to get foreign characters on a US keyboard
Lifted from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alt_Gr

US international keyboard layout

This method uses the AltGr key, which is generally the right Alt key, but see below for more info.

On US international keyboard layouts, the AltGr key can be used to enter the following characters:

Code: Select all

¡ ² ³ ¤ € ¼ ½ ¾ ‘ ’ ¥ ×
 ä å é ® þ ü ú í ó ö « »
  á ß ð           ø ¶ ´ ¬
   æ   ©     ñ µ ç   ¿

And, in combination with the Shift key:

Code: Select all

¹     £               ÷
 Ä Å É   Þ Ü Ú Í Ó Ö
  Á § Ð           Ø ° ¨ ¦
   Æ   ¢     Ñ   Ç

Note that a lot of these symbols can also be entered using the dead keys:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_key

For comparison, the US international keyboard layout follows. Note that the "`/~" key has been omitted; it does not react to the AltGr key.

Code: Select all

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 - =
 Q W E R T Y U I O P [ ]
  A S D F G H J K L ; ' \
 m Z X C V B N M , . /

"m" denotes the "Macro" key. It generally produces a "\", although applications receive a different keycode and can therefore instead use the key to, for example, run macros.

When using the standard US QWERTY key map layout in Microsoft Windows, the functionality of AltGr is also available via Ctrl+Alt. This is useful in case the current key mapping is not able to differentiate between the Alt key on the left and the AltGr key on the right. Other supported US keyboard layouts (such as "United States-International") do distinguish between left and right-Alt keys, thus allowing the functionality of AltGr to produce accents and other extended characters.