University of Illinois at Chicago

Department of Hispanic and Italian Studies

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Typing in Spanish

Microsoft Word

Spanish requires diacritical marks. Typing accented vowels such as “á,” “é,” “í,” “ó,” “ú,” the dieresis “ü,” and “ñ,” and “Ñ” in Spanish is easy!

When typing in Microsoft Word, first set the language to Spanish. Click the Review tab > Language > Set Proofing Language > Spanish (México), or any other Spanish-speaking country. You may now use the Windows Spanish keyboard and Word will check for spelling and grammar errors in Spanish.

Word also provides shortcuts to insert characters that are not shown on the keyboard. When you press some key combinations, nothing appears on the screen until you release the key combination and press the next key. If the next key corresponds to a character over which the specified accent may be placed, the correct accented character is inserted.

Ctrl + ' + a = á

In the example shown above, when you press Ctrl plus the apostrophe key, then release those keys and press the letter a, Word inserts the character á.

To insert the upside-down question mark or upside-down exclamation mark, make sure the proofing language is set to Spanish. Then type in the question mark or exclamation mark, which automatically turn upside down.

Windows Spanish Keyboard

The best way is to switch to the Spanish keyboard. If you use Windows, click START > Control Panel > Regional and Language Options > Keyboard and Languages tab> Change Keyboards Button > Add. Click the Add Button; for Input Language, choose Spanish (Spain, Traditional Sort). When typing, press LEFT SHIFT + ALT to toggle between the English and Spanish keyboards.

If you use a public computer, you may type accented vowels and ñ using ANSI character codes. Remember to hold the Alternate key down while typing the corresponding number on the number pad.