Spanish language added, but no characters available

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.general (More info?)

I installed Spanish (Mexican) per instructions in my kid's school
program, and it says I should be able to type CTRL+SHIFT+a to get the a
with an accent, and various other shourtcuts. None of these work.

In fact, the only way I can get a Spanish character to appear is by
using the ascii codes (ALT+0241 for the Spanish ñ, etc)

By the way, I should clarify that I can find some characters in wierd
places if I hit the ALT+SHIFT combo -- just not all the characters, and
then I can't use certain keys (like the = sign becomes an upside-down
question mark ¿

Any ideas why the special keyboard mappings would not work? Any special
program I can buy (or download for free)to give me the character
shortcuts I need?

Thanks a bunch.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.general (More info?)

Windows XP in Your Language
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/setup/expert/honeycutt_03april28.mspx

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows XP - Shell/User
Microsoft Newsgroups

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

"javelin" wrote:

I installed Spanish (Mexican) per instructions in my kid's school
program, and it says I should be able to type CTRL+SHIFT+a to get the a
with an accent, and various other shourtcuts. None of these work.

In fact, the only way I can get a Spanish character to appear is by
using the ascii codes (ALT+0241 for the Spanish ñ, etc)

By the way, I should clarify that I can find some characters in wierd
places if I hit the ALT+SHIFT combo -- just not all the characters, and
then I can't use certain keys (like the = sign becomes an upside-down
question mark ¿

Any ideas why the special keyboard mappings would not work? Any special
program I can buy (or download for free)to give me the character
shortcuts I need?

Thanks a bunch.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.general (More info?)

Dear friends:

It is curious how one of the most convenient features of Windows (2K
or XP) is normally ignored, even by Microsoft people!!!

You should install the "English International" keyboard layout from
your WinXP CD. Then, if you want to write in English, you type as
normally, excepting when you want to type a ' , you should type the
sequence '<space>.

Then, to write a Spanish accented a (á) you simply type 'a, to type an
ñ, you type ~n. The keyboard layout will be exactly the same as your
standard US layout.

And forget of the clumsy CRTL+SHIFT+sequences or ALT+number
sequences!!!

"javelin" <google.1.jvmail@spamgourmet.com> wrote:

>I installed Spanish (Mexican) per instructions in my kid's school
>program, and it says I should be able to type CTRL+SHIFT+a to get the a
>with an accent, and various other shourtcuts. None of these work.
>
>In fact, the only way I can get a Spanish character to appear is by
>using the ascii codes (ALT+0241 for the Spanish ñ, etc)
>
>By the way, I should clarify that I can find some characters in wierd
>places if I hit the ALT+SHIFT combo -- just not all the characters, and
>then I can't use certain keys (like the = sign becomes an upside-down
>question mark ¿
>
>Any ideas why the special keyboard mappings would not work? Any special
>program I can buy (or download for free)to give me the character
>shortcuts I need?
>
>Thanks a bunch.

Thanks
Juan I. Cahis
Santiago de Chile (South America)
Note: Please forgive me for my bad English, I am trying to improve it!

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.general (More info?)

In news:c6lte1lkcrp3hr2blt68pkvbpd08aj7tb9@4ax.com,
Juan I. Cahis <jiclbch@SINBASURAattglobal.net> typed:

> It is curious how one of the most convenient features of
> Windows (2K
> or XP) is normally ignored, even by Microsoft people!!!
>
> You should install the "English International" keyboard layout
> from
> your WinXP CD. Then, if you want to write in English, you type
> as
> normally, excepting when you want to type a ' , you should type
> the
> sequence '<space>.
>
> Then, to write a Spanish accented a (á) you simply type 'a, to
> type an
> ñ, you type ~n. The keyboard layout will be exactly the same as
> your
> standard US layout.


Although the "English International" keyboard layout works fine,
as far as I'm concerned it has a severe disadvantage. It requires
extra keystrokes to single type the characters that are used for
accents, like ' and ". And because I type those characters singly
far more often than I type them as accents, the result is extra
typing.

For that reason, I long ago stopped using the international
keyboard and installed the free ware program Allchars instead,
which I like much better. This lets me type many common special
characters (many of these are used in other languages) by
pressing the ctrl key followed by a two character mnemonic
combination, whci is very similar to that used in the
international keyboard, such as ~ and n for ñ.

It's an extra keystoke for the accented characters, but since I
type those much less frequently than the accents by themselves,
I'm way ahead.
Go to http://allchars.zwolnet.com/


--
Ken Blake - Microsoft MVP Windows: Shell/User
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