using Spanish punctuation and accent marks, etc.

cbemge · Newbie Joined: 18 Jul 2009 Posts: 1

Hi,
I am a Spanish teacher (basic grade 7)who is trying to find an easy way to add those upside down question marks, exclamation marks, the tilde over the 'N' and the 'n' and the accent marks over various vowels when I set up quizzes or any documents. I used to be able to just hit "alt" and a series of 4 numbers for each "character" (punctuation mark etc.) which I taped in front of me for ease of using them.(I never could remember them- so taping a list was easier.) What can I do with open office? I am brand new to Open Office and would love to get this figured out before school starts again.
Corrine

jrkrideau

james_h · Super User Joined: 05 Nov 2005 Posts: 883

Your operating system may support different keyboard layouts. I think this is the best way to type in a different language. It is faster than inputting codes, and it is what people who use that language do. Most systems allow you to switch keyboard layouts quickly with a key combination or a mouse click.

The Mexican keyboard layout uses the same letters layout as a standard English QWERTY keyboard, but allows you to input accented characters using keys around the periphery of the keyboard. You can also try the US international layout, or the Canadian international layout.

For Windows XP, see http://support.microsoft.com/kb/306560.

For Windows Vista, see
http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Windows/en-US/help/765a7264-b593-4458-90cf-0d0713b5dfe61033.mspx.

For Ubuntu Linux using the Gnome desktop, change the layout with System > Preferences > Keyboard > Layouts.

Robert Tucker · Posted: Mon Jul 20, 2009 6:05 am Post subject:

If you are going to input a considerable amount of accented letters etc, then changing keyboard is undoubtedly, IMHO, the best way. On Gnome a right-click in your main tray, "Add to Panel ...", "Keyboard Indicator", should also get where you want.

If you only need to type in a few "special" characters, for example, when you type a name or title or whatever, AllChars, is very good on Windows. However, there does seem to be a problem with it and IE8 (and probably IE7) on Vista and Windows 7. On Linux (and Unix) look up the use of the "compose key".
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LibreOffice 3.6.6 on Fedora 18, LibreOffice 4.0.2 on Ubuntu 13.04 (Double Boot)

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