Helpful Word Processing Symbols

For English-Speaking Learners of the Spanish Language

The Alt-Key Extended Symbol Codes (Windows)

Cryptic, but useful.

Hold Alt-Key (usually the left) and input the number in NumPad (the keyboard section with numbers and
operators). Or you can just cut and paste from this document. This is the best way to go if you’re on somebody
else’s Windows PC, as it doesn’t involve system settings or multiple applications. Will not work on laptops
because they don’t typically have numeric entry pads and use a truncated keyboard.

€ Euro currency symbol 0128

«» Spanish angle quotation marks 0171 0187
¡ Upside-down exclamation mark 0161
¿ Upside-down question mark 0191
‹› Spanish/French angle single quotation marks 0139 0155

Accents
ü Ü
0252 0220 Umlauts (generally ‘u’)

Ñ ñ
0209 0241 Tildes (generally ‘n’)

Acute (á,é,í,ó, and ú)

á é í ó ú (lowercase)
0225 0233 0237 0243 0250

Á É Í Ó Ú
(uppercase)
0193 0201 0205 0211 0218
Mac Attack (Macintosh) [via http://tlt.its.psu.edu/suggestions/international/accents/codemac.html]
For acute accent marks, press the Option Key (Opt) and e at the same time, followed by the vowel
(a, e, i, o, u) of your choosing, like in the Spanish word “actuación”
For umlauts, you’d press the Option Key (Opt) and u at the same time, followed by U, as in the Spanish word
“vergüenza”
For a modified n, you’d press the Option Key (Opt) and n at the same time, followed by N, as in the Spanish word
“año”.
Pressing 1 after holding Opt should yield you an inverted exclamation mark, while pressing ? while holding Opt and
Shift will get you an inverted question mark or ¿.
Get the nested v quotation marks by Opt + / and Opt-Shift+N respectively.
The International Keyboard (Windows)
Arguably the best method if you’re typing Spanish words often.
Documented at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/306560

For XP:
Open the Start Menu and then select Control Panel.
Choose Regional And Language Options.
Pick the Languages tab and then hit Details
Add a language, preferably selecting English from the drop-down menu.
Check the Keyboard Layout / IME radio button (check box) and select
United States International

Restart. You should notice that several of your input keys no longer function in the manner
to which you are probably accustomed in many applications. For example, if you depress the
“ key once, nothing will happen. You must press the Spacebar to complete the action.

For Spanish, you want the acute accents, the quotation markers, the inverted punctuation,
and the tilde-topped letters. Use the right-alt key for most keyboards.

á='+a
é='+e ñ=~+n ¡ = Alt (hold) + ! « = Alt (hold) + [
í='+i ü="+u » = Alt (hold) + ]
ó='+o
¿ = Alt (hold) + ?
ú='+u € (euro) = Alt (hold) + 5

For example, to execute a ñ, type ~ followed by n.

Character Map (Windows)

Symbols for Dummies

Open your Start Menu and find Run. Type in

“charmap” and press Enter.
The run dialog is disabled by many school network
administrators and IT personnel. You’ll have to go to
All Programs and then find Accessories, where you
should usually find the shortcut to Character Map.
Choose the typeface that most matches the rest of your
font (but not all font families have the extended
character set) and then find the glyph (symbol) you
want to use. Double left-click to select it and then press
Copy.

It’s now on your clipboard, so you can pretty

much paste it wherever you need to use it by
using the shorthand for paste (Ctrl-V).