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Wellesley College Research Guides

Writing in Foreign Languages: Spanish

A guide to using foreign characters, software for writing in foreign languages, and using foreign language keyboards.

Welcome

This guide is always evolving. Suggestions for software or resources to link to are welcome.

Table of Contents

Accent & Diacritical Marks

Software for Macs

Software for PCs

Setting up a Foreign Language Keyboard

Accent & Diacritical Marks

The following accent shortcuts work with most applications and browsers, including Microsoft Word and Gmail.

Typing Spanish accent marks on a Mac:

Accute Accent á, é, í, ó, ú Option + e, then the letter
Tilde ñ Option + n, then n
Dieresis ü Option + u, then u
Inverted Question Mark ¿ Option + Shift + ?
Inverted Exclamation Point ¡ Option + 1
Quotation Marks «
»
Option + \
Option + Shift + \
Quotation Dash Option + Shift + -

 

Typing Spanish accent marks on a PC:

Accute Accent Á
É
Í
Ó
Ú
alt + 0193
alt + 0201
alt + 0205
alt + 0211
alt + 0218
á
é
í
ó
ú
alt + 0225
alt + 0233
alt + 0237
alt + 0243
alt + 0250
Tilde Ñ alt +0209 ñ alt + 0241
Dieresis Ü alt +154 ü alt + 129
Inverted Question Mark ¿ alt +0191    
Inverted Exclamation Point ¡ alt +016    
Quotation Marks «
»
alt +
alt +
   
Quotation Dash alt +    

Software for Macs

The Microsoft Office suite supports Spanish spell check. You can set it as your default language in Office for Mac using these instructions.

Gmail also supports Spanish spell check. To use this, click on the drop-down menu for spell check in an email and select Español. You may still have correctly spelled words appear misspelled depending on your browser settings.

To change your browser language:

Firefox: In the Preferences window go to the Content tab and set the Language.

Chrome: Settings -> Advanced settings -> Languages

Software for PCs

The Microsoft Office suite supports Spanish spell check. You can set it as your default language using these instructions.

Gmail also supports Spanish spell check. To use this, click on the drop-down menu for spell check in an email and select Español. You may still have correctly spelled words appear misspelled depending on your browser settings.

To change your browser language:

Firefox: In the Options window go to the Content tab and set the Language.

Chrome: Settings -> Advanced settings -> Languages

Setting Up Foreign Language Keyboards

Here are the LTS instructions for setting up a foreign language keyboard:

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