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The idea of changing the language settings is that you can then type characters quickly and easily (for example by pressing
Alt+a for typing á). This is a list that describes how to change the language settings for Windows XP. Now you should see a keyboard icon at your task bar at the bottom. Click on this icon to switch to the United States
International keyboard layout. This keyboard layout has a new key (AltGr) and 5 dead keys. The dead keys are explained
below. An interactive diagram of this layout can be
found in [1] (http://www.microsoft.com/globaldev/keyboards/kbdusx.htm). The US International keyboard has two different Alt keys. The left Alt key continues to be the regular Alt key, normally
associated with Windows menus. The right Alt key becomes what is called AltGr (or graphic Alt) key. This key lets you type very
quickly special characters in Spanish and other languages by using AltGr and then typing a character from the list
below. Note: + indicate typing one key after the other. - is typing two keys at the same time. The US International keyboard has five dead keys. They add the symbol they have marked at the top of the following
letter. To enter what's written on a dead key you need to add a space. ' followed by space generates an actual apostrophe. Information on some other operation systems can be found here (http://www.studyspanish.com/accents/typing.htm). You can type a special character by pressing and holding down the Alt button and then typing a number code on the
number pad of your keyboard. The most frequently used characters have both a three-digit and a four-digit code. Less frequent
characters (such as Á) have only a four-digit code. This page contains a good overview of special characters
(http://www.starr.net/is/type/altnum.htm) for different languages This method can be useful if you are just writing a short text (for example an e-mail) and don't have a computer where you
can/want change language settings. Just try to pull up a web page or a document that contains the special characters and paste
them into your text. For longer texts, however, this can become quite tedious. If you are working with a text editor you have the option to search for text and replace it with other text. This feature can
be used to 'type' special characters. The idea is to mark a character for becoming a special character, for example
typing ~a when you mean á. After you have written your text you replace marked characters (the ~a)
with special characters (the á). Of course you have to either type in the Alt number code or paste the character, but
the point is that you only have to do it once for the whole text and not for every single á that you want to
type. If you know a programming language that allows string processing you can automate the Search & Replace process by
a computer program which automatically replaces all your marked characters with the appropriate special characters after you are
done with typing your text. Compared to Windows, typing Spanish characters on a Macintosh is relatively easy. So long as you are using a standard American
or UK-style QWERTY keyboard, you may just use the following keyboard commands. (Note that you should release the Option (Opt) key
before striking the second letter; for example, for á, hold down Option, strike E, release Option, strike A.) One good way to practice typing Spanish characters on a Mac is to use the Key Caps program, which should be in the Utilities
folder in the Applications folder. This simple program will show you what characters you can type next if you hold down the
Option and/or Shift keys. In KDE you can choose the international US keyboard layout. Go to Regional & Accessibility - Keyboard Layout in the
KDE Control Center. Add the international US keyboard layout to your active layouts. With the flag icon in your taskbar
you can now switch between different layouts. Now you can type á by typing ' and then a: |