How to Use Spanish on a Mac

Using Spanish or any other language is quite easy on a Mac, this is what you have to do:

• First go to system preferences
• Select “international”
• Then select “input menu”
• Check the “keyboard viewer” checkbox.
• Scroll down and check “Spanish”

Now start up MS Word. In the top right hand corner you’ll see a small American flag, click on it and select the small Spanish flag. Your keyboard is now set up to type in Spanish. Go back to the Spanish flag icon and click on “Show Keyboard Viewer” this will produce a pop-up window which will show you which keyboard strokes produce accented Spanish – experiment until you find the right combination of keys.

System Preferences' International window with Keyboard Viewer on top

If you want to activate a Spanish spellchecker, this is what you have to do:

• Go to tools
• Select Language…
• Choose Spanish
• And click OK

Once you have exited MS Word it will return to the default language (English), so everytime you want to use the Spanish spellchecher you will have to re-select it as above.

Spanish Spell Check

Did you know that computers 1 and 2 in the reference area of the library have been enabled to allow students to write texts in Spanish? There are two options. The first is to enable a Spanish (Dominican) spell checker in MS Word, and the second is to enable a Spanish keyboard (Dominican) in Windows XP.

The first option is the easier one. All you need to do is to open up MS Word 2007 and to click on English (U.S.) on the bottom left-hand side of the screen. A language box pop-up will appear, select Spanish (Dominican Republic), then click OK. Now type your text.

Screen shot of MS Word setting

To activate the spell check go to the review tab and click on ABC Spelling & Grammar. A spell check pop-up box will appear and offer a number options including accented Spanish. Enabling the Spanish keyboard allows patrons to write accented Spanish without having to rely on a spell check. To do this, click on EN (English United States) at the bottom right-hand side of the screen, and select ES (Spanish Dominican Republic).

Screen shot of Windows setting

Make sure that Spanish (Dominican Republic) on the left is still active in your Word document. This keyboard layout will alter some keys – however, once you quit Word English default settings return. The following is how the keys going from left to right top to bottom will look:

No Keystrokes
|1234567890′¿
qwertyuiop´+}
asdfghjklñ{
zxcvbnm,.-

Using Shift
°!”#$%&/()=?¡
QWERTYUIOP¨*]
ASDFGHJKLÑ[
ZXCVBNM;:_

Accents
Shift + { (release key)+ u = ü
Shift + { (release key)+ Shift u = Ü
{ (release key)+ a e i o u = áéíóú
{ (release key)+ Shift + a e i o u =  ÁÉÍÓÚ

If you want to write accented Spanish on your computer at home you will have to activate a Spanish keyboard layout. Here is how to do it in Windows XP:

1. Go to Control Panel (switch to “Category View”)
2. Select “Date, Time, Language, and Regional Options”
3. Click “Add Other Languages”
4. Click tab “Regional Options”
5. Select your preferred form of Spanish, e.g., Dominican Republic
6. Now, hit “Apply” and “OK”

You should now see EN or ES in the bottom right-hand corner of your screen, and when working in MS Word you should see Spanish (Do…) on the bottom of your screen (in the center or towards the left).