Spanish Keyboard

[edelrc]

Hi,
I just wanted to leave here a post for future reference for those that we bought our thinkpads in US (thanks Bill!) and need a spanish keyboard on it. This process is not such an easy task, so I leave here the steps I took:

When you call IBM here, they will asure you that you can only obtain the keyboard through a "authorized partner" as El Corte Inglés and many others. However you will find that most of then do not do sell these keyboards and those who do it will charge you more than 100€.
However you can purchase these keyboards through the IBM Depot at 91-205-0902. Then you complete the process throgh fax with them. The keyboard for my T42p 15" costed 38€ plus taxes and delivery. I also bought another for my A20p.

PS: The european-spanish keyboard it is a QWERTY one so you will have all the keys in that the US keyboard has plus < Ñ ñ Ç ç ª º ¿ ¡ | ¬ á é í ó ú ë € >

[gpvillamil]

Another option you might consider for Spanish language input is software only. Basically there is a builtin keyboard layout that supports Spanish (and other) accent keys on a US keyboard layout. For me, this removed the need to switch the keyobard.

In Control Panel/Regional & Language Settings, press the Detailed button to get Text Services and Input Language dialog.

Add Spanish (or whatever you want) as a language.

For the keyboard layout, add United States - International

Ensure taskbar display is setup - you should have a little icon in the taskbar that switches between EN for English and ES for Spanish.

What you have now is a keyboard where all the accents such as ' are now deadkeys - press the accent and then a vowel to get an accented vowel á â etc. In addition, the right-hand Alt key is now Alt-Gr. Press it together with ! or ? to get the inverted version of those characters. The US - Int'l layout supports pretty much all European languages and their special glyphs and currencies. I leave it as the default.

Use the onscreen keyboard accessory to figure out the layout.

[edelrc]

I know, I know...

But for 50€ I save lots of changing and figuring out where the keys are...

Besides, once you have the Spanish, French or other European, you won´t need the American... those characters are already with the European keyboards.

By the way, here you have a picture so you may uncover some missing symbol you may have with your technique: http://sitemaker.umich.edu/edelrc/files ... nishkb.jpg (120KB)

(The third row on keys is accesible by pressing "AltGr")