Typing Spanish/Portuguese + UK Keyboard + Linux

Setup

In settings select keyboard layout: English (UK, extended, with WIN keys)

Typing non-english characters

Accent	Examples	Keystrokes
acute	á é í	AltGr ➕ <key>
grave	à è ì	` ➡️ <key>
circumflex	â ê î	AltGr ➕ ^ ➡️ <key>
umlaut	ä ë ï	AltGr ➕ " ➡️ <key>
tilde	ã ẽ ñ	AltGr ➕ ~ ➡️ <key>
c cedilla	ç	AltGr ➕ c
left guillemet	«	AltGr ➕ z
right guillemet	»	AltGr ➕ x
upside-down ?	¿	AltGr ➕ Shift ➕ -
upside-down !	¡	AltGr ➕ Shift ➕ !

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which keys to press

The AltGr key is normally just to the right of the space-bar.

<key> refers to the letter you want accented. For example acute accents are added using AltGr ➕ <key>. This means:

• AltGr ➕ a to type á,
• AltGr ➕ e to type é
• etc

Grave accents are typed using the ` key (known as the back-tick key), which is normally at the top-left of the keyboard) under the escape key. Note that with this keyboard layout ` is a 'dead' key, which means when you press it nothing appears in your document. In the unlikely event that actually need to type ` in a document, just press it twice and it will appear.

The keystrokes for ¿ include the - key, which means the minus sign found by the 0 at the top-right of the keyboard.

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how to interpret the table above

• ➕ means press keys together

• ➡️ means press keys sequentially.

For example to type ñ lookup tilde in the table (replacing <key> with n) giving:

AltGr ➕ ~ ➡️ n, which means:

• press the AltGr and ~ keys together (then release them)
• press the n key.

(Note that typing ¡ and ¿ require 3 keys pressed together.)

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capital letters with accents

Capital letters are obtained using the same keystrokes as their lower-case equivalents except that the Shift key is pressed along with the final keystroke. For example to type Ñstart with the table entry for ñ but use Shift ➕ n instead of just n :

AltGr ➕ ~ ➡️ Shift ➕ n, which means:

• press the AltGr and ~ keys together (then release them)
• press the Shift and n keys together.

Note how this is identical with the example in the previous section except for the addition of the Shift key.

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remembering the keystokes

The keystrokes should be easy to remember: a grave accent looks like a back-tick `, a circumflex looks like a ^ and an umlaut looks (a bit) like ". The only one that makes no sense is ¿ (AltGr ➕ Shift ➕ -) which just has to be memorized 😞. Also note that all combinations start with the AltGr key except for grave accents (which start with the ` back-tick key).