Customize accent menu when holding down vowel key

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Level 1

8 points

Customize accent menu when holding down vowel key

Hi, I'd like to be able to customize the accent menu when you hold down a key.

I'm an American living in Spain who toggles back and forth between languages frequently, but it's kind of annoying to have to remember that when you hold down "a" to make and accented á then you have to press 2, but if you hold down I for í, it's 3, u for ú is 4, é is 2, and ó is 4.

I would like to set it so that you can add an accent by holding down any vowel and then press 1. Is that possible?

I have already adjusted the input to include European Spanish for the keyboard, but that requires me to remember to switch every time, and then I have to adjust my typing to something completely different when I switch back.

Here are my specs:

Thanks so much for the help.

MacBook Pro (13-inch Mid 2012), macOS Sierra (10.12.5)

Posted on Jul 5, 2017 3:43 AM

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Answer 1

Jul 5, 2017 7:27 AM in response to asurebcn

I am Portuguese, and often type in my native language, using the US keyboard layout.

I do not like the click and hold behavior (which, as Etresoft mentioned, was borrowed from iOS) on my mac, so I even have it disabled.

option-e followed by vowel for acute accents: é á í ó ú

option-n followed by letter for tilde: ã õ in Portuguese, and also for Spanish the ñ

similarly, option-i to give the circumflex accents: â ê ô

option-u for the German umlaut

option-grave for grave accents: à è

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Answer 2

etresoft

Level 9

58,240 points

Jul 5, 2017 6:29 AM in response to asurebcn

Hello asurebcn,

No. That is not possible. The new press and hold feature is borrowed from iOS. It is only useful for the most casual users. If you actually speak the non-English language you are trying to type, then this is a waste of your time. Learn the old typing method instead. Hold down the option key and type the appropriate modifier and then type the character to be modified. In your example above, type option+e and then the other character to create accented versions.

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