Placing a tilde on an “n” is a cinch when you’re writing by hand. All it takes is a flick of the wrist to add the tilde on top of the n.
On a typewriter, it was easy if it had the eñe built in. On a Spanish-style typewriter keyboard, the eñe will typically appear between the L and the comma, so no problem there. Otherwiese, you type the “n,” press backspace, rotate the carriage halfway up by hand, and type the tilde (or hyphen if the keyboard doesn’t have a tilde). That took a little more work, but it was a straightforward process that was obvious enough.
On computers, on Macs, Windows, and others, the fastest way is to rely on a keyboard shortcuts. The problem is, memorizing so many shortcuts can be a pain. To bypass the need to memorize or look up a shortcut, some people took to keeping an eñe on their clipboard. Or when they needed the eñe, they’d look up “España” on the net and add it to the clipboard from there. These were roundabout methods and really just a little bit crazy.

Memorizing keyboard shortcuts to call up the eñe on a computer keyboard can be a pain.
There must be an easier way to type words like “señores” and “señoras,” “señas” and “baños.” On a Mac running OSX Lion there is an easier, less confusing way to write eñe.
Learn more after the jump.
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