US-ES-International keyboard layout for MacOS X

US-ES-Keyboard is a slightly customized keyboard layout for MacOS X (from 10.4) based on U.S. International - PC spiced for Spanish coders with OCD. I decided to create this because:

• I have a US keyboard.
• I am a programmer, so the US layout is quite convenient.
• I also use the Spanish layout to chat and write, ending up mixing both layouts on my head.
• U.S. International - PC layout gets the job almost done, but I was still missing some features.

Improvements

These are the improvements added on top of the U.S. International - PC layout.

Spanish support

• Easy access to Ñ: Alt + N or ' > N.
• Easy access to ¿: Alt + /.
• Easy access to €: Alt + E.

Coding support

• Easier strings with '! Apostrophe's accent input can be escaped typing it twice.
• Easier strings with "! Quotation mark doesn't produce ä î ü ë ö.

Miscellaneous

• Main accents ` ´ ˜ ¨ moved to ` key.
• Terminator input of ^ accent fixed. It now terminates always in ^ instead of ˆ.

Installing the keyboard layout

The file US-ES-International.bundle should be placed in one of the following folders depending on who will use it.

• Local user: ~/Library/Keyboard Layouts
• All users on the machine: /Library/Keyboard Layouts
• All users on the network: /Network/Library/Keyboard Layouts

It should be listed now in the Input Sources tab of the Language & Text preference pane. Just select it as the active input source and you'll be good to go.

Editing the layout

For the edition of the layout I used Ukelele. The GUI is a bit intimidating at first, but it comes with a rich documentation and the learning curve is surprisingly gentle. If you want to extend this layout avoiding some headaches, keep in mind this advice.

Note that, after editing a keyboard layout, you should move it out of the Keyboard Layouts folder and back in again before logging out and logging in — the change in the folder is what triggers the system loading keyboard layouts when logging in. – Ukelele Read Me