How to Type N With a Tilde on Top

The letter N with a tilde on top (Ñ/ñ) forms an entirely different letter from an entirely different language. Named eñe, this letter is a letter of the modern Latin alphabet that belongs to the Spanish language. Eñe is the letter used in words such as jalapeño, piña colada and piñata that belong to the English language. While the letter is used in a number of different words belonging to the English language, it is not a part of keyboards that are in the English language. That being the case, typing eñe on a computer is not as simple as typing the letter n on one.

Most people do, however, need to type an eñe on a computer at one point or another for whatever reason. You can always go the manual route and simply copy over Ñ or ñ from an external source such as another document or a webpage that contains the letter somewhere in it whenever you need to use it, but that is the long way around, and if you choose to go down this path you are going to have to look for a document or webpage with Ñ or ñ in it every single time you need the letter eñe. Wouldn’t it be much simpler if you could just type eñe using your keyboard? Well, that’s just it – you definitely can do that!

While typing eñe using a keyboard that is in the English language is not as easy as typing a simple n, it is most certainly possible. In fact, there are a number of different ways you can use to type an upper-case or lower-case eñe on a computer, and the following are some of the absolute best ones:

Method 1: Type eñe using its Alt code

On a Windows computer, every language comes with special characters that the user can type even though they are not readily available on their keyboard. These special characters are typed using their respective Alt codes instead of just pressing a button on your keyboard (because there isn’t one). Among the special characters of the English language on a Windows computer is the letter eñe. To type eñe anywhere on a Windows using its Alt code, you need to:

1. Move your cursor to the point on your screen where you want to type Ñ or ñ.
2. Make sure your keyboard’s Num Lock is turned on, meaning that you can use the numbers pad.
3. Press and hold down on the Alt key on your keyboard.
4. With the Alt key held, type either 165 (to type an upper-case Ñ) or 164 (to type a lower-case ñ).
5. Let go of the Alt key. As soon as you let go of the Alt key, an Ñ or ñ will appear where your cursor was.

Method 2: Configure your computer to use the US-International keyboard layout

Computers support a multitude of different keyboard layouts, and one of these keyboard layouts is the US-International keyboard layout. You can also type the letter eñe on a computer if you configure it to use the US-International keyboard layout. While this method works on computers running on any version of the Windows Operating System, it also works on computers running on basically every other Operating System out there.

Once you have configured your computer to use the US-International keyboard layout, you can type ñ by pressing and holding down on the Alt Gr or Right Alt key and typing n while still holding down on the key, releasing the key after pressing n. Alternatively, with your computer configured to use the US-International keyboard layout, you can also type ñ by simply typing a tilde (~) followed by n, and it will automatically turn into ñ.

Method 3: Typing the letter eñe in Microsoft Word

Methods that can be used to type Ñ or ñ in basically every part of the Windows Operating System aside, a method that can be used specifically to type the letter eñe in a Word document also exists and is extremely simple. To type the letter eñe in Microsoft Word, all you need to do is:

1. Move your cursor to the point on your screen where you want to type Ñ or ñ.
2. Press Ctrl + Shift + Tilde (~), and then let go of the keys.
3. Type N or n, and as soon as you do, what you will see on your screen will be Ñ or ñ respectively.