Die Umlaute und das Esszet

Instructions for Typing the German Characters

There are several ways to type the German characters:

1. Insert Symbol

If you are working with a wordprocessing program you should have the possibility of inserting them from a window of symbols. To bring up this window in Microsoft WORD, use the pull-down menu for "insert", then go to "symbol". If you don't see the umlauts and the ß in the character set (you may have to scroll), change the "subset" or the "font" until you find a set that contains the umlauts and ß. Be sure to pick the right ones (there are characters from many languages, some look similar, but they are not the umlauts; umlauts have two dots on top).

2. ALT-Key Combination

From any program you should be able tot ype the "umlauts" and the "ß" like this:

Press and hold down the "ALT" key (usually in the lower left corner of your keyboard). While you hold it down, type the following number combinations on the number keypad (NOT the numbers in the top row!). Then release the ALT key and the respective letter should appear on your screen.

 

ä – 132		Ä – 142
ö – 148	ß - 225	Ö – 153
ü – 129		Ü – 154

You have to use the number-keypad for this (using the row of numbers at the top of your keyboard does NOT work). Also, you may have to toggle the NumLock Key to make sure the keypad is ready for you to type numbers (try out which setting works). On laptops with an embedded keypad, you will first have to type the key combination that your laptop requires to turn on the keypad.

3. Making Changes to Your Keyboard

I have not tried this, but maybe you prefer it. You can make changes to your settings so that certain keys or key combinations on your keyboard will then produce the foreign characters. Instructions for this can be found here:

http://sasw.chass.ncsu.edu/fl/faculty/despain/csupport/keyboard.htm