Answers
Apr 26, 2014 - 12:06 AM
There may be an easier way, but if you search your computer for something called Character Map, you can find all of the German symbols (and many others) there.
Apr 26, 2014 - 07:58 AM
Some keyboard shortcuts:
windows: http://mistupid.com/computers/interna...
OSX: http://www.forlang.wsu.edu/help/keybo...
windows: http://mistupid.com/computers/interna...
OSX: http://www.forlang.wsu.edu/help/keybo...
Apr 26, 2014 - 09:30 PM
When I want to type an entry here which may require using spanish words with accents or special letters, I just go up to the top menu bar of my browser and click on the flag icon for my US keyboard which toggles me to my Spanish keyboard, which I selected or activated in the system preferences somewhere - probably under keyboard settings. (I use a Mac, but Windows should be similar) When I click and hold my now displayed Spanish Flag Icon, I get a drop down menu which allows me to display the keyboard viewer which shows me where all the special stuff is located on the keyboard. I actually find that I can type in English on the Spanish keyboard and be correct 99% of the time. You can "load" or activate several different keyboards in your Settings/ Preferences, snd then clicking on your little flag icon in the browser menu bar (right side) will allow you to quickly toggle thru your keyboards to get to the one you want to use. So you could easily go from English to German to French to Spanish to Russian, etc. Hope this helps.
Apr 26, 2014 - 10:29 PM
If you happen to be using Windows 8.1 you can go to Control Panel>Clock, Language, and Region>Language. This takes you to a page that will let you select any number of languages. After you select the language you want, a label will appear on the task bar telling you which language is active at the moment. This remaps the keyboard slightly to accomodate the newly selected language. You can use a similar setup for a Windows 7 computer. It works very well for Spanish, but I can't vouch for any other languages. I had to explore the internet to find a keyboard layout diagram for a Spanish style keyboard so I would know which keys would give me the desired accents and characters.
Apr 27, 2014 - 09:08 AM
I'm not sure if you've ever done this, but I know a lot of people that just don't use the umlauds. They just use, ae; oe; and ue. I guess it won't look as professional, but its pretty common to do this and I know a lot of Germans that do this when they don't have a German keyboard available.
Apr 28, 2014 - 05:27 AM
It's also standard practice to use ae (ä), oe (ö), ue (ü), and ss (ß) when the application does not support umlauts, like email servers. This is a standard practice throughout Germany and nobody from Germany will be confused by this substitution. This is very useful when sending mail to or within Germany since this is an extremely common issue.
Apr 28, 2014 - 11:07 AM
On Windows you can use the Character Map. One of the nice things about the Character Map is that when you click the mouse on it, in the bottom right corner of the window, it will tell you the key code to press to get that character. For ä type alt+0228, ë type alt+0235, ß type alt+0223 and ü type alt+0252. Note: that the ALT key has to be held down while all 4 numbers are typed.
May 26, 2014 - 03:12 PM
Ä use alt+0196, Ö use alt+0214, Ü use alt+0220, ß use alt+0223, ä use alt+0228, ö use alt+0246, ü use alt+0252. Keep ALT pressed as you key in the 4 digits on the number pad on the right of the keyboard. If your keypad doesn't have the separate number pad (like mine, usually common on laptops), select NumLK (number lock) first, then ALT+(the 4 numbers). You can find all the alternate characters in: accessories, system tools, character map.
May 26, 2014 - 04:41 PM
Some people may find this link helpful: http://www.vistawide.com/languages/ty...