Where on the Web can I find  "Umlaut" - to have available when I need
it, to write German letters

Hello Hildegard,

let me provide the german "Umlaut"-characters for you.
The first letter listed is the "Umlaut"-character, the second is the
keyboard short-cut, and the third a letter-pair when the
"Umlaut"-character is not available:

Ä - Ae - Alt+142
Ö - Oe - Alt+153
Ü - Ue - Alt-154

ä - ae - Alt+132
ö - oe - Alt+148
ü - ue - Alt+129

ß - ss - Alt+0223

Now you can just bookmark this page and copy and paste the
"Umlaut"-characters whenever you need them. Or (if you use Windows)
you can memorize the numbers, hold down the "Alt"-key, and enter the
number. As last resort, you can enter the two-letter-pair.

Also, on Windows there's a tool that displays special characters and
lets you copy and paste them. It can be found in your Start menu, as
(and this might be a vague translation, since I use a german version
of Windows) "Programs" - "Utilities" - "Special characters". It is
likey found at "C:\WINDOWS\CHARMAP.EXE".


For further reference:

ALT+Number Combinations
http://www.umass.edu/langctr/altnum.htm


Hope that helps!

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Clarification of Answer by j_philipp-ga on 01 Jun 2002 11:48 PDT

Let me correct the second sentence:
The first letter listed is the "Umlaut"-character, the second a
letter-pair when the "Umlaut"-character is not available, and the
third is the
keyboard short-cut.

(Sorry for the mix-up!)

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Clarification of Answer by j_philipp-ga on 01 Jun 2002 12:48 PDT

A small clarification:
As you probably already know, there is no upper-case "ß". There is
also no word in the german language beginning with "ß", but if you
write a word or sentence in all upper-cases, "ß" needs to be replaced
by "SS" (this is a convention of typographical reasoning; "B" is too
closely resembling "ß").

---

Clarification of Answer by j_philipp-ga on 02 Jun 2002 02:21 PDT

Hildegard,

Sorry for assuming a Windows operating system on some of my answer details.
Here's a quick & easy page for "Umlaut"-characters on Mac:

How to Use an Umlaut on a Mac (eHow)
http://www.ehow.com/ehow/ehow.jsp?index=1014&id=9305

Credits go to Larre-ga for that reference.
Hope it helps!

Orchids & Gold stars to every one who took the time and effort to give
me some help and hints. But - I use a Mac, and all your instructions
were for Windows.I used to have a program that had a tiny P on my
desktop, click it and the Alphabet came up to use any Umlaut as
needed, very simple  - but it got lost in one of my crashes and I was
hopeing that someone still has it and could direct my to it. If I ever
find it again I'll pass it on to all of you.

I use various languages with Windows just by adding Windows keyboard
support for the languages I wish to use.

Open the Control Panel and select Keyboard. 

From the pop-up, under the Language tab, select languages you wish to
use from the list of supported languages, and choose Add.

You'll be prompted to insert your install disk. 

I find it useful to tick the checkbox next to Enable Indicator on
Taskbar. This allows for easy switching between languages.

You will need to figure out which keys do what. I've never looked at a
language specific keyboard map. Originally, I asked native language
users where special keys were located on their keyboard, and
experimented until I became familiar with the locations. On my Danish
keyboard version, which I use most often, several of the special
characters, umlauts specifically, require two keys, the umlaut key
followed by the key umlauts are to be added to.

Hope this helps,

larre-ga

I am using German everyday recently, and it's as easy (if you're using
MS Office) as 1-2-3 (easier than alt+keys, sorry mate):
1. Go to Control Board
2. Choose Keyboard Settings
3. It will open on Speed, turn it to "language" (a nearby window)
4. Choose "add a language" 
5. There's German support on EACH window program (but please contact
me how to download German charachters if you can't) - and you'll find
alpahbetically.
6. Now, everytime you'll press alt+shift you'll change the language
(there are plenty other languages you can add. I coincidently added
Mongolian to my hubby's computer :-). Dann, können Sie mit Umlaut
schreiben und auch ß (es-zet) haben!
7. Not only that, but you can also add to your Word the German
dictionary and spell-checker.

Tschüß!
Politicalguru-ga (contact me if you need any other help in that area
or others :-)

Larre, that's also an option. However the characters on the keyboard
don't change unless you buy another keyboard, so this might not be too
easy: personally I'm in trouble when I switch to keyboard-imitation
(this sometimes happens accidentally via short-cut) without that
certain keyboard-hardware.

And Politicalguru, don't underestimate how fast people can get with
the Alt+Number (spoken from experience of someone I know).

But all this is good additional information, since personal taste
differs. Thanks.

J-Philipp, 

Not only that I didn't mean to hurt with the comment on Alts+keys ,
but I also think that your answer is excellent and answers exactly
what the asker asked for - a web-resource for German script.

I apologise if it sounded otherwise. 

politicalguru-ga.

The Mac program you want is called "Popchar." There are few different
flavours and variants available. For the most recent version, go to
http://www.versiontracker.com .