Getting my dots on my vowels

[hotlilpenguin]

Despite studying multiple foreign languages on some level (Spanish, French, Italian, Japanese and now German) I have yet to figure out how to get those cool dots (or accent marks for the Romance languages) on my letters when I'm not using Word. I realize this isn't exactly a technical question for the site, but I wasn't sure where else to ask....

[Kare]

The question also arouse here:
http://www.germanpod101.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=28
(Sorry for not typing it out again, but honestly: it's ten to midnight right now and my bed is like a siren... anyway: )
I gave some practical things like Unicode, Copy+Paste or just switching Keyboard Layouts with Microsoft, but as Sprachprofi pointed out: if you are going to need this often, it might be best to design yourself an own keyboard layout with all the keys you need right at hand...

[hotlilpenguin]

Wow, that is crazy awesome. Thank you so much!

[Kare]

You're welcome. ^^

[hotlilpenguin]

I'm going to post exactly what I did so anyone who has Windows XP (like no one, lol) doesn't have to sit around forever figuring it out....

1) Open the Control Panel and click Regional and Language Options.
2) Click on the Languages tab.
3) Click on Details, then Add.
4) Click on Keyboard Layout/IME.
5) Find "US - International"

After this, you should get an icon in the task bar or near the top of your window. You can toggle between standard English and the US-International by clicking on this icon. Hold down the right ALT key with the key. Umlauts are Y, P, and Q (depending on what they are close to. See - ¿Come estas, María? Was gibt es zum Frühstück? Etc etc. Ä, Ü, Ö.

[LiCo]

For some reason, this is what I got on my computer: Ã

[hotlilpenguin]

Ú, Ã

[LiCo]

Thanks.

Somehow I managed it without installing the Deutsch language. Here's how:

PC and New Mac users
Each letter has a specific number code. To type it hold down the alt key, ie the key next to the space bar, and use the number keys on your right. Make sure that Num Lock, ie the top left key, is on. The codes are:

• ä alt+132
• Ä alt+142
• ö alt+148
• Ö alt+153
• ü alt+129
• Ü alt+154
• ß alt+225

Older Mac users
Hold down the control key, ie the bottom left and right keys, and the letter "u", then release. Next, type the vowel you need as you normally do, ie a for ä, A for Ä and so on.
For ß simply type alt + s.

• ä Ctrl+u, then a
• Ä Ctrl+u, then A
• ö Ctrl+u, then o
• Ö Ctrl+u, then O
• ü Ctrl+u, then u
• Ü Ctrl+u, then U
• ß alt+s


From BBC website

[Was_]

I'm going to post exactly what I did so anyone who has Windows XP (like no one, lol) doesn't have to sit around forever figuring it out....

1) Open the Control Panel and click Regional and Language Options.
2) Click on the Languages tab.
3) Click on Details, then Add.
4) Click on Keyboard Layout/IME.
5) Find "US - International"

After this, you should get an icon in the task bar or near the top of your window.

thank you for this! i would have never known.
I used to have to copy and paste from a site every time i needed one of the umlauts!
also though: alt+s is ß