German Letters

Information

Since most of us do not have our keyboards set to the German language, we cannot write certain characters, like ü, ö, ä, and ß. Here are two ways to do it.

German Letters

Method 1

If you would like to switch your keyboard to german whenever you like, follow these instructions. You may need your Windows disk for some of these.

Windows 98

1. Click on the Start Menu on the bottom, left corner of your monitor.
2. Move your mouse up to the settings and when the submenu pops up, click on Control Panel.
3. Then click on the keyboard icon.
4. The thing should say Keyboard Properties in the menu and underneath that will be two choices, Speed and Languages. Click on Languages
5. Click on Add.
6. There should be a few choices for German, I picked Standard.
7. Then, if all goes well, the window should have your default language and german (Standard) in it.
8. Then pick a "hot key" to switch between languages while you are typing.
9. The keys that usually change are the punctuation keys on the right side of the keyboard.

Windows XP

1. Click on the Start Menu on the bottom, left corner of your monitor.
2. Move your mouse up to the settings and when the submenu pops up, move the mouse onto the Control Panel, and when that submenu pops up, click on Regional and Language Options.
3. Choose the Languages tab and then click on Details.
4. Then follow steps 5-9 from Windows 98.

Macintosh

1. For the esszet, press the option (alt) key and s simultaneously.
2. For umlauts, press the option (alt) key and u simultaneously, then release and type the vowel you want.

Method 2

Substitute ä with ae, ö with oe, ü with ue, and ß with ss.