Typing 'foreign' characters e.g. Umlauts

[Isabel H]

Character Map which is built into Windows has all the foreign characters, fractions etc. that you might need. Look in Programs/Accessories/System Tools to find it. I have it pinned to the Start Menu so it's easily found when I want it.

Isabel

[Mumsie2131]

I can confirm that e Umlaut is 'Alt 235' - often only using the keys at the rt end of the keyboard.
My grand-daughter is Zoë - therefore I had to ask my son how to add the Umlauts.
I know there is a way of accessing these but unfortunately can't remember what it its.

[Graham Whitehead]

I can confirm that e Umlaut is 'Alt 235' - often only using the keys at the rt end of the keyboard.
My grand-daughter is Zoë - therefore I had to ask my son how to add the Umlauts.
I know there is a way of accessing these but unfortunately can't remember what it its.

Look back to Scott's entry in previous listings of this topic.  It is all there.

[luas]

I tried to put some Cyrillic letters on my website. I wrote in Word, and copied it across, but they did not come out.

Is there another way?

meles

This works for me with Windows XP.  Down on your taskbar, where the clock and other program icons are, you should see an icon that says En.  If  you  hover the mouse pointer over it, a hover tip should appear that says either English (United Kingdom) or English (United States).  Click on that icon, and click on the line that says show the language bar.  The language bar will then appear at the top of the screen.  To the right of this language bar is a small down arrow that represents options.  Click that, then Settings, and a box should appear headed Text Services and Input Languages.  From the list there, you should be able to add the Russian Cyrillic, or indeed the German, which gives you the German characters (umlauted letters and scharfes-S, and also the German keyboard layout QUERTZUIOP, etc.  Click apply, OK, and close that box.  In future, you can select either English or Russian by clicking the little En icon (it turns to Ru with Russian).  Of course, you'll have to mark the Cyrillic characters on your keyboard (you can buy sets of labels, or a CD marker lasts a while) or buy a bilingual keyboard.  Sorry if this is not clear!

[meles]

Aha! didn't realise one had to change the language. I have XP. Thank you, luas - I'll try that later today.

meles

[lesleyhannah]

This sounds useful - except I can't find an En on my task bar. Probably deleted it in one of my Senior moments?

[meles]

I have hidden mine too, but you can go to Control Panel, then Regional and Language Options.

meles

[meles]

Hmm - can now write e-mails in Cyrillic and can post here in Russian (if I wanted to!  ) , but it seems to fail when I try to use Dreamweaver. Need to look at my Dreamweaver for Dummies book... 

meles

[luas]

Although I have the German language installed, I tend to forget the keyboard layout for the special characters, so I mostly just use the ASCII codes, which are ALT + 129 for ü, ALT + 132 for ä, ALT + 148 for ö, and ALT + 225 for ß.  All these on the numeric keypad rather than the numbers on the keyboard top line, of course.  I don't know if anyone's mentioned it, but you need to turn on the Num Lock at the top left of the numeric keypad when using these key combinations.  Incidentally, when you turn your keyboard to Russian, you get a nice character № which replaces the usual £ sign.  This often mystifies the uninitiated in message boards, who wonder where you got it.