Typing 'foreign' characters e.g. Umlauts

[JLo]

This may be a daft question, but when I'm searching German sites how do I type in an o with the umlaut?

Julie


Moderator Comment: these contributions have been 'collected' here from another topic, hence the occaisional duplications

[Berlin-Bob]

Typing german Umlauts:
(and other foreign letters)

In German there are 4 special characters, which also have alternative spellings:

(Umlaut is pronounced Umlout)

ä and Ä : A-Umlaut     Alternative:  ae or Ae
ö and Ö : O-Umlaut    Alternative:  oe or Oe
ü and Ü : U-Umlaut     Alternative:  ue or Ue
ß            : Scharfes S   Alternative:  ss

to type them in a HTML-document, either type in the Unicode reference or the special HTML name:

Symbol Reference Description                            Alternative
       (unicode)                                                 (HTML name)

  ä     ä   Small a, dieresis or umlaut mark      ä
  Ä     Ä   Capital A, dieresis or umlaut mark   Ä

  ö     ö   Small o, dieresis or umlaut mark       ö
  Ö     Ö   Capital O, dieresis or umlaut mark   Ö

  ü     ü   Small u, dieresis or umlaut mark       ü
  Ü     Ü   Capital U, dieresis or umlaut mark    Ü

  ß     ß   Small sharp s, German (sz ligature)  ß

These, and many more "foreign" letters can be found at: http://vzone.virgin.net/sizzling.jalfrezi/iniframe.htm

Unfortunately, although RootsChat accepts these characters directly from my german keyboard, it doesn't accept the  HTML characters.

I don't know why. Maybe Trystan does, I will pass the question on to him.

[Berlin-Bob]

Julie,

Sorry, I got a bit sidetracked and didn't really answer your question. 

Use the Alternative spellings instead of umlauts, for now.

I am in contact with Trystan to try and find a general answer

Bob

[Berlin-Bob]

Typing german Umlauts:

Here's one solution.
It's a bit round-the-houses but as you won't need too many umlauts, it will do, till we find a better way ....
    

I am using a german version of windows, so I am guessing at some of the commands and descriptions, but, here goes ...

Find the Character table
on my computer (windows 2000)
- programs
- acessories
- system programs
- character table

click on any "funny" character
drag it into your RootsChat posting or your Google search window

and that's it !

for instance: Keyboard:  Ä , drag and drop from Character table: Ä

For Absolute Beginners: Drag & Drop = click on it with left mouse button and, holding the mouse button down, drag it to it's destination, and then let go of mouse button !

(p.s.  if anybody knows a quicker way, don't be shy, tell us about it !)

[JLo]

Thanks Bob

I had tried the alternative spelling (which I already knew) on a couple of sites and they weren't coming up with any results.  I shall now go back and try my newly discovered ö 

Many thanks
Julie

[emarbe]

Back on the subject of 'producing umlauts on English keyboards'.

If you have a Macintosh computer it is done simply by checking the key combination in the 'KeyCaps control panel'. The main modifier key is the OPTION or ALT key.

The alternative is to load the keyboard language that you require (Macs come with a variety of languages preinstalled or on the system disks) and you can then switch between English and whatever language you want to use, but this is overkill.

Unless you are going to type a letter and are proficient in a foreign language, I would recommend the first option, it is very very easy.

Of course if you use Windows ............. I have no idea apart from what Bob has suggested.

Mike

[scottw67]

Hi

regarding the 'producing umlauts on English keyboards'.

just thought I'd post a follow up to an early post

hold down the ALT key and type the following codes on the numeric keypad on your keyboard.

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

if you need any other foreign characters look for the code in the "Extended ASCII Table" at the bottom of this page
http://www.lookuptables.com/

apologies if this method has already been posted.


cheers



Scott

[Graham Whitehead]

Re: German umlauts.  All you need is the LH Alt key on your keyboard and a series of numbers on the RH of your keyboard and you are away:
Alt 132 = ä
Alt 142 = Ä

Alt 148 = ö
Alt 153 = Ö
 
Alt 29   = ü Alt 129   = ü
Alt 152 = Ü
And there you are!  Simple.    Graham

[JOHNNIE]

Now that's cool - except I use a laptop!

Johnnie