How to Use an Umlaut on a Mac

Half of the Mac's character set can't be found on the keyboard. Here's how to create the umlaut-accented (¨) characters used in some Latin-based languages. This works for äÄ, ëË, ïÏ, öÖ, üÜ and ÿ'.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Fontographer (Macromedia)
• PopChar Pro (Uni Software Plus)
• Computer Fonts Software

1. Press Option + u, and then press the letter you want accented.

2. For upper case, press Option + u, and then press Shift + the letter you want accented.

Tips & Warnings

• All of these characters can be found in, and inserted into your document from, the Key Caps desk accessory, which can be found in the Apple menu.
• Foreign language (non-Latin) fonts are available for purchase, as shareware or, in some cases, as freeware over the Internet.
• Many of these accented ("high ASCII") characters are not compatible with e-mail.

on 11/22/2005 The great thing about Mac is that the option key you press for Umlaut (u) starts with the same letter as Umlaut, so it is easy to remember.

The other great thing is that the keys work the same in all programs. Unlike with Windows, you don't have to remember a different key combination for each special character you want to use for each piece of software.