RootsChat.Com
Research in Other Countries => Europe => Topic started by: JLo on Thursday 18 November 04 09:26 GMT (UK)
-
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
-
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.
-
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
-
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 !)
-
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
-
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
-
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
-
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
-
Now that's cool - except I use a laptop!
Johnnie
-
Hi Johnnie,
most laptops have a Funktion key, usually labelled Fn and coloured blue or red, and most of the keys on the right have several descriptions on the key, some of which have the same colour as the Fn key - that's your numeric pad ;D
Fortunately, the Fn and Alt key are next to each other (one hand) leaving your other hand free to find the "num pad" numbers.
There are a few other things which require a lot of contortions, but at least this one is fairly easy.
Or, even better: if your main machine is a laptop, buy a normal keyboard and plug that in (when you are working at a desk or table). This is now my standard set-up, and it does make life so-o-o much easier.
The keyboard is almost twice the width of the laptop, but such a pleasure, not to have such cramped fingers ;D ;D
Bob
-
Hi Julie and Bob.
Thank you for this topic.
I've got a name that turns up enough different ways, before you start on umlauts etc -Bockma(n)/ Bodeman(n) - supposedly with umlauts, but often turns up with an "e"m or an"a" or ".
So it makes for endless variations!
What I'm wondering is, the two letter alternatives you gave, Bob, are they more or less standard for people in a fairly formal situation - eg if someone sees something on a form?
So should it narrow the results on a respectable German search engine if I use the best two letters?
Also, if I put my two letters in - "oe"?, would it be normal for the search engine in German to look for "0 umlaut" as well?
Thank you again.
Emms
-
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
-
Hi again!
Just in case anyone looking at your main topic is writing a letter in a wordprocessor, certainly Word, does every one know that they can use keyboard shortcuts:-
Acute
[Ctrl] ['] followed by character. (Use apostrophe middlethree fromright)
Grave
[Ctrl][`] ,, ,, ,, (Use the top left key beside the numbers)
Tilda
[Ctrl][shift][~] ,, ,, ,,
Circumflex
[Ctrl][Shift][^] ,, ,, ,,
Umlaut
[Ctrl][Shift][:] ,, ,, ,,
Word only accents letters you would normally put an accent on.
I'm sure these are in the original posts, but just in case it's of any use to anyone for typing off rooschat.
best wishes.
Emms
-
When I'm using Word and need an accented letter, or fractions etc. I just click on Insert, then symbols. Once you have used an accented letter or fraction a couple of times, they show up as Recently Used Symbols, so you don't have to scroll through them all.
If you want to put an accented letter on here, all you need to do is open a word document, click on Insert, then symbols, chose the one you want, insert in the blank Word document, then copy (or cut) and paste. For example:
έ ΰ ö ç ά
Lizzie
-
é
got it now - you need to do it in Word then cut and paste. I do have a name on my tree with an acute accent. I get round this by typing the word café, which in Word automatically comes up with an accent over the é. I then delete the caf ! I'm going to have to experiment to see whether going through the Character Map route is quicker. (Unfortunately I don't know any English words that automatically bring up other accents!)
-
Just seems easier to go via Word than to remember to string of numbers.
I suppose if it is quite a lot of words you need, you could change the default language on your computer from English to German or French and then just type in Word and cut and paste. I can do it in Japanese on my laptop - except I don't know any Japanese ::)
Lizzie
-
If you are typing these characters constantly, then it might make sense to write (and store) a short memo in Word, with all the special characters in it, then just copy&paste from this "memo".
emms,
I just tried putting wörtlich in a search engine and it found wörtlich and woertlich.
I then tried putting woertlich in a search engine and it found wörtlich and woertlich.
So it looks like you can search for either :)
Bob
-
Hi
Thank you Bob.
Maybe I'll have another go!
Best wishes
Emms
-
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
-
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.
-
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.
-
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!
-
Aha! didn't realise one had to change the language. I have XP. Thank you, luas - I'll try that later today.
meles
-
This sounds useful - except I can't find an En on my task bar. Probably deleted it in one of my Senior moments?
-
I have hidden mine too, but you can go to Control Panel, then Regional and Language Options.
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
-
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.
-
Hi to Berlin Bob, who has just directed me to this thread to learn how to have the letter 'u' with two dots above it as in Grun, the name of my grandfather. He was German born but lived in the UK almost all his life. Now then, all I need to do is to read all this thread again as I am quite lost. I am using Windows XP, not Vista, I hope that helps. I have no idea how to 'program' any special features so I will take advice from the basic level. Help!!!
:)
-
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!
I did all that and can only see a choice of English (United Kingdom) or English (United States) in the list.
-
http://www.starr.net/is/type/altnum.htm
You can use the alt key, followed by the relevant number code, to produce the required letter. I've tried it successfully in "notepad".
The above site lists the codes.
'Hat.
-
If you only need the occasional Umlaut, using the ASCII codes is the easiest way, as the previous poster said. Just make sure that the Num Lock light is on, and that you use the numerical keypad to the right of the keyboard. Alt plus 129 gives you ü, for example, as in Grün. If your ancestor lived in England, he must have had problems with officials rendering his name correctly in documents. I'm surprised he wasn't tempted to anglicise it to Green, which is what "grün" means. He may have sometimes used the version Gruen, to compensate for the English bureaucrats' inability to cope with the Umlaut.
-
It was my grandfather and he used Green all the time he was here. I have seen his name on a German document recently, and spelt as Grün. Look! I got it! It worked this time because I used the right side of my keyboard with the NumLock lit up! So then, all is well now, problem solved. Thanks to the advice on here. Cheers everyone! 8)
-
Someone asked about Cyrillic several pages ago. My favourite way of writing Cyrillic is to use translit.ru (http://translit.ru/) -- you type in Latin, using the conventions at the top of the screen for non-obvious transliterations, and it appears in Cyrillic on screen, which you can then cut and paste into your post/document.
The site supports non-Russian variants of Cyrillic and some other alphabets used in the former USSR, too.
На здоровье!
-
I use INSERT on the bar and then use 'symbol' - they are needed in Irish too.
Good luck
Dadnishdots ;)
-
I have found this website useful for typing in foreign languages. Just type, then copy and paste to where you want the text.
http://www.typeit.org/
-
If you are typing on word - use 'INSERT' on toolbar and then 'Symbol' and you will find the symbol that you wish to use.
Good luck
Dansihdots
PS
I have copied and pasted the ones that I use most onto a word document and can find them quickly now.
-
Thanks for that info, danishdots. Most useful. I hadn't known about it.
I saw that I could create a shortcut for the one I want to use regularly.
It does away with having to press the num-lock on, then pressing the alt key and then pressing numbers 129 to get it. It is the ü.
My shortcut is a lot easier, but it didn't work on here as it isn't in Word, so I used the old way to get it to show to you.
Cheers
;)
-
This is a great thread, thanks to all for posting, very helpful
Freundliche Grüße
johnbhoy
-
Yes, very interesting to see how people approach this.
If anyone with a laptop wants to be able to use the ASCII characters with the numerical keyboard on the side, you can also get an external numerical keyboard to plug into one of your ports. It never works on the numbers across the top.
By far the easiest way, I find, is to use the Insert Symbol function in Word and then cut and paste, which is one of the methods suggested earlier.
Dawn M
-
If there is a particular second language you type in regularly, you can also simply download the keyboard driver for that language and toggle between the two as required. In the old days when Mac OS supported very few diacritics, the only way I could find of getting the Old English characters Þþ and Ðð was to download the Icelandic keyboard driver, which allocates a particular keystroke to those characters. In Mac OS 9 it was simply a case of clicking on the relevant flag at the top right of the screen to change layout; I haven't needed to do this in Windows or Mac OS X, so I'm not sure how it works there, but I can't imagine it's any more complicated than that.
The only issues are:
1. There's obviously a finite number of keys, so if you add a new character it has to be at the expense of something else, which you'll have to look up laboriously using the various methods given in this thread if you need it.
2. Some keyboard layouts do more than just replacing some little-used sign (such as §) with your foreign character of choice, and instead mess with the entire layout of the keyboard. The French keyboard, for example, begins AZERTY.
-
Turn your Numeral Lock on. Hold the Alt key down & type the numbers on the numeric key pad
é 130
ä 132
Ä 142
ö 148
Ö 153
ü 129
Ü 154
ß 225
€ 0128
-
Thanks for that, I usually open Word and add from symbols, then copy and paste. Your method is much quicker. If it's a longish sentence, I type it in English and then google translate. ;)
-
I just keep a copy of the Character Map accessory on the desktop so any symbol is quickly available no matter what program I'm using. 殼£åöþ.
-
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.