Want to use the German characters äöüß in your texts?

Question

Here is how you do it on a standard British QWERTY keyboard using Microsoft Windows programs:
Ensure the 'Num Lock' is off, press and hold the 'Alt' key, and type the following numbers using the numbers keypad to produce the following German characters:

Ä = 0196
ä = 0228
Ö = 0214
ö = 0246
Ü = 0220
ü = 0252
ß = 0223

Correction to the above:
Ensure the 'Num Lock' is ON.

Answer 1

It works fine here and I am using a Malaysian keyboard:

Ä
ä
Ö
ö
Ü
ü
ß

Maybe the people who tried it earlier were confused about NUM Lock on or off.

Answer 2

Thanks for the tip, but when I press alt, nothing happens when I type.

0196ÄÖüÜïöäß.
Voila. I never did get it to work even without the (num lk) off.
On my laptop I went to start/ all programs/ accessories/
character map / and then copy and paste the letters I needed.

Answer 3

Thanks for the shortcut! My wife speaks German, so I'll show her this. Up til now, she's been using Word's "Insert" feature, then cutting and pasting, or adding an "e" after the vowel, instead of the umlaut. Hmm...does it work here? I just tried it to type "Blue Oyster Cult"! lol It didn't do anything...???

Answer 4

Just get an international keyboard and you get even more letters, spanish letters, etc...it's then very simple and easy to remember just using the keyybord itself, type the letter then the accents: ç é è ê ë ù à ô û â ä ï ö ü î ñ õ.......Voilà! Practical for "le français".

Answer 5

Thanks for that. I have a German friend who I email from time to time. As she speaks fluent English I feel I should make the effort to speak a little German. I think its just a question of courtesy.