Können Sie Deutsch Schreiben? Typing German Accents and German Words

Typing German accents and German words is possible with a standard U.S. keyboard. This is especially useful if you do research on your German ancestor, write articles about World War II, or correspond with businesses or friends in Germany. Your keyboard can even handle special characters such as umlauts, through the following Windows procedures.

© 2011 by Aurelio Locsin

The fastest way of typing German accents and German words is to press the CTRL and SHIFT keys, the colon (:) key and the letter that requires the umlaut. For example, to type an “ä”, press the CTRL and SHIFT keys, the colon (:) and the letter “a.” This method only works in word processors or text boxes that accept special characters. For example, it works in WordPad and Microsoft Word, but not in NotePad. However, this method cannot create the Eszett (ß).

Another way of typing German accents and German words is to use ALT codes. You press the ALT key and while holding it down, one of the following numbers on the numeric keypad. (This will not work if you use the number keys on the first row of the alphanumeric keypad area.)

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

Activating the German Language Keyboard for Typing German Accents and German Words

If long documents require typing German accents and German words, you may prefer to temporarily turn your keyboard into the German version. This enables you to type German characters in Windows 7 with just one or two key presses.

1. Click the Start button and choose “Control Panel,” “Clock, Language and Region” and “Change Keyboards or Other Input Methods” under Region and Language. The Region and Language dialog box is displayed.

2. Click the “Keyboards and Languages” tab, if it is not already chosen. Click the “Change Keyboards” button to show the Text Services and Input Language dialog.

3. Click the “Add” button, if German does not show as an installed service. The “Add Input Language” dialog box is displayed.

4. Choose a language variant such as German (Germany), and a variety of the language underneath it, such as “German.”

5. Click the “OK” button to close the Add Input dialog box. The “DE” icon appears next to “German” in the Installed Services box. (This abbreviation stands for “Deutsch,” which is how the Germans call their language.) Click the “OK” button twice to close the Tex Services and Input Languages dialog box, and the Region and Language dialog box.

The “EN” icon for “English” is displayed on the right side of your taskbar. Click the icon and choose “DE (German)” to activate the German language keyboard.

The picture shows what keys to press for typing German accents and German words. For example, to enter “ä”, press the apostrophe (‘) key. To access the original showing on the key, press the ALT key and then the letter. For example, to type an apostrophe (‘), press the ALT key and then the apostrophe key.

You are now capable of typing German accents and German words in all situations.