Umlaut

luckat

How on earth do you get an umlaut on a Mac? I've looked online, and everyone says option-U and then the vowel, but option-U on my computer gives me u-fada (ú).

muggyog

OHHH I love when you talk German:)

You need to go into the System Preferences -->International -->Input menu and select German. If you tick the box at the bottom (Show input menu in menu bar) you will be able to change keyboards by selecting the country flag in the menu bar at the top of the screen.
While you are in Input menu, select keyboard viewer (at top of country list). This allows you to see where the 'funny' keys are.

Sad Professor

Can't figure out what the keyboard shortcut is either. Try going Edit menu > special characters and just inserting it. It's under accented latin I think.

luckat

Ja wol

Tails142

EDIT: I fail

KTRIC

You can one of mine - Ü

muggyog

Stad! Nä bhí däna.

Sad Professor

It seems option+u won't work on the Irish keyboard layout. If you need to use it a lot change the layout to British, it'll work then: ä

Or just use the Edit > Special Characters window and mark it as a favourite.

muggyog

Option+U wont work on an Irish keyboard because that key combination represents a ú, if you go to your German keyboard and type Option+U you get ¨ same with British keyboard, ¨. I've just done this by enabling all three languages in the input menu. If you also enable Keyboard Viewer and open it you will see what I mean.

You can mix and match easily by selecting correct flag in menu bar ( црфе дфтпгфпууйщ come on Russia! )

luckat

Change my keyboard to British? Nevaire will I wear the butcher's apron.

The Edit/Special Characters doesn't seem to be available in all apps. I could do the German keyboard change bit, but it's a bit kludgy, innit? You'd miss Key Caps.

Sad Professor

luckat wrote: »

The Edit/Special Characters doesn't seem to be available in all apps.

Turn on the layout input menu as muggyog described, there's a menu item called "show character palette" which is the same thing and is accessible at all times.

luckat

Couldn't find the Keyboard Viewer, unfortunately, or the 'show character palette', though I've enabled German.

Sad Professor

Have you got the input menu enabled?

muggyog

While you are in Input menu, select keyboard viewer (at top of country list). This allows you to see where the 'funny' keys are.

Looks like I'm going to have to explain this 'as Gaeilge'

luckat

How do you mean enabled? I went to International, then Input Menu, and added German to my current Irish. But I can't see the Keyboard Viewer - even though the Help menu also mentions checking its box.

I'm using Leopard - would Apple have got clever and removed Keyboard Viewer?

Sad Professor

In the input menu tab there's a box at the bottom called "show input menu." Check it. The character palette is in the menu.

muggyog

Féach ar na pictiuri seo

luckat

Not there; níl sí ann - Japanese Khana ach an oiread.

muggyog

Baseball bat time!!

Go to /System/Library/Components/KeyboardViewer.component. Control click the KeyboardViewer.component icon. In the pull down menu chose "Show Package contents". Go to /Contents/SharedSupport/. Open KeyboardViewerServer. This is the manual way to run Keyboard Viewer and since it is an app it should run from there. You can drag it to the Dock if you like.

Character Palette is also in /System/Library/Components/ in CharacterPalette.component package. When you get into the package it is called CharPaletteServer (in /Contents/SharedSupport/).

I have no idea why you cant do it in the normal way.
sionara

ZENER

Also most apps have the special characters option in the edit menu - gives you this: <see attached image>

ZEN

luckat

On my machine, that option isn't in the Edit menu in Firefox, Eudora or Word, the three apps I've looked at.

Sad Professor

Did you not find it in the input/flag menu?

muggyog

Special character option only applies to Apple native applications, its basically a shortcut to the Character Palette ( it works in safari, texteditor etc ).

Have you managed to manually run Keyboard Viewer or Character Palette as suggested? If not your OS is Ƒΰ☛ƙӔĎ.

luckat

I can't find either Keyboard Viewer or Character Palette.

Sad Professor

Try this:

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=307354

luckat

Thank you, Sad Prof, that looks like my case. I'll try it in the morning.

muggyog

Nice one Sad

luckat

Danke schone meine Herren und Damen

ü