Inserting German Characters in Pages

Hi Guys,

Just started out learning languages and in order to
do coursework, I obviously have to submit it in
German, so question being, how do I insert german
alphabet characters when using pages, I know on a
windows machine there are various hot-key actions
such as "amlaute" use "hold down alt key and on
keypad type 132, 142, 148, 153" etc. I have been thru
special characters as I believe you find them in
there. however tried to no avail, and even if so, how
to create hot key actions once found,

thanks in advance,
mcscooby

one option you might have is to go into your system preferences if you're using a Mac. Select international and under "Languages," select "German". Under formats, select "German' again. At the "Input Menu" you will see your keyboard options, click the "German" check box and you should be set. Once this is done, you can change your settings using the finder at the top of your screen, to change from, "US, or US Extended" keyboard formats to "German". If you select German, I hope you read and speak german well enough to understand the the keyboard settings. Hope this helps.

Using the German keyboard layout can be a hassle, as other characters are switched around as well. It has a raison d'être, if you work in Germany and will have to use German computers, but not while you're simply learning the language.

You should be able to use US, British or US extended as keyboard layout for example. You type umlauts with <alt>+u and then a, o or u. If you are into old spelling, you can also type scharfes ß with <alt>+s.

Hi there, you do have another option. I wouldn't change the language of the system, but when you go to the input menu put a check in front of German (it is easy enough to switch back and forth, nothing more than selecting a flag by the clock.) also put a check in front of the Keyboard Viewer and the Character Palette. This way when you switch to German you can activate the visual input guide to the German keyboard. This way you can learn to type German on a keyboard laid out like a German keyboard. If in the case of a whole document that needs a few characters you can always choose the Character Palette that has all the symbols. Drop your favorites into the favorite section to find the symbols you use more often, quickly.