I have tried the alt + u thingy and nothing happens. Also I have tried the special characters viewer but the umlaut appears to the side of the letter 'i' instead of above it.
Can anyone help?
MacBook, Mac OS X (10.7.4)
To Peter Bries
No, I tried this before posting the query (see my full question) - absolutely nothing happens when I put in option u.
I know all the shortcuts for the accents etc. but this one doesn't work.
Thanks for trying.
Does this problem occur only in Pages, or all apps?
You can try it in Safari - with two fingers press option u, then release both keys, then type the i character.
Same problem? Type what occurs when you do that.
Jardange
Sind sie Deutsch?
The method is different on the German keyboard as the keys are physically laid out differently, you would need to ask at a local Apple Store or AppleCare support. I don't have a German keyboard to play with.
Peter
Crikey, that keyboard looks well scary, Peter!
I found the answer was really simple but I bet a lot of us umlaut-hunters don't know it.
I just did what Tom Gewecke suggested and was amazed. I held the i key down a little longer than I normally would and a whole raft of alternate i's with accents of all sorts popped up to choose from! No more holding down two keys together for me ... I was amazed.
But many thanks for trying to help me sort this ... people like you are invaluable to people like me.
Tom - that's brilliant!!! I have never seen that tip of holding the vowel key down a little longer anywhere .
It is so simple, such an elegant solution ... why don't Apple tell us?
Everybody I have asked so far always says option u ... this thread is going to be soooo useful to a lot of folk.
Many thanks for tâking the tïme to tålk to mé, yõū are vèry kind.
Yes, it is a bit puzzling ... especially as all the other option + whatevers worked ... just not the umlaut.
Even so I am thrilled to bits with the solution and it really does not seem like a work around ... more like a 'meant to be'. 🙂
System Preferences > Language & Text > Input Sources
Check the "US" keyboard - make it look like this
Don't you get a pop up menu with umlauted versions whenever you hold down a vowel key for a bit?
In character viewer, use the Combining umlauted in the 0300+ range.
This is the differences with the German keyboard that I have been able to discover:
http://www.aufgehts.com/sup_Germankeyboard.html#AddMac
Peter
Type option u to get the umlaut, then the vowel, so to get ï it is option u then the i.
Try it with all the vowels: ä, ë, ï, ö, ü
Peter
To John Galt
I have tried this with UK, US and German - none of them work. All the other shortcuts for accent codes work but not the umlaut for some reason.
Thanks John, as you can see Tom Gewecke sorted this problem and the answer was so simple. Am putting accents all over the place I am so thrilled.
I much appreciate you taking time to help though ...
You're welcome - I wish we could determine the reason option u does not do what's expected, but I'm glad you found a workaround.
How can I make an umlaut above an ‘i' (as in naive)?
