Umlauts, special letters - problem with El Capitan?

Jeff,

Have you attempted doing a SMC reset? If not and you don't know how please look over iMac SMC and PRAM reset and reset the SMC 2-3 times and then retest.

Hello Jeff,

I suggest learning the original escape key combinations. You can turn on the keyboard menu popover to see what they will be as you hold down option and shift. The new, press-and-old iOS style has always been flaky. It comes and goes. I'm sure it will return at some point.

GloverJS wrote:

I have lost the ability to write umlauts and other special characters from my bluetooth US-keyboard.

This is not uncommon when updating.

Try adding a french or spanish keyboard to your list in system prefs/keyboard/input sources and then restarting.

I use Umlauts quite often; I have always used this method:

press Option and the 'u' key > press the a, o, or u key you need and it will appear with an umlaut: ä, ö, ü.

None of the above worked for me, but this did:

System Preferences -> Keyboard -> set “Delay Until Repeat” to Long, then press and hold vowel for options.