Those who do not have a keyboard with easy access to German letters have different options for writing those letters on their computer. Finding the letters through a word processor can work, but is tedious. Replacing the letters with their appropriate translitterations is valid, but can lead to confusion, as some German names use the same letter combinations; Göring can be spelled Goering, but Goebbels can't be spelled Göbbels.
Using keyboard shortcuts makes it easy to writing German letters. The shortcuts used are different on Windows and a Mac.
On Windows, [Alt] is held down, while entering a number code:
- Ä: 0196
- ä: 0228
- Ö: 0214
- ö: 0246
- Ü: 0220
- ü: 0252
- ß: 0223
On a Mac, for Umlaut letters, [Option]+[U] is pressed first, followed by the appropriate letter:
- Ä: [Option]+[U], [Shift]+[A]
- ä: [Option]+[U], [A]
- Ö: [Option]+[U], [Shift]+[O]
- ö: [Option]+[U], [O]
- Ü: [Option]+[U], [Shift]+[U]
- ü: [Option]+[U], [U]
The ß is written as [Option]+[S].