How do I type alphabets like these : ä, ß, ü, with my keyboard?

There are many ways to type them.

If you are using a Windows machine, I recommend downloading and installing AllChars.exe from http://allchars.zwolnet.com/ which I have been using for years.

CTRL a " produces ä.

CTRL s s produces ß.

CTRL u " produces ü.

And so on. I find this the most intuitive method.

You can also switch to a different keyboard layout or enter text in other languages by changing keyboard drivers. However, the key labels may no longer match the characters you are entering. Use “Regional and Language Options” in Control Panel for changing languages and keyboard layouts. You can either download the German keyboard or the US International Keyboard and switch between them and your regular keyboard driver as you wish.

You can also create your own keyboard driver and set the keys strokes to any character you want. The Microsoft Keyboard Layout Creator from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/goglobal/bb964665.... is adequate. There are other keyboard layout creators that cost but which are more powerful. See http://www.alanwood.net/unicode/utilities.html .

The Alt key method is the least useful. You have to learn a not particularly memorable number for each character.

For example, ä is either Alt 132 or Alt 0228, ß is either Alt 225 or Alt 0223, ü is either Alt 129 or Alt 0252.

You make sure that Num Lock is on. Then press down the left Alt key, type the number for the character on the numeric keypad, then release the left Alt key. The character will appear. The right Alt key also works on many systems.

As to which numbers to type, they are the numbers associated with the characters in your current DOS character set or your current Windows character set. If your machine is set up for English, your DOS character set will be either Code Page 437 ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_page_437 ) or Code Page 850 ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_page_850 ). Your Windows code page will be Code Page 1252 ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows-1252 ). If you just type the number this method will provide the character with that number in your DOS code page. If you type the number preceded by 0, this method will provide the character with that number in your Windows code page.

If your are attempting this on a laptop, you will have to emulate the numeric keypad, usually be using the FN key. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fn_key .

You use the ALT keys thing.

It's confusing....there's a certain code of numbers that you type in on the Number Pad holding down the ALT key. I'm not sure what all of them are but you can GooGle Search it.

When your on Microsoft Window there will be a button on top that says symbol and it will have those letters in there as well as a lot of different letters and symbols.