Writing letters using umlauts and special characters. To get the dots over the "a,e,o,u" or a roof over an "a" or a curling tail on a "c", use the Special Character Map on your computer. It may be best to have a 3x5 card and pencil handy to write them down. (note: > means then click on..) Click on "Start" >help >index Then type in sp Highlight special character>display>click here The computer screen should now show a chart of the special characters. Make sure the FONT is Arial, Times Roman, Courier. Wigding won't work. The bottom two rows are for UPPER and LOWER case letters. Click on one of the letters and see what is in the right hand corner of the chart. It should read ALT+ followed by 4 numbers. Example: ä - ALT+0228; ö - ALT+0246 So, while holding down the ALT key, and using the NUMERIC Keypad on the right side of your keyboard, type in 0228 to get the ä, etc.... So you won't have to look it up every time, use the 3x5 card to write them down and place it by your computer. Happy Hunting. Tony in Louisiana