Foreign characters

[evtate]

I'm entering lyrics in German, and need to add umlauts on some vowels. How can I do it? At the moment, I'm using whatever is the default font for lyrics.

[Peter Thomsen]

Windows or Mac OS X?

[miker]

If Windows, see "Foreign Languages in Finale (Windows)" at http://www.specialmillwork.com/finaletips.htm If you have a Mac, Peter will answer you!

[evtate]

Sorry, I should have said: it's Finale PrintMusic 2011 on a Windows laptop.

Thanks for the pointer to that website; it looks like a great resource. I tried the first tip for inserting special characters; it's cumbersome but works. I'll try playing around with the other tips in that file.

Mostly unrelated note: one of the mentioned shortcuts in that file says to enter numbers on the numeric keypad. I'm running on a laptop that doesn't have a separate numeric keypad, so these tricks (and other shortcuts in the Finale documentation that say to use the numeric keypad) don't work. Is there a general workaround for PCs without a numeric keypad?

[miker]

Go buy one. A USB numberpad is very inexpensive.

Also, laptops generally have a method of using keys on the right side of the keyboard as a numpad. Check your documentation.

[evtate]

Duh, I didn't know such a thing exists. Sounds like the right answer. Thanks!

[Warren Barnett]

Go buy one. A USB numberpad is very inexpensive.

Also, laptops generally have a method of using keys on the right side of the keyboard as a numpad. Check your documentation.

I always thought that as well, until I picked up an inexpensive laptop a few months ago. No number pad configureation at all. I was quite surprised. Instead, I bought a USB numberpad just for Finale entry.

[miker]

Note I said "generally."

[evtate]

I've just checked on a forum for my laptop (Lenovo ThinkPad Edge), since this issue wasn't covered in the laptop documentation. Turns out that, like Warren's, my particular model has no way to replicate a numeric keypad with standard keys. So it's a USB number pad for me.