Swiss keyboard: typing capital umlauts correctly
The Swiss keyboard has no dedicated keys for Ö, Ä and Ü — here’s how to type the capital umlauts correctly anyway.
The Swiss Standards Association (SNV) defined its own keyboard layout that works across all language regions (SN 074021:1999).
The lowercase umlauts ö, ä and ü sit on the right side of the keyboard and are typed with the little finger of the right hand. The lowercase ö sits in the home row under the right pinky. The lowercase ü and ä are reachable via a short reach of the right pinky (adjacent key).
If you press the keys ö, ä or ü with the Shift key, you don’t get the corresponding capital letters but the characters é, à and è. This makes typing across language regions easier.
The corresponding capital letters Ö, Ä and Ü therefore cannot be typed by simply using the Shift key. The characters are rare but still needed.
Technically there are two ways to write a capital umlaut.
A) Standard variant: Caps-Lock key: [Caps-Lock] → [ö] → [Caps-Lock] — RECOMMENDED!
B) Uncommon variant: dead-key umlaut: [¨] → [Shift] → [O] — NOT RECOMMENDED!
A) Standard variant — RECOMMENDED!
Key sequence for Ö: [Caps-Lock] → [ö/ä/ü] → [Caps-Lock]. This solution is recommended for several reasons:
- The Caps-Lock key needs only a short reach.
- The capital Ö phonetically corresponds to the lowercase ö — better automation.
- Only two distinct keys are needed.
- All keys are pressed one after another.
- All letter strokes on one finger, Caps-Lock with the other hand.
B) Ö, Ä and Ü via the dead-key umlaut — NOT RECOMMENDED!
Key sequence for Ö: [¨] → [Shift] → [O]
This solution is not advisable for several reasons:
- The dead-key umlaut [¨] needs a very long reach across two keys.
- The capital Ö corresponds phonetically to the lowercase ö, not to O.
- Three distinct keys are needed — automation is hardly possible.
- Two keys must be pressed one after another, two simultaneously.
The dead-key method is methodologically and technically not advisable! It is not the Typewriter standard (and isn’t supported by all browsers).
