Sweden Typing the letters Å, Ä, and Ö

Back to Sweden Portal Page►

Swedish has all the letters in the English alphabet, plus three extra that English does not use. They are the letters Å, Ä, and Ö. These three letters come after the letter Z.

Instructions for typing the Swedish letters Å, Ä, and Ö (Windows and MAC)
There are a few options to type the Swedish letters Å, Ä, and Ö into a program such as PAF, Temple Ready, a search field of a database, a word processing document or your e-mail. You can:


 * Activate the Swedish Keyboard (for all Microsoft operating systems).
 * Use the 10 pad, while holding down the Alt key and typing a code (for all Microsoft operating systems).
 * Copy and paste the Swedish letters Å, Ä, and Ö from another document that already has them.

1. Activate the Swedish Keyboard for Windows XP
a) Go to Start

b) Choose Settings

c) Choose Control Panel

d) Double Click Regional and Language Options In the window that opens, you will see 3 tabs. Choose Languages

e) This opens Text Services and input languages, click on Details…

f) This opens another window titled: Text Services and Input Languages, click on Add…

g) This opens Add Input Language, click on drop down window for the field Input language: Scroll down and click on Swedish and click OK

h) Click Apply, and then OK

i) Click Apply and OK again You might get a message saying that you need to put your Windows XP installation CD into the CD drive to install the file.

j) Close the Control Panel

Using the Swedish Keyboard in Windows
a) After activating the Swedish keyboard, you should see a little icon in the lower right hand corner of your screen that appears as an EN.

b) When you click on the EN a pop up list appears with the option of choosing English or Swedish. Choose Swedish. Now the EN icon has changed to SV.

c) As long as the little icon shows SV, you are using a Swedish keyboard. The Swedish keyboard provides the Å, Ä, and Ö as follows:

• Ö is the ;(or : ) key
You can type the upper case or lower case of each letter by using holding down the Shift key as usual. While the Swedish keyboard is activated, other keys have been rearranged as well.

2. Type the Å, Ä, and Ö using the 10 key pad and the Alt key.
When you want to type in a Swedish letter you hold down the Alt key and type a code into the 10 key pad. Once you release the Alt key, the letter will appear. The codes are:

Å is 143

å is 134

Ä is 142

ä is 132

Ö is 153

ö is 148

3. Copy and paste the Å, Ä, and Ö from another document.
a) This can be done by highlighting the letter, then with the mouse pointer on the highlighted text, do a right click on the mouse and choose copy (or hold down the Ctrl key while you type the letter c).

b) Move you mouse pointer to the location you want to paste. Click one time so the location curser is active. Right click on the mouse and choose paste (or hold down the Crtl key while you type the letter v).

Instructions for MAC
To get the umlaut above a letter: 1. Hold down the Option key, and type a u (the letter u). 2. Let go of the keys (don't hold them down for step 3). 3. Type the vowel over which you want the umlaut to appear.

Hold the Shift key down in step 3 Above. Option+A = å Shift+Option+A = Å

Option + u, then a = ä Option + u, then shift + A = Ä

Option + u, then o = ö Option + u, then shift + O = Ö