From: Stephen Hemingway<P>

Hi Thomas,<P>

For my money, the easiest way is to add the US International Keyboard
(control panel->regional and language settings->keyboards->add a
keyboard->scroll down to US keyboards->choose US International. More
details at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/306560.
<P>


You can setup a hot key combo to switch between US and US
International keyboards in the 3rd tab on that page. You also get a
'language bar' that you can manipulate with a mouse to choose
keyboards.
<P>

The keyboard is pretty easy to use. For umlauts you just hit " (double
quote mark), which is a 'dead key'. If you follow it with a letter
like 'e' you get the umlaut. Any key that gives a base letter that
doesn't take an umlaut (consonants and punctuation) just give you the
bare quote.
<P>

I am not in the US, but in the UK where a horrible broken keyboard is
in general use which allows us to type $ and [pound] without having to
use strange shift chords. I always try to make sure I get a proper US
keyboard as then I can use US International as an alt keyboard which
gives access to virtually all the accented characters I could wish
for.
<P>

Steve.