Making International Characters on the Mac As we prepare to move we're learning German. And we bought a new MacBook so we have a computer in Zürich. It took me some time to figure out how to get umlauts on the letters though. On a PC it's very easy -- you just hit Alt+ some random 4-digit code you look up. I figured there was an easier way on the Mac (there always seems to be) but Mac Help is terrible. But the InterTubes came to the rescue and it turns out to be simple. Alt+u+letter. Nice.