[OS X TeX] Umlauts won't print

Sat Sep 26 17:50:11 CEST 2015

> On Sep 26, 2015, at 10:34 AM, Manuel <libros2 at limay.de> wrote:
> 
> 
> 
> Am 26/9/15 um 13:38 schrieb Herbert Schulz:
>>> On Sep 26, 2015, at 6:02 AM, Manuel <libros2 at limay.de> wrote:
>>> 
>>> Doris,
>>> 
>>> I used to use a U.S. Extended because they didn't have a spanish one, and it turned to be for the best. I still miss it  - it broke. Now I don't know what precisely you mean by normal but maybe it is that one. But for sure, it is most convenient to typewrite umlauts directly: you save 50% time each time.
>>> 
>>> When using
>>> 
>>> \usepackage[ngerman]{babel}
>>> 
>>> I get an error message (but for some reason I can't copy it to paste it here) so for the time being I work with german.
>>> 
>>> Any thoughts on my question about shorttoc?
>>> 
>>> Since I posted that, 35 hours ago, yours is the only message received, indeed I am not getting anything else, say, from other peolpe on other topics. As you are probably thinking right now, there is something I am doing wrong without knowing.
>>> 
>>> I have this terrible thought of a host of TeXShop experts writing to help me and me not responding. I hate to seem discourteous.
>>> 
>>> Manuel
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> Am 26/9/15 um 9:03 schrieb Doris Behrendt:
>>>> manuel,
>>>> 
>>>> one more thing:
>>>> 
>>>> i don’t use a german keyboard because its no good for coding and texing;
>>>> i just use the >>normal<< keyboard,
>>>> then when typing >>ä<< i use opt+u+a
>>>> for >>ü<< just try opt+u+u
>>>> for ß you can use opt+s
>>>> 
>>>> and in the texsource I use the already mentioned >>ngerman<<-option and stay with 7bit ascii by producing >>ä<< with >>”a<<, >>ü<< with >>”u<<, >>ß<< with >>”s<< so I don’t need the package >>inputenc<< at all
>>>> 
>>>> doris
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>>> On 23 Sep 2015, at 08:23, Manuel <libros2 at limay.de> wrote:
>>>>> 
>>>>> Thank you, i will try.
>>>>> 
>>>>> Am 23/9/15 um 8:04 schrieb Doris Behrendt:
>>>>>> I think ist enough to give the Option once, so Babel without ... Not sure can't Try ... am at work no macs  here :-)
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> Sent from my iPad
>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> On 23 Sep 2015, at 07:25, Manuel <libros2 at limay.de> wrote:
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> With this two changes in the preamble, Doris?
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> \documentclass[article,ngerman, twoside,a4paper]{memoir}
>>>>>>> \usepackage[applemac]{inputenc}
>>>>>>> \usepackage[ngerman]{babel}
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> Thank you,
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> Manuel
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>> Am 23/9/15 um 6:55 schrieb Doris Behrendt:
>>>>>>>> Manuel,
>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>> first, I advise using _new_german, that ist >>ngerman<<, since german orthography has changed a little bit some years ago;
>>>>>>>> then I would try to give the option in the documentclass-line:
>>>>>>>> \doc…class[article,ngerman…]{memoir}
>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>> and then also mind the encoding, which was mentioned by others
>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>> doris
>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>> On 22 Sep 2015, at 20:39, Manuel <libros2 at limay.de> wrote:
>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>> Good morning. I am working with TexShop 3.52 under OS 10.10.5. Since I upgraded and updated, my old documents are giving me trouble. With this preamble:
>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>> \documentclass[article,twoside,a4paper]{memoir}
>>>>>>>>> \usepackage[applemac]{inputenc}
>>>>>>>>> \usepackage[german]{babel}
>>>>>>>>> \usepackage{graphicx}
>>>>>>>>> \usepackage{booktabs}
>>>>>>>>> \usepackage{amsmath}
>>>>>>>>> \usepackage{memhfixc}
>>>>>>>>> \usepackage{pdfsync}
>>>>>>>>> \usepackage{wrapfig}
>>>>>>>>> \settocdepth{subsection}
>>>>>>>>> \pagestyle{plain}
>>>>>>>>> \begin{document}
>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>> letters with umlauts either do not appear (oddly enough, not even in the source) or do so in a variety of apparently arbitrarily forms like ~n instead o ñ, É instead of é and I hope this will show correctly in this mail. I looked for but did not find a solution. Probably the magic words have changed. Is there any helping wizard?
>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>> Thanks,
>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>> Manuel
>>>>>>>>> 
>> Howdy,
>> 
>> I thought you said the problem was fixed.
>> 
>> Maybe I should explain file/input encoding a bit. Characters in a text file are represented by numbers (the only thing a computer really understands) in the saved text file. The set of numbers associated with a given set of characters is called an encoding. Essentially all encodings take the 128 characters represented in the ASCII encoding as the base but that doesn't contain any accented characters (e.g. ü) in the list. Unfortunately there are multiple extensions to ASCII that extend the list to 256 characters (i.e., ü is represented by a different number in the different extensions) so the Editor needs to `know' which of these extensions (encodings) to use. If you open the file with the wrong encoding what was a ü in one encoding comes out to be some garbage character, as far as you are concerned, in another encoding. Not only that, if you change the file while it's in this state and then save it the encoding will change. Finally, if you are using anything beyond basic ASCII, TeX needs to `know' what encoding the file is using so when it finds a given number it associates it with the correct character to send to the .pdf file it creates; if the wrong encoding is being used you'll get garbage characters (or nothing if that character doesn't exist in the given font.
>> 
>> Do what I explained to make sure you can open the file with the correct encoding in TeXShop.
>> 
>> Some notes:
>> 
>> 1)Don't use the pdfsync package since synctex, which is built into (lua/xe/pdf)tex, works much better and that package tends to change page layout.
>> 
>> 2)Do use a font that has the extended characters as part of the font rather than constructing the characters on the fly. To do that with a Computer Modern font look use
>> 
>> \usepackage{lmodern}
>> \usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
>> \usepackage{textcomp}
>> 
>> to use the Latin Modern fonts.
>> 
>> Good Luck,
>> 
>> Herb Schulz
>> (herbs at wideopenwest dot com)
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
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> 
> Herb, I included
> 
> \usepackage{lmodern}
> \usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
> \usepackage{textcomp}
> 
> in the preamble but withouh taking out
> 
> \usepackage[applemac]{inputenc}
> 
> 
> otherwise it wouldn't compile. In regard to synctex, I understand that I just
> 
> %\usepackage{pdfsync}
> 
> without replacing it with anything else because synctex ist built into the system and will provide the services otherwise expected of the pdfsync package.
> 
> However, I still can't replace
> 
> \usepackage[german]{babel}
> 
> with
> 
> \usepackage[ngerman]{babel}
> 
> because it produces an error message.
> 
> Greetings,
> 
> Manuel

Howdy,

Yes, you still need

\usepackage[applemac]{inputenc}

so that (lua/xe/pdf)latex `knows' what numbers are associated with what characters. The lines

\usepackage{lmodern}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage{textcomp}

are used to use a font that has actual accented characters rather than having to build them out of parts.

I don't have any familiarity with the use of babel. But it seems that this file must be fairly old (since it still used the pdfsync package) and I wonder if there is a problem there. What kind of error messages do you get when you try to use ngerman?

Good Luck,

Herb Schulz
(herbs at wideopenwest dot com)