Let's type Icelandic

So there you are – got a new horse and you find it has one of those Icelandic names that you cannot spell, pronounce or type. Well I cannot help you with the first two but here’s how to type the Icelandic characters on a standard, Windows, keyboard (this relies on a character set within Windows – 1252, so it’s not going to work on a Mac, Linux and so on. Some web pages may display just a little question mark in a black diamond – that’s a character setting error.

On a laptop you’ll have to faff around with function keys and the like if you have no numeric keypad

So, holding down the Alt key type the four numbers shown on the numeric keypad, NumLock may need to be on depending on your software – so if, for example, you are using FireFox and try to type the code for ö with NumLock off you’re going to get the browser offering to close on you.

Pretty soon you’ll be typing Hávarður frá Hávarðarkoti without thinking (OK – I cheated and used cut ‘n’ paste for that one)