The iPad's onscreen keyboard is incredibly versatile, supporting more than 20 different languages. Sometimes you don't need a whole different keyboard alphabet, though you may just need to be able to spell François or Mötley Crue.
To insert special characters, just hold down the base letter for a couple seconds (for example, to get ö, hold down the 'o' key) and you'll see a menu of special characters pop up. Slide your finger to the right one, let go, and it will appear. The special characters work for both standard letters and capitals.

This technique also works with the ".com" key that you see when typing in a web address in Safari. Hold it down and you'll get options for .org, .net, and .edu and dependant on the keyboard and language set other options such as .co.uk.
Special Character Keys on the iPad (May differ for different languages / keyboards).
| Letter | Special Characters | Numbers & Symbols | Special Characters | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| a | à á â ä æ ã å ā | 0 | ° | |
| c | ç ć č | - | — • | |
| e | é è ê ë ę ė ē | £ or $ | € $ £ ¥ ₩ | |
| i | ī į í ì ï î | & | § | |
| l | ł | " | “ ” „ « » | |
| n | ñ ń | . | … | |
| o | ō ø œ õ ó ò ö ô | ? | ¿ | |
| s | ß ś š | ! | ¡ | |
| u | ū ú ù ü û | ' | ` ‘ ’ | |
| w | ŵ | % | ‰ | |
| y | ŷ ÿ | .com | .org .net .edu + more | |
| z | ź ž ż |