The present invention relates to an actuating device for selecting shift stages of a vehicle transmission with shift-by-wire actuation. The actuating device has a touch screen having at least one display section for displaying a selectable shift stage and a contact section to select the displayed shift stage. The actuating device is characterized in that the display section and the contact section form a common display and contact section, and that the touch screen comprises a confirmation section which is adjacent to the display and touch section for displaying the selected shift stage, and is coupled to the display and touch section such that by a contacting sweep of the touch screen from the display and contact section to the confirmation section a displayed selectable shift stage can be selected for effective switching position of the change gear.