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Archiver > GEN-MEDIEVAL > 2000-01 > 0946859184


From: Stewart Baldwin< >
Subject: Typing special characters
Date: Mon, 03 Jan 2000 00:26:24 GMT


Since people who post to this newsgroup sometimes find it desirable to
type a special character of some sort (like an accented letter in
somebody's name) that is not a part of the standard keyboard, and
there has obviously been some confusion in the too-brief description
given so far, I am elaborating on how this can be done on Windows
machines. Of course, some shortcuts are available in certain
programs, but the method I am describing seems to work in a wide
variety of Windows programs. Each character has a code in the range
from 0 to 255, generally given in four digits (0000 to 0255) by adding
zeros at the front. The character can be typed by holding down the
"ALT" key (and keeping it held down) and then typing the four digit
code ON THE NUMERIC KEYPAD to the right of the keyboard (the number
keys at the top of the regular keyboard won't work for this), and then
releasing the "ALT" key after all four numbers have been pressed. So
that you don't have to try each one of the codes to see which code
gives which character, I have done that for you, and given the results
in the table at the end of this message. As usual, the left-to-right
spacing is important, so that you should use a constant-width font for
best results.

The codes from 0000 to 0031 either do not exist or are used for
special things like tabs and carriage returns. Both 0032 and 0160
give a space, and many of the codes just give a letter or other symbol
which can be typed in the usual way by pressing the obvious key. 0127
through 0129, 0141 through 0144, 0157, and 0158 either give a square
() or do not exist (at least on my keyboard), and have been
represented by spaces in the table below. In this table, the left
hand column shows the first three digits of the four digit code, and
the top shows the last digit, so, for example, typing ALT+0107 gives
the lowercase letter k (which appears in the 010 row and the 7 column
in the table).

A few caveats need to be mentioned. This should work on Windows 95/98
based machines which use an English keyboard, but there is no
guarantee that what I am describing would work on other systems (for
example, a Mac) or even with all programs in Windows 95/98. Also,
some software does funny things with special characters, so even if it
looks OK on your computer, there is no guarantee that the characters
are going to look right when somebody else reads it. I have seen
quite a few postings in which the context makes it clear that an
accented character was intended, but some sort of gibberish was
printed (usually an equal sign followed by two numbers or letters
which are apparently giving the code of the intended character in
hexadecimal). If the table below has come out as gibberish, then you
either have a system (or a news/mail reader) for which the method I
described will not work, or one of the computers did something funny
with the special characters between my computer and yours.

Of course, in a sensible internet universe, there would be some kind
of universal standard for coding characters that was used by
everybody, so that messages could be posted without wondering if some
software was going to change a special character, but we do not live
in such a universe (at least not yet). In any case, I hope that this
description is at least a little useful to those who have systems and
software similar to mine.

Stewart Baldwin

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
- ------------------------------------------
003x ! " # $ % & '
004x ( ) * + , - . / 0 1
005x 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 : ;
006x < = > ? @ A B C D E
007x F G H I J K L M N O
008x P Q R S T U V W X Y
009x Z [ \ ] ^ _ ` a b c
010x d e f g h i j k l m
011x n o p q r s t u v w
012x x y z { | } ~
013x
014x
015x
016x
017x
018x
019x
020x
021x
022x
023x
024x
025x

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