BleepingComputer.com: Alt Codes

I would like to find a definitive Alt Code Chart. Occasionally, I find myself needing to type a special character into a text box and having the dilemma of whether to guess it, perform a google search or go to insert symbol in windows. I would choose google search everytime but I am yet to find a really decent alt code chart. They often have slight differences or are limited.

The best I've come across so far is accurate but limited to Alt + 254:
http://www.tedmontgomery.com/tutorial/altchrc.html

Does anyone have or know of a really good resource for these?

For those of you that don't know, if you hold alt and type numbers on the keypad, you can get a whole host of special characters including the normal ASCII range (A-Z, a-z, 0-9, punctuation etc.) for example Alt + 123 gives you the character {

Can anyone also explain how the codes work in detail, for example Alt + 789 = §, Alt + 456 = ╚, Alt + 123 { but Alt + 789456123 = ¹
which you obviously can get in an earlier sequence (Alt + 251).
At what point do they repeat the characters?

It seems to depend on what program you are using as well, on my version of Word for instance, if I press Alt and mash the numberpad for a while it gives me Chinese characters!

http://www.usefulshortcuts.com/alt-codes/ has a printable .pdf format code chart, broken down by category of use. Click the red link if you don't want updates. http://www.usefulshortcuts.com/alt-codes/c...f-alt-codes.php

I always wondered how to make those strange symbols. Thanks Animal!

yeah cant say as I ever knew either. thanks! I learned something new today.

Beyond the agreed characters up to ASCII 127, it varies depending on the font. You can examine the extended character set provided by each font using the Character Map utility:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315684

For maximum information check the Advanced view box.

This post has been edited by Platypus: 14 March 2009 - 06:30 AM

Yup, run Character Map (it’s in Start->Programs->Accessories->System Tools; or Start->Run->charmap.exe).

You can use it to peruse the various fonts installed on your system. You can also copy characters from it to be pasted elsewhere.

As for charts, there are two main ones for English systems. There’s the one that DOS uses, and is what you get when you press something like Alt-1-7-8 (one of the shading characters as seen on that that chart linked to in the first post). Windows uses a different character map for it’s main use, which is what you get when you press Alt-0-1-7-8 (²). Make sure you press (or don’t press as the situation requires), 0 before the number.

Languages other than English have their own maps, so there are way too many to just print out and use. Besides, take a look at Character Map using the default Arial Unicode MS font. There are thousands of characters in it. A double-wide character set can have up to 65,536 characters in it, and there are even bigger ones out there (since even 64K isn’t enough for all the glyphs of all the languages, and symbols in the world). Do you really want a chart that big?

Oh, and yes, you’re right about it depending on the program because they have different font support. For example, you can’t just paste a Greek letter into Notepad unless you specifically change it to a Unicode font, or else it will render as a box, but you can paste it into a web browser or Wordpad, and it will automatically adjust (auto, multiple font selection).


HTH

Cool tip. Thanks