Alt key symbols

[Jeff Stanton]

I'm trying to produce the "degree" symbol, using Alt+0176. I have a laptop
without a numeric keypad, and when I try this I get nothing. Is there some
other trick I need to know?
Jeff

 

[Jim]

I'm trying to produce the "degree" symbol, using Alt+0176. I have a laptop
without a numeric keypad, and when I try this I get nothing. Is there some
other trick I need to know?
Jeff

The function key normally gives the numeric keyboard .

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

I'm trying to produce the "degree" symbol, using Alt+0176. I have a laptop
without a numeric keypad, and when I try this I get nothing. Is there some
other trick I need to know?
Jeff

There's a much better way than using Alt + some number.

I use a little freeware background program called AllChars. This lets
me type many common special characters (many of these are used in
other languages) by pressing the ctrl key followed by a two character
mnemonic combination.

For example, for ñ the two characters are ~ and n. For ç it's c and ,
For ü it's u and "

And for ° the two characters are . and 0


Go to http://allchars.zwolnet.com/

 

[Big_Al]

Jeff Stanton said this on 8/2/2009 9:41 AM:

I'm trying to produce the "degree" symbol, using Alt+0176. I have a laptop
without a numeric keypad, and when I try this I get nothing. Is there some
other trick I need to know?
Jeff

Its a bit awkward, but you can open "character map" in accessories.
You pick the character you want and copy it to the clipboard then paste
into your text.
Again, its a bit awkward, but it works. Make sure you pick the same font
in charmap.

 

[Jeff Stanton]

OK, I must be ignorant. I downloaded allchars and installed it on my laptop.
When I try it, absolutely nothing happens, except that the two character I
type are printed exactly as I type them. The Ctrl key appears to have no
function here.
Am I dull, or what?
Jeff

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

OK, I must be ignorant. I downloaded allchars and installed it on my laptop.
When I try it, absolutely nothing happens, except that the two character I
type are printed exactly as I type them. The Ctrl key appears to have no
function here.
Am I dull, or what?

Installing it isn't sufficient. You also have to run it. I have it
running here all the time; it uses hardly any memory and hardly any
CPU cycles. I recommend running it from your startup folder.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Jeff Stanton said this on 8/2/2009 9:41 AM:
Its a bit awkward, but you can open "character map" in accessories.
You pick the character you want and copy it to the clipboard then paste
into your text.
Again, its a bit awkward, but it works. Make sure you pick the same font
in charmap.

Yes, it's awkward. That's why I so strongly recommend Allchars. It
isn't awkward at all; it's extremely easy to use, and the keys to
press for each character are easy to remember.

 

[Twayne]

I'm trying to produce the "degree" symbol, using Alt+0176. I have a
laptop without a numeric keypad, and when I try this I get nothing.
Is there some other trick I need to know?
Jeff

Isn't there a set of keys on your laptop keyboard that also have numbers
on them? Often they're a slightly different color, too. You have to
press, usually, the Fn key to enable those number keys. If that doesn't
work, then check your paperwork; there IS a keyboard capability there.
Use Notepad or something to prove you're outputting numbers. Then try
the ALT sequence and see if it works. 0176 Is the correct sequence for
° (degrees).
I've never heard of a standard production laptop without a numeric
keypad capability within the standard QWERTY layout, so apparently what
you need to do is get the right keys to output numbers.

Another thing you could do is look into your character maps for the
degree symbol, and simply copy it to where you want to use it. Then
copy it to say a Notepad or Wordpad file for later retrieval and
recopying again. I use Verdana as my default font, and the ° symbol is
just about in the center of the first page of the Character Map window.
Note you can look in other maps too for the symbol; almost all of them
have it. You can even highlight, click Select and Copy if that's easier
for you to put into the paste buffer. The Symbols font has a lot of
greek and math symbols too if you're interested.
You can't change your character map from that particular table
without purposely trying to, so play around and see what's available to
you.
In Office or any application where you can choose fonts, you can
usually easily find symbols such as degree in the Insert Symbol menu,
too.

HTH,

Twayne`