How does one enter a control character, like the escape character?

[Guest]

I have been trying to use Windows Help to find out how to use the keyboard to
enter an escape character into a text file. Any experience with this one?

 

[Bob I]

You mean Alt+027 from the keypad?

 

[Guest]

Bob,
I suppose i need to read what the exact keystrokes are. I tried ALT 027 but
nothing appears afterwards.

 

[Bob I]

Perhaps explaining what it is you are attempting to accomplish would go
further than "piecing" it along one question/keystoke at a time?

 

[Dan Seur]

According to Start/Help/"Using printer control codes" -
to enter the (hex) ESC character, type <1B> including the brackets.

 

[Guest]

I send a text string to a printer. The commands and data are separated by the
escape character. If I copy and modify an existing string (using Notepad) the
escape character (displayed as a square) is copied along with the commands
and data but if i want to create a new text file, it is entering the escape
character that has me stymied. I have seen in Help what the hex, decimal, and
ASCII equivalents are but i can't seem to find the right keyboard strokes to
make that escape character "square" appear in the text. Thanks for your help,
Bob I.

 

[Dan Seur]

That "square" is simply used to indicate an unprintable character. Use
notepad to open any exe or dll to confirm.

Perhaps you'll save time if you simply copy/paste the good ESC char into
a notepad file and keep that file handy for future copy/paste use.

 

[Bob I]

Dan Seur has provided one method, and another is to use "EDIT.COM" to
create the file. "Start, Run, Edit C:\newfile.txt" as example. Type in
your printer commands (CTRL P to insert ctrl chars like ESC)

Hope this sorts it for you.

 

[Guest]

Thanks for all the help, guys. I'll try both methods...