Alt code: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 15:42, 24 June 2025

Revision as of 00:56, 25 June 2025

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* The familiar Alt+### combination (where ### is from 0 to 255) retains the old [[MS-DOS]] behavior, i.e., generates characters from the legacy code pages now called "[[Windows code page#OEM code page|OEM code pages]]." For instance, the combination {{key press|Alt}}+{{key press|1}}{{key press|6}}{{key press|3}} would result in {{char|ú}} (Latin letter u with [[acute accent]]) which is at 163 in the OEM code page of CP437 or CP850.<ref name="WindowsAltAlgo" /> This did not work for characters not in the Windows Code Page (such as box-drawing characters).

* The new Alt+0### combination (which prefixes a zero to each Alt code), produces characters from the newer [[Windows code page#ANSI code page|Windows code pages]].{{efn|Microsoft initially referred to them as "ANSI" code pages, but later acknowledged that this as a misnomer.}} of the current active input language. For example, {{key press|Alt}}+{{key press|0}}{{key press|1}}{{key press|6}}{{key press|3}} yields the character {{char|£}} (symbol for the [[pound sterling]]) which is at 163 in CP1252.<ref name="WindowsAltAlgo">{{Cite web |date=2016-07-22 |title=To input characters that are not on your keyboard |url=http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/lang_char_code_input.mspx |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160722031546/http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/lang_char_code_input.mspx?mfr=true |archive-date=2016-07-22 |access-date=2022-12-30 |website=Microsoft }}</ref>{{efn|But ifFor theexample, user{{key has,press|Alt}}+{{key forpress|0}}{{key example,press|1}}{{key Russianpress|6}}{{key keyboardpress|3}} active, thenyields the codecharacter page [[CP1251]]{{char|£}} (Cyrillic)symbol is used, wherefor the symbol at codepoint 163 is [[Jepound (Cyrillic)sterling]] (Ј), itwhich is thisat and163 notin £ that will be displayedCP1252.}}

* Users could change either or both of these code pages, in which case the numbers produced different characters. For instance if the Windows Code Page [[CP1251]] (Cyrillic) is active, {{key press|Alt}}+{{key press|0}}{{key press|1}}{{key press|6}}{{key press|3}} produces [[Je (Cyrillic)]] (Ј).

==Unicode==