Alt code: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 09:49, 22 July 2006

Revision as of 09:19, 25 July 2006

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== Usage ==

* In [[Microsoft Windows]], symbols and accented characters not found on the keyboard are inserted by holding down the ''Alt'' key and typing a number(s) on the [[numeric keypad]];, see [[Windows Alt keycodes]]. Numbers that are used with the ''Alt'' key to generate a character, represents the Decimal numeric entity code, [[Wordpad]] editor can be used to generate characters from many Unicode blocks. Notepad, [[Internet Explorer|IE]] doesn't support typing in decimal entity values more than 256. Characters are stored on your computer as numbers;, each letter or symbol is represented by a number. To make sure that text looks the same on all computers, there is a standard called [[Unicode]] that defines which numbers are mapped to which characters. Due to the number of alphabets in the world, Unicode defines tens of thousands of characters.

* A variant of alt codes are Alt-X codes; can be applied in [[WordPad]] and [[Microsoft Word]] 2002/2003 for Windows, the keystroke <code>Alt + x</code> will convert a hexadecimal number to the corresponding character; see [[Unicode#Input methods|Unicode input methods]], [[Windows Alt keycodes]]. Notepad, [[Internet Explorer|IE]] does not support this feature.

* The [[Linux]] [[console]] supports Alt codes using the same method as with Windows. In VIM editor, first type <code>Ctrl-V u</code>, then type in the hexadecimal number of the symbol or character that you want, it will be converted into the symbol.

* In Mac OS X and in Mac OS 8.5 and later: hold down the [[Option key]], and type the four digit [[Hexadecimal|hex]] Unicode code point, release Option key, equivalent character will appear.

== Other input methods ==