Alt code

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On personal computers running the Microsoft Windows or DOS operating systems, additional characters to those available in the current keyboard layout can be typed using the Alt key in conjunction with the keyboard's numeric keypad. This technique is generally called a character code.

Unicode characters

The following method can be used on Microsoft Windows to enter any Unicode codepoint as a hexadecimal number:

• Set the registry key HKCU\Control Panel\Input Method\EnableHexNumpad to type REG_SZ and value 1 and reboot.
• Keep the Alt key pressed. Press the "+" key on the numeric keypad.
• With the Alt key still pressed, type the hexadecimal number using the numeric keypad for digits 0-9 and the normal keys for a-f. For example, type +11b to produce ě (e with caron).
• Release the Alt key to produce the character.

The same method can be used without changing the registry, but it will only work in Rich Edit controls (the text input widgets found in programs like WordPad), and it will interpret the code point as decimal, not hexadecimal.

Legacy (compatibility) methods

For compatibility with old (pre-Unicode) versions of Windows, characters from old, obsolete single-byte character sets can be entered by typing a decimal number while keeping Alt pressed. There are two obsolete character sets to choose from:

• If the number typed has a leading 0 (zero), the character set used is the ANSI code page that matches the current input locale. For most systems in North America and Western Europe, this is Windows-1252. For a complete list, see code page.
• If the number does not have a leading 0 (zero), compatibility with MS-DOS is invoked. The character set used is the MS-DOS code page for the current input locale. For most systems in North America, this is code page 437. In Western Europe, this is usually code page 850. For a complete list, see code page.

If Num Lock is disabled, attempting an Alt code may cause unexpected results in some applications. For example, Alt+4 can be taken as Alt+Left Arrow, causing a web browser to go back one page.

Many laptops do not have a separate numeric keypad; however, the Fn key can be used to turn certain keys into a numeric keypad.

See also

• Compose key for other operating systems
• Numeric character reference
• Unicode input
• Combining character

External links

• Alt Codes
• table of Microsoft Windows shortcuts for Latin-1 symbols at Project Gutenberg
• Multilingual Online Transliteration
• Windows Alt key numeric codes
• Alt codes

References