I'd like to be able to use a keyboard shortcut to type special characters (characters that can't be found on my keyboard) such as the £ (pound) symbol, which I can get on a keyboard with a number pad by typing Alt+0163. Unfortunately, on my netbook, I don't have a number pad.
How then do I get special characters, using the keyboard, without using charmap?
Often times, your netbook might have a function key which will change 7,8,9,U,I,O,J,K,L, and M into a number pad. You can use these to do Alt+ combinations. Alternatively, open the Character Map (Under Accessories in the start menu) to select individual characters.
I've been searching for weeks, and I finally figured out that I can enter the Unicode (not ASCII) code for a symbol, highlight it, and press Alt+X in Microsoft Word. To make it even faster, I created autocorrect entries to replace /b6 with ¶ and /a7 with §.
(I write for a judge, and I need to enter the above paragraph and section symbols 75 times each day. I run Windows 8 on a Lenovo Yoga 13 netbook (first computer without numpad), and I was lost without the Alt+numpad access to ASCII set until now!)
Reference: how do I insert ASCII characters without numeric key pad?
For web browsers, I just wrote a user script to address this for my own evil purposes, at least in Firefox with the Greasemonkey add-on and in Chrome with the Tampermonkey add-on.
GitHub page | Direct install | License
Unknown whether the script works in other browsers with Tampermonkey, but my guess is not fully. I might hack compatibility for other browsers if someone pays me enough.
With the script installed in your browser, Alt+number row combinations should work like Alt+NumPad would on a full-size keyboard. Additionally, Alt+x will translate the hexadecimal value preceding the text caret into a Unicode value, similar to MS Office.
Extended characters begin with a zero:
£ works with Alt+0163° works with Alt+0176² works with Alt+0178For values between 32 - 255 without a leading zero, glyphs are retrieved using an OEM codepage table (with generous but unconsenting help from the SheetJS project's codepage abstractions). The following examples are made with codepage=437 (en-US) defined in the user script:
Ω works with Alt+234 (no leading zero)∞ works with Alt+236 (no leading zero)£ works with Alt+156 (no leading zero)You can also type a hex value then hit Alt+x to perform the conversion. It works like MS Word, but with looser interpretation of the hex notation. My goal is that if you forget the proper way to activate an Alt+x sequence, just try something and it'll probably work as intended.
✓ results from typing 2713 then hitting Alt+x✓ also results from typing 0x2713 then hitting Alt+x✓ also results from typing \u2713 then hitting Alt+x✓ also results from typing U+2713 then hitting Alt+x✓ also results from typing 2713, highlighting it, then hitting Alt+x
In Windows 10 with May 2019 Update, you may also hit Windows logo key + . or ; which opens the emoji panel and then click the omega sign to switch to symbols:
M-J-K-L-U-I-O-7-8-9
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
MJ89 = ½ symbol
You could change your keyboard layout to United States–International. It takes a little getting used to, but not so much as I had thought. Then you would make the £ symbol by depressing 4 (not on the number pad) + Shift + Right Alt. Also, if you type diacritical marks often, this layout is especially useful.
If you have a Windows operating system [such as Vista or 7 -- I'm not sure about XP] then you can use the Character Map. I actually discovered it by accident. Before then I thought my future laptop [that I plan to purchase] would require a numeric keypad, but now I guess I won't be needing it, thanks to the Character Map [I have Windows Vista, but plan to upgrade to Windows 7].
Relativity simple method that I use:
Invoke, then use the "Ease of Access" on-screen keyboard:
VOILA......
Keep it minimized if you plan to use letters repeatedly.
If you don't have a numeric pad, i wrote a little program for this use. This is the program: AltPiuSend
Push "Win + R" keys and digit "shell:startup", copy the program here and reboot. On startup, i register 10 hotkey: Alt + 0...9 (number in keyboard, not in numeric pad). When you push "Alt + Number" keys in the keyboard, i send Alt + the same number of the numeric pad (virtual key). It's all.
The program is written in VB .NET 2010 Express and need Microsoft Framework 4.0. If you don't have installed Microsoft Framework 4.0, search for "Microsoft Framework 4.0 download" and download it from Microsoft site.
Windows 11 using a wireless Logitech keyboard:
Hold down the fn key and the ALT key
type the code
release the fn and ALT keys.
For example, use the following to type an em dash (—):
fn+ALT+0151
and then release fn+ALT
In lenovo g40, you just go to insert then go to symbol and you select the special character you need in your document.
This is causing a lot of pain...here is the easiest solution for me.
Another solution is to simply bookmark a site or save the file as text file with the desired characters, that's for occasional use, but the keyboard shortcut with beeftext can be used daily
Same problem on a Laptop Inspiron 13 without NumLock (even the overlayed NumPad activated by Fn is absent), running Windows 10 pro.
ONLY solution that has worked for me is the AutoHotKey Script in this post: How to input special characters w/o numpad?
Follow the instructions, you'll see a small icon in the Windows Taskbar showing that the script is running. Solved.
On a lenovo notebook without the Fn NumPad available, I managed to find the degree sign (that I was looking for) with :
CTRL + ALT + Shift + ;
Playing along with the keyboard and holding/releasing the shift key you can get characters like :
¿ç÷Ö°Øø¨÷»«¶ßå²³½¼
