Entering Unicode Characters from the Keyboard

Category: Fonts | Comment 2 Comments | Read 33301 Read | Posted Posted: VistaTrick | 12 November 2007

If you frequently write documents in more than one language, you probably already own a keyboard that supports the characters you need. For example, many Canadians use the French-Canadian keyboard and Windows software keyboard layout for it. Both the hard-ware and the software work together to produce the characters commonly used in both English and French, Canada’s two official languages.

You may occasionally find, however, that you need to enter a character from the Unicode range that isn’t on your keyboard. In that case, you have a few options.

In Windows 2000, XP, and Vista, Unicode values can be entered from the keyboard using either decimal or hexadecimal numbers. Figure 7-6 shows decimal numbers without lead- ing zeros, if a leading zero need not be typed in earlier versions of Windows. All hex num- bers are shown in Figure 7-6 as four digits, including leading zeros.

Application Support for Special Characters

As knowledge of Unicode becomes more prevalent among Windows users, applications will increasingly provide keyboard shortcuts or menu options to enter extra characters. If your application supports such shortcuts, they’ll be the fastest way to enter such text.

Alt+X Method for Windows XP and Vista

Windows XP and higher supports using Alt+X to insert any Unicode character from the keyboard in some (but not all) applications:

1.   The status of NumLock doesn’t matter using the Alt+X method.
2.   Using the main keyboard, type the hex value of your desired character directly into the visible text of your document. You can type the four-digit hex value or U+ followed by the four-digit hex value. For example, you could type 03c0 or U+03c0 to specify the Greek letter pi.
3.   With your insertion point immediately to the right of the hex value, press Alt+X.
4.   The value you typed is immediately transformed into your desired character, if the current font includes that character. You can always change the font at a later time, if you want.
5.   Pressing Alt+X again at the same location should change the Unicode character back into its hex-value equivalent. But some applications and fonts don’t support this kind of reversal. So don’t save your document until you know whether or not you can toggle back and forth.

Figure 7-6: Some important characters and symbols in Unicode. You can enter these characters in Windows XP and Windows Vista by holding down the Alt key, typing the decimal number on the numeric keypad (with NumLock on), and releasing Alt. Leading zeros in the hex numbers are optional.

Alt+Number Works for Unicode as well as ANSI

If you need to enter just a few special characters, the Alt+number method that was described earlier for ANSI characters also can be used to enter Unicode characters in almost any Windows application.

One difference is that Windows Vista supports two Alt+number methods. One uses deci- mal numbers from 161 and higher. The other uses hexadecimal numbers from 00a1 on up. We’ll first explain the Alt+decimal method.

1.   Make sure the NumLock key is on (NumLock light is lighted).
2.   Hold down the Alt key.
3.   On the numeric keypad, type the decimal number of the character you desire. You don’t need to include a leading zero in front of character numbers 256 and higher.
4.   Release the Alt key. If your insertion point is formatted in a font that includes the Unicode character you entered, that character immediately appears. If not, you can change the font at any later time.

If the Alt+number method doesn’t work, your input language or code page may be inter- fering. If so, try the Alt-+Alt-hex method, described in the following section.

Alt+Plus, Alt+Hex Method for Windows 2000, XP, and Vista

You may prefer to enter a Unicode character from the keyboard using hexadecimal num- bers rather than decimal. If so, there’s what we call an Alt+Plus, Alt+Hex method that works in some applications. It’s a bit more convoluted and time-consuming than the Alt+decimal method.

1.   The status of NumLock doesn’t matter using the Alt+Plus, Alt+Hex method.
2.   Hold down the Alt key throughout this process.
3.   Press the plus sign (+) on the numeric keypad. Nothing will noticeably change.
4.   Using the main keyboard, type the letters and digits of the hex code for the char- acter you desire. You can include leading zeros or omit them. For example, typ- ing 03c0 or just 3c0 specifies the Greek letter pi (), if your selected font has one.
5.   Release the Alt key. If your insertion point is formatted in a font that includes the Unicode character you entered, that character immediately appears. If not, you can change the font at a later time.

Registry Hack May Be Required for Alt+Plus, Alt+Hex

The Alt+Plus, Alt+Hex method won’t work in Windows or any application if a certain key in the Registry isn’t set correctly. This could happen if the key was inadvertently changed or was never switched on. If Alt+Plus, Alt+Hex doesn’t work, take the fol- lowing steps:

1. Use the Start menu to run RegEdit.exe.
2. Expand HKEY_Current_User to /Control Panel/Input Method. Find the key (or create a new string value) called EnableHexNumpad. If you create this string value, it should have the REG_SZ type.
3. Right-click and modify EnableHexNumpad to give it a value of 1. Close RegEdit.

Tip: Enter special characters using input locales. An input locale is a software feature of Windows that defines a particular keyboard layout and other localized setting. Once you’ve set up two or more, you can quickly switch from one layout to another so you can, for example, write in different languages using the same keyboard.