Converting American to English

[Jan1954]

(I really hate not being able to write the Pound sign in posts, on an American keyboard...)
Try holding down the ALT key and press 156 on the number pad - I have been told that this works, but have not done it myself.

[pipsqueak]

£6.... woo-hoo! Thanks Jan! 'Alt 3' works on the mac. 'Alt 156' gave me this: ¡ ∞ § and if I go through all the numbers I get this: ¡ ™ £ ¢ ∞ § ¶ • ª º How exciting. Now I just have to remember it!! :D

[Jan1954]

I am so pleased! :D

I have copied these 2 posts onto the "Useful Information" forum (as you can see) so that, if any other members find translatons out there, they may add them to this thread, rather than hi-jack the original.

[pipsqueak]

Sorry for hijacking the thread - I didn't mean to!
:)

[v.wells]

I've put the CharMap on my desktop so I can just copy over but I shall try Alt 156 and it didn't work. Darn Vista £ - That worked (the first time I didn't use the NUMBER pad) |dunce2| :o

I will forever remember this:D

[pipsqueak]

No you won't.... if you're anything like me you'll have to keep referring back here! |biggrin|

By the way I should have mentioned that I didn't use a number pad at all because macbooks don't have them.

[Mutley]

I have a Portuguese keyboard.

€ is the 'AltGr' key plus number 5

£ is the 'AltGr' key plus a 3

@ is the 'AltGr' key plus a 2

[ is 'AltGr' key plus a 8

] is 'AltGr' key plus a 9

but I don't have a clue how to get a dollar sign :confused:

[ET in the USA]

What happens with Alt + 4 ? I ask because in the US, the $ is above the number 4. It is the £ I have been struggling with. Finally figured out I could toggle my keyboard between US English & UK English, then £ is shift + 3.

My former solution was to create a word document with £ on it, then copy & paste where I wanted to put it, then change the font to match my document. It worked, but not very efficient |computer|

[Mutley]

Alt plus 4 does not do anything on my keyboard but

$ is 'shift' plus 4 (thanks ET)
§ is 'Alt-Gr' plus 4 but I have no idea what this symbol is?

[pipsqueak]

Alt 4 on a US mac keyboard gives ¢ - useful if you want to price things for a yard sale..... 25¢.

[ET in the USA]

Mutley,

Is Alt-Gr the name of a key ?
I've never seen anything except plain old ' Alt ' . If I'm in Word & press Alt + a number, I jump to save or find or open or some other menu where I don't want to be. I shall have to look in "Office 2007 for Dummies" & see if it it addresses this subject. I have it sitting on my bookshelf, right next to "Idiot's Guide To Online Genealogy" ! Why doesn't anyone write a positive book, like "Genealogy - some good tips, even though you are so smart you probably already know all this" . :confused:

ET

[MarkJ]

Yes, AltGr is a key ;)
It is used to access the third option on some keys as a rule. In the UK for instance, one of my keys has a sideways L shape, a "tick" and a straight upright line (called a pipe).
Pressing the key gives me `
Pressing it with shift gives me ¬
Pressing it with AltGr gives me |

It has other uses too, but that is the one I use most often. On some older keyboards AltGr gave you access to the graphics functions.

As always, our friends at Wikipedia have a good article on the AltGr key -

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AltGr_key

Mark

[ET in the USA]

Thanks. At first I thought it was Portuguese for Alt :o

then I figured out it probably wasn't.
ET

[v.wells]

Aside from the F8 key that supposedly takes you to the boot menu on startup which the F1 key does (I think), I have no idea what purpose the function keys stand for!|dunce2|:o

[MarkJ]

It all depends Vanessa! Each different manufacturer has their own little ideas - as do different operating systems!
Try pressing F11 when you have a browser open. It should maximise your browser real estate, doing away with the back and forward buttons etc. Pressing F11 again will bring back the normal browser view :)

Some of the functions which are allocated to the F keys are only really handy during the boot up process, others only useful in some other ways.

Mark

[v.wells]

Thank you Mark. I was just making fun of myself - I guess the function keys don't mean anything to me, since I don't use them.:D

[Mutley]

Mutley,

Is Alt-Gr the name of a key ?
:confused:

ET
Mark has given a good explanation for this.
Yes, it is a key on my board that sits to the right of the space bar.
The Alt key is to the left of the space bar.
I did not realise that some keyboards may not have it, sorry :o

You have to watch this little fellow for a minute, I know exactly how he feels. http://www.smileys4me.com/getsmiley.php?show=239

[v.wells]

Mutley that is so funny! I roared with laughter!|laugh1||laugh1||laugh1|

[ET in the USA]

I have Ctrl and Alt to the left & right of the space bar. The difference between sides is that on the left, I have what looks like the St. George's Cross flag (it is the windows logo in black & white) & on the right I have what looks like a piece of paper with one of the lines highlighted. After seeing Mutley's little guy, I'm pretty certain that I don't want to press it to see what it does :D I guess it will remain a closely guarded HP secret like some of the "international ?" traffic signs. You spend so much time trying to figure out what the picture is warning you about, you run into it before you know what it is. My favorite sign in England has always been the sign with the great big ! and nothing else. Pretty much says it all - "We have no idea what's coming, but watch out". I have never seen that sign in the US or Canada.
ET

[Raphael]

I've put the CharMap on my desktop so I can just copy over but I shall try Alt 156 and it didn't work. Darn Vista £ - That worked (the first time I didn't use the NUMBER pad) |dunce2| :o

I will forever remember this:D

Hi ! V.Wells,171964
I do not have Vista on this computer, so I am not sure if Vista is different.

Using the Asci codes

Alt+156=£ as I have just done, you must use the numeric pad with NUM LOCK ON.

I use an English QUERTY board, and when I am writing in German I use Alt+Ö to get umlaut O, and other ascci codes using the same system.
Using the codes you do NOT use ALTGR.
I also have a Laptop that has a German Keyboard with Vista so this does not apply

All Ascci codes are available on Google if you look for them.

The character map is to slow & cumbersome

Kind Regards
Raphael
UK & Germany