BillD -

I didn't get in using your link - might be a temporary collision thing. Accorcing to CharMap:

The à character is 0224.
The á character is 0225.
The "upside down ?" ¿ is 0191.

I hold Alt down and type 0224 on my numpad and get à
I hold Alt down and type 0225 on my numpad and get á
I hold Alt down and type 0191 on my numpad and get ¿
They look okay in the Reply box to me, but "your mileage may vary."

If you try the Character Map that's built into most Windows, most characters will show a "keystroke" method, either when you "hover" over the character or in a box at the bottom when you click on it. You use the numbers using the Alt-NumPad thing. You can check out the "right" numbers for specific characters that way - at least in later versions of CharMap. You do have to find a font that has the character you want, and figure out where it is. Usually the number you get is the Unicode character number, but they do occasionally "map" common characters to nonstandard numbers - like the euro at 0128: € (on US machines at least).

Some of what Windows programs will do may depend on having all the current "character maps" installed. Those with current Office versions can go to Mickey's Office Update site and get more recent stuff. Those with WinXP and Win2K may get offers of "optional updates" with some "International Features" from autoupdate occasionally. I'm not sure what the availability of updates is for older Office version.

For recent versions, you can get a few "International Character Sets." You may have to poke around a little to find them though.

John