Teresa -

Almost any decent html handbook will have a list of "character codes" that you can use, at least for the lower numbered characters.

A simple list, with some explanatory info can be found at ANSI character set and equivalent Unicode and HTML characters for html use.

You might also want to take a look at Unicode and Multilingual Support in HTML, Fonts, Web Browsers and Other Applications by the same guy.

When posting html, you can "code" any of the 256 characters in the ISO standard by starting with an ampersand (&) followed by a "splat" (#), followed by the numerical code for the character, usually 3 digits, and ending with a semicolon (;). The typed "©" as an example, should give the "copyright" sign © when you post. (Preview is a good idea.)

Many of the characters in the ISO set have "shorthand" descriptions, and you can also enter, in html, the code © to get ©. The list linked shows the "named" characters.

You can also use the "hex" value of the character number, but that usually confuses me so let's omit it.

For posting to the web, and specifically to mudcat, you should not just type the three characters "<," ">," or "&" because those are "code" characters in html, and you may get unpredictable results. You can type "&lt;" for "<," "&gt;" for ">," and "&amp;" for "&." Most websites, mudcat included, have routines to detect these characters when they're intended as plain text, but they don't always work exactly as expected. There are other "special characters" that probably should be posted in code, but they seldom cause a problem. (Preview is still a good idea.)

For other uses, the same decimal character numbers can be used to enter characters you don't have on your keyboard, using the Alt-NumPad method that's been described, so the "character numbers" given at the link should generally work for this method in most Windows programs, probably including your browser. If I hold down the Alt key while I type "0191" on the Number Pad, I get ¿ as noted in a prior post.

As noted before, the Windows instructions say you need a "leading zero" when you do this, to tell the program it's a "code." Sometimes an omitted leading 0 seems to work, but other times you get something completely different - or nothing at all - if you leave it off. You should get in the practice of typing the "0" at the beginning.

The Alt-NumPad method works quite nicely for characters in the ISO set (numerical values 256 or less) but isn't adapted to the really exotic characters. Unicode character sets offer a great many more strange things. There are a number of adaptations for "International Character Sets" in recent versions of Windows, but I also get confused when I try to go there. Microsoft Office Update may have some extended character "fonts" that you can download for use in Office programs. It pays to check in once in a while.

If you have installed "foreign language support" with your Windows, you can change the language in your setup. Unfortunately, when you change the language Windows assumes you have the keyboard for the language you selected, so strange things may happen. If you don't have at least a couple of "extended character fonts" on your machine, you may encounter individual characters that you can't read. At least a couple are included, and normally install by default, in recent versions of Windows; and older versions may have gotten them with updates to Office.

One of the simpler ways to get strange stuff just about anywhere is just to enter it via the Unicode character number in Word. If you type the HEX VALUE for a Unicode character in Word, and immediately before typing the next space hit Alt-X, recent versions of Word will magically replace the number with the character it represents. If you Copy the character from Word into almost anything, you should still have the same character.

With my Office 2003 in WinXP, if you open Word, Click Help, then Click "Microsoft Word Help," click the Index, the first few things you should see are a few "strange characters." If you double-click the "euro" ( € ) symbol, it sould open "Insert a Symbol" in the right panel.

The first section, titled "Insert a Symbol" tells you to use the Insert Key and pick from the available symbols. That's okay if you're writing a letter to mom, but DON'T DO IT if you intend to send your manuscript to editing and layout with a publisher. That inserts "graphic symbol glyphs" that defy reformatting to another font and you'll drive your layout people crazy.

The second section, "Insert a Unicode Character" gives the instructions you want. It's printable if you need to.

Earlier versions of Word have differing capabilities, but I don't have an earlier version up to check. Feedback is appropriate.

If you find the Unicode characters usefull, the "official" source is the Unicode Standard. Not the latest, but you can look at Unicode Standard Ver 3.0.

You might also want the Unicode Character Names Index

Should keep you busy for a while?????

John