The "Alt-0169" using the NumPad to enter the "0169" is the generic method in ALL Windows versions for inserting an "ANSI" character number. ANY Windows compatible program that sees the number - and recognizes that it is a "character value" - should render the character if that particular character is defined in the "font" that the program is using. With very few exceptions, any Windows compliant program should recognize the Alt-NumPad input method, so it should work in almost any program you can run in Windows. This should include even Word (im)Perfect.

You must hold the Alt key down while you type the complete numerical sequence on the NumPad.
The NumLock toggle must be switched ON.
The "specification" says that the number sequence should begin with a "0" but this isn't always necessary for it to work.

If you are writing an "html script" in plain text, you can code an ASCII or ANSI character number using the general format "©". The "&" tells the html reader that what follows has "logical meaning" rather than just being a string of characters. The "#" tells it that the next stuff is numerical, and is in fact a "character number." Everything that follows is read and interpreted as a "number with logical meanin" up to the next ";" which ends the coding. The numerical sequence is identical to the one you would use to enter an ANSI character value with the Alt-NumPad method.

Typed as plain text in an html script, "©" opened in any html reader, should display/print "©".

Since the "&" character has a "logical" or "code" meaning in html, if you just type the ampersand character, some html pages will recognize it as a single character, and some will try to read everything that follows as "code." Since the recent "modernization of mudcat" you generally can just type the ampersand (&) and your posts will be okay here for most users with most browsers but there's the possibility that you'll get an occasional breakup of a post.

A few "special characters" have html standard abbreviations, and the © copyright symbol can also be entered into a plaintext html script as "©". It should make NO DIFFERENCE to any html page or to any user with any browser which method you use. If the symbol you want appears in a document, you should be able to copy and paste it into a post. You should be able to insert the ANSI character value, either into a document from which you copy and paste or directly into a post using the Alt-NumPad method. You should be able to html "code" a character using the "&#numbers;" format or using the "standard abbreviations "&nameofchar;" format. Unfortunately, none of these methods will always work the way you expect, although odds are pretty good for any of them for most simple stuff.

Microsoft Office programs have a fairly large set of special characters that can be entered using "shortcut keys." If you want to use these shortcuts in an Office program other than Word, you can't turn them on/off in the other program. The Options and Tools settings you make in Word determine what happens in ALL the other Office programs - with a few exceptions. An example would be a Ctl-' followed by a character which should put é, ú, ó, etc in. Ctl-^, Ctl-`, Ctl-~, etc., are others that insert "inflection marks" on the next character you type. (The above were typed in Word, and then pasted here. Hopefully they'll display okay. The worked in my preview.)

John