In Windows, the "chart" is in the Character Map utility. Click on the character you want and the bottom line should show you the character number. The number shown may be the decimal number you'd use with the Alt-NumPad method, but if you select to show "Unicode character set" (in recent versions) it will be the hexadecimal number for the character as defined by the Unicode standard. Type the hex number and immediately hit Alt-x and you get the character in Word.

The correct decimal numbers for the first 124 characters are the same as shown in any ASCII chart. The character set was extended to include the ANSI set with 255 characters, and the ANSI set has been in use so long you'd probably have trouble finding one that doesn't go to 255 (even if it's still called an ASCII chart).

One exception is that the "euro" sign was added at #128 in Windows font pages for those who don't have a keyboard that has a key for it, but when you type Alt-0128 the character printed is actually the true hex 20AC (decimal 8364, which you may or may not be able to enter "correctly" using Alt-Numpad, depending on your OS version). Various other systems may have made other substitutions, but the number you type doesn't have to be the number you get. The lowest 255 chars should be pretty much consistent with the ANSI/ASCII definitions - usually. Recent Windows versions seem to allow some characters with decimal numbers above 255 to by entered with Alt-Numpad, but it doesn't appear that all the four-digit ones work as expected in all cases.

Since about 30 of the ASCII/ANSI "characters" are non-printing "control characters" like backspace, linefeed, carriage return, the Alt-Numpad method can only "officially" type far fewer than 255 characters, and there's no need for Alt-NumPad for the ones on your keyboard, so subtract about 100 from 255 to get what can be called "specials" that can be entered that way.

The single-byte Unicode standards define about 3,800 characters that you can theoretically enter using other methods, although many of them require adding fonts specific to the languages that use them.

The two "Unicode fonts" included in Windows contain about 2,000 characters that can (in Word) be typed using the hex number and Alt-X, although there's still the problem that someone who reads your html has to have one of those "extended fonts" installed to see what you wrote. Microsoft recommends that you should NOT install the "Unicode fonts" unless you really really really need them since they're "large" and can eat up your RAM.

FOR HARUO (first post): my own laptop, which was configured without my advice by a nephew who didn't know about this stuff.

On laptops that don't have a separate NumPad, there should be an "embedded" numpad overlaid on the letter keys. If you can figure out which one of the fancy "alt function" keys turns the NumPad on/off, you should be able to:

1.) Turn on NumPad
2.) Type your Alt-NumPad number to insert the character
3.) Try to remember to turn the NumPad back off before you resume normal typing. (hate it when you forget!!!!)

This is not to say that your kid didn't mess something up (our kids can be clever?). (Microsoft makes it pretty easy to swap what function keys do, although I've never found much use for that.) The method is so clumsy to use that I just decided to ignore it and use the Alt-X method in Word instead, when I'm forced onto a laptop.

John