Special Characters not working.

M

Michelle

My ALT+___ special character keys are no longer working
for some reason. For example, I can no longer type
ALT+0167 to get the "section" sign, or ALT+0233 to get
the "e" with accent sign. It seems to only happen in Word.
Any idea what might have caused this? It was working about
a week ago. I like working with my keyboard and do not
want to continuously use insert -> symbols -> etc.

Any help is appreciated.
 
S

Suzanne S. Barnhill

I assume you know that the numbers must be entered from the numeric keypad,
not the number row of the keyboard. Make sure NumLock is on. Note also that
there are built-in keyboard shortcuts for many special characters (such as
Ctrl+', e for é), and you can assign your own for other frequently used
characters. See http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/General/InsertSpecChars.htm
 
G

Guest

Yes, I do. Actually, on my laptop (which is where I'm
having problem), I need to hold down both the ALT & Fn
keys for the special characters to appear, since there's
no actual numeric keypad, and the Fn key toggles the
numeric keypad from otherwise normal alphabet keys. I
don't think I can actually "turn off" the NumLock on here
because the Fn key controls when it's "turned on."

Thanks for your suggestions about the other special
characters. I am still concerned that the ALT codes are no
longer functioning when they were a week ago. Any other
ideas on what might have happened?
 
S

Suzanne S. Barnhill

Not a clue. I never use the numeric keypad because it is inconvenient on my
keyboard, but if there is a way to access the numeric keys, they should
work. Perhaps other users who have laptops can offer suggestions?



Yes, I do. Actually, on my laptop (which is where I'm
having problem), I need to hold down both the ALT & Fn
keys for the special characters to appear, since there's
no actual numeric keypad, and the Fn key toggles the
numeric keypad from otherwise normal alphabet keys. I
don't think I can actually "turn off" the NumLock on here
because the Fn key controls when it's "turned on."

Thanks for your suggestions about the other special
characters. I am still concerned that the ALT codes are no
longer functioning when they were a week ago. Any other
ideas on what might have happened?
 
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