How to put a sign on the keyboard. Symbols on the keyboard using the Alt key

Every computer user, especially those who actively use social networks, has wondered: what is special characters and where can I find them on the keyboard? The answer to this question is not something complicated. The thing is that the keyboard displays only frequently used symbols: letters, punctuation marks, arithmetic operations.

But there are many other symbols in the world. And to use them, you need to know some concepts. Such characters are called special. Their difference is that they are more comic than truly useful.

How to enter special characters from the keyboard?

First, let’s look at the simplest and most understandable input of special characters that are already located on the device’s keyboard. To do this, hold down the Shift key and select the desired symbol.

But do not forget that for convenience, the symbols are separated from each other by keyboard layouts. Therefore, pay attention to the location of the sign relative to the main one.

We use special characters when creating passwords

Many users have wondered how to create a strong password. To do this, you don’t need to create huge sets of different letters, numbers and punctuation marks; just use an unusual icon. So how do you use special characters on your keyboard for a password?

To use a special character when entering a password, you must enable NumLock. After this, you should hold down the Alt key and “+”, then type the required set of characters and get the character we need. But in the password itself it will not be registered as a special character, but will be written in the encoding necessary for this.

Using Unicode on the Windows 10 keyboard

To use special characters on Windows keyboard 10, you need to go to the taskbar and request a table in the search bar. And after that launch this application.

In the table that opens, you can select a font. To copy a symbol, double-click on it and click “Copy” in the bottom line. You can also select the character set language.

Enter special characters using the keyboard

The most in a practical way character set is a combination of the Alt key and the desired Unicode. Special characters on the Alt keyboard will be discussed in the table below.

But before you learn about them, you need to understand the principle of entering these characters. To enter the character we need, press the Alt key, then on the right side of the keyboard press “+” and type the numeric command in which the code is encrypted the right sign.

Tables of special characters for describing text

Now, let’s actually look at what some special characters look like. Many of them are used infrequently.

Name	Symbolism	View	Description
	160		space without breaks
iexcl	161	¡	exclamation point upside down
cent	162	¢	cent
pound	163	£	pound sterling
euro	0128	€	Euro
	8591	₪	shekel
curren	164	¤	monetary unit
yen	165		yen or yuan
	166	¦	dotted vertical bar
sect	167	§	paragraph
uml	168	¨	diaeresis
copy	169		copyright sign
ordf	170	ª	ordinal numerator (feminine)
	186	º	ordinal numerator (male)
	171	«	opening quote
	187	»	closing quote
not	172	¬	negation
	173		place of possible transfer
	176	°	degree
permil		‰	ppm
acute	180	´	accent mark
micro	181	µ	micro
para	182	¶	paragraph symbol
middot	183	·	dot
cedil	184	¸	cedilla
sup1	185	¹	superscript (unit)
	175		the longitude sign is placed on top of the vowel
iquest	191	¿	question mark upside down
	174	®	registered trademark mark

Table of special symbols - arrows

And these special characters are perfect for any schemes. This table is worth having on hand.

Punctuation table

Well, you can’t do without these signs when writing articles. They are familiar to everyone without exception.

Name	Symbolism	View	Description
bull	8226	.	small black circle
hellip	8230	…	ellipsis
prime	8242	′	single stroke - minutes and feet
	8243	″	double prime - seconds and inches
	8254	‾	underscore
frasl	8260	⁄	right slash
Basic punctuation
ndash	8211	-	dash
mdash	8212	—	em dash
lsquo	8216	‘	left single quote
	8217	’	right single quote
	8218	‚	single quote (lower)
	8220	“	double quote (left slant)
	8221	”	double quote (right slant)
	8222	„	double quote (lower)

Table of arithmetic signs

Such signs are a godsend for a mathematician. None of them can be written down without their help.

Name	Symbolism	View	Description
times	215	×	multiplication sign
divide	247	÷	division sign
frasl	8260	⁄	decimal point
minus	8722	−	minus sign
il	60	<	less than sign
GT	62	>	more sign
le	8804	≤	less than or equal to
ge	8805	≥	greater than or equal to
	8776	≈	asymptotically equal
ne	8800	≠	inequality
equiv	8801	≡	identical, coincides with
plusmn	177	±	plus or minus
frac14	188	¼	one fourth
frac12	189	½	one second
frac34	190	¾	three quarters
sup1	185	¹	superscript unit
	178	²	two in superscript (square)
	179	³	three in superscript (cube)
	8730	√	square root(radical)
	8734	∞	infinity sign
sum	8721	∑	summation sign
	8719	∏	work mark
part	8706	∂	partial differential
int	8747	∫	integral
forall	8704	∀	for everyone
exist	8707	∃	exists
empty	8709	∅	empty set; diameter
	8711	∇	nabla
isin	8712	∈	belongs
notin	8713	∉	doesn't belong
ni	8715	∋	contains
lowast	8727	∗	asterisk operator
prop	8733	∝	proportionally
ang	8736	∠	corner
and	8743	∧	logical AND
or	8744	∨	logical OR
cap	8745	∩	intersection
cup	8746	∪	association
there4	8756	∴	hence
sim	8764		similarity sign - "changes from" - tilde sign
	8773	≅	approximately equal to
sub	8834	⊂	this is a subset
sup	8835	⊃	this is a superset
nsub	8836	⊄	is not a subset
sube	8838	⊆	is a subset or equal to
	8839	⊇	is a superset or equal
	8853	⊕	plus in a circle
otimes	8855	⊗	multiplication sign in a circle
	8869	⊥	orthogonal, perpendicular
sdot	8901	⋅	dot operator
fnot	402	ƒ	function sign

Table of Latin, Greek and Hebrew letters

Not many people, of course, will use these signs when working with a computer. However, knowing about them will not hurt for overall development.

Name	Symbolism	View	Description
Latin letters
Agrave	192	À	capital A with blunt accent
	193	Á	And with a sharp accent
Acirc	194	Â	A with a circumflex (a diacritic mark above a vowel)
	195	Ã	And with a tilde
Auml	196	Ä	And with three (a sign above a vowel to pronounce it separately from the preceding vowel)
	197	Å	And with the top circle
AElig	198	Æ	AE characters
Ccedil	199	Ç	C with cedilla
Egrave	200	È	E with blunt accent
	201	É	E with acute accent
	202	Ê	E with circumflex (diacritic over vowel)
	203	Ë	E with three
Igrave	204	Ì	I with obtuse accent
	205	Í	I with acute accent
Icirc	206	Î	I with circumflex
Iuml	207	Ï	I with three
ETH	208	Ð	ETH symbols
Ntilde	209	Ñ	N with tilde
Ograve	210	Ò	O with obtuse accent
	211	Ó	O with acute accent
Ocirc	212	Ô	O with circumflex
Otilde	213	Õ	O with tilde
Ouml	214	Ö	O with three
Oslash	216	Ø	O with a stroke
Ugrave	217	Ù	U with blunt accent
	218	Ú	U with acute accent
	219	Û	U with circumflex
Uuml	220	Ü	U with three
Yacute	221	Ý	Y with acute accent
THORN	222	Þ	THORN
agrave	224	à	lowercase A with blunt accent
	225	á	And with a sharp accent
acirc	226	â	And with circumflex
atilde	227	ã	And with a tilde
auml	228	ä	And with three
aring	229	å	And with the top circle
aelig	230	æ	Ae
ccedil	231	ç	And with a cedilla
egrave	232	è	E with blunt accent
	233	é	E with acute accent
	234	ê	E with circumflex
euml	235	ë	E with three
igrave	236	ì	I with obtuse accent
	237	í	I with acute accent
icirc	238	î	I with circumflex
iuml	239	ï	I with three
eth	240	ð	eth symbols
ntilde	241	ñ	N with tilde
ograve	242	ò	O with obtuse accent
	243	ó	O with acute accent
ocirc	244	ô	O with circumflex
otilde	245	õ	I with tilde
ouml	246	ö	I with three
oslash	248	ø	O with a stroke
ugrave	249	ù	U with blunt accent
	250	ú	U with acute accent
	251	û	U with circumflex
uuml	252	ü	U with three
yacute	253	ý	Y with accent
thorn	254	þ	thorn
yuml	255	ÿ	Y with three
Letters of the Greek alphabet
	913	Α	Greek capital letter alpha
	914	Β	beta
	915	Γ	greek capital letter gamma
	916	Δ	delta
	917	Ε	greek capital letter epsilon
	918	Ζ	zeta
	919		greek capital letter eta
	920	Θ	theta
	921	Ι	greek capital letter iota
	922	Κ	kappa
	923	Λ	greek capital letter lambda
	924	Μ	mu
	925		greek capital letter nu
	926	Ξ	xi
	927	Ο	greek capital letter omicron
	928	Π	pi
	929		greek capital letter rho
	931	Σ	sigma
	932		greek capital letter tau
	933	Υ	upsilon
	934		greek capital letter phi
	935	Χ	hee
	936		greek capital letter psi
	937	Ω	omega
	945	α	greek small letter alpha
	946	β	beta
	947	γ	greek small letter gamma
	948	δ	delta
	949	ε	greek small letter epsilon
	950	ζ	zeta
	951		greek small letter eta
	952	θ	theta
	953	ι	greek small letter iota
	954	κ	kappa
	955	λ	greek small letter lambda
	956	μ	mu
	957		greek small letter nu
	958	ξ	xi
	959	ο	greek small letter omicron
	960	π	pi
	961		greek small letter rho
	962	ς	sigma (final)
	963	σ	greek small letter sigma
	964	τ	tau
	965	υ	greek small letter upsilon
	966	φ	fi
	967		greek small letter chi
	968	ψ	psi
	969	ω	greek small letter omega
Hebrew letters
	1488	א	aleph
	1489	ב	Beth
	1490	ג	Gimel
	1491	ד	Daled
	1492	ה	neck
	1493	ו	wav
	1494	ז	zain
	1495	ח	hat
	1496	ט	tet
	1497	י	yud
	1498	ך	soffit cafe
	1499	כ	cafe
	1500	ל	lamed
	1501	ם	ma'am spotlight
	1502	מ	ma'am
	1503	ן	nun-soffit
	1504	נ	noon
	1505	ס	samekh
	1506	ע	ain
	1507	ף	pay-soffit
	1508	פ	pay
	1509	ץ	tzaddik sofit
	1510	צ	tzaddik
	1511	ק	Kuf
	1512	ר	raysh
	1513	ש	tires
	1514	ת	tav

Additional symbol table

Here are some other helpful signs. Perhaps they will be useful to you someday too

Name	Symbolism	View	Description
	9824	♠	spades suit sign
	9827	♣	sign of the suit "clubs"
	9829		hearts suit sign
	9830	♦	sign of the suit "diamonds"
	9674	◊	rhombus
	9675	○	circle
	9679	●	black circle
	9668	◄	triangle to the left
	9660	▼	black triangle down
	9658		black triangle to the right
	9650	▲	black triangle up
	9632	■	black square
	9642	▪	black square
	9643	▫	square
	9792	♀	feminine
	9794		masculinity
	34	"	double quote
amp	38	&	ampersand
lt	60	<	"less than" sign
GT	62	>	"more" sign
circ	710	ˆ	circumflex symbol
tilde	732	˜	tilde
trade	8482	™	trademark sign

In conclusion

There are many symbols in the world that computer users need to use for their purposes. It is impossible to know all of them. After all, humanity over its centuries-old history has created more than a million different codes and other types of information encoded in images, but there are tables of special characters that are available to all users.

These signs have a huge scope, so many will have to deal with them. Entering special characters from the keyboard is not difficult. The main thing is to be able to use the capabilities of your device, and this will allow you to use various special characters for your own purposes.

If you are typing in another language (for example, German), there are ways quick input diacritics (diacritics), namely signs above (less often below) letters. The specific method for entering diacritics depends on the program in which the text is typed, and this article describes the most common methods.

Note: To use the methods here, you must switch your keyboard layout to English. Keep in mind that some keyboards have letter keys with accent marks.

Steps

Entering diacritics in Windows

Use keyboard shortcuts (shortcut keys). They are available on most modern computers under Windows control in the program Microsoft Word. Keyboard shortcuts are generally easier to remember than ASCII codes, which are also used to enter diacritics.

Press Ctrl + ` to enter gravity. Hold down the Ctrl key, and then press the ` key, which is located in the upper left corner of the keyboard. Release the keys. Then press the key with the desired letter.

Typically, the "`" character is located on the same key as the "~" (tilde) character. This is not an apostrophe key.

Press Ctrl + " to enter an accent. Hold Ctrl and then press the """ (apostrophe) key next to the Enter key. Release the keys. Then press the key with the desired letter.

Press Ctrl, then press Shift, then press 6, and finally press the letter key to enter the circumflex (“cap”). Hold Ctrl and Shift, and then press the number 6 key. Release the keys and press the key with the desired letter. The number 6 key is used because of the "^" symbol found on this key.

Press Shift + Ctrl + ~ to enter a tilde. The "~" (tilde) character is on the same key as the "`" character, which is used to enter gravity. Don't forget to hold down the Shift key, otherwise you will enter gravis instead of a tilde. Release the keys and press the key with the desired letter.

Press Shift + Ctrl +: to enter the umlaut. The key with the “:” (colon) symbol is located next to the key with the “’” (apostrophe) symbol. Remember to hold down the Shift key, otherwise you will enter a semicolon instead of an umlaut. Release the keys and press the key with the desired letter.

Enter capital letters with accents in the same way. But change the order of the keys you press: first press Ctrl + (symbol key), then press Shift, and then press the key with the letter you want. A capital letter with a superscript character will be entered.

Alt codes in Windows (ASCII codes)

Use Alt codes. To do this, you will need a separate numeric keypad, which is located on the right side of the standard keyboard. ASCII codes are applicable in package programs Microsoft Office. These codes are not supported by all Windows compatible programs, so check each program to see if it works with Alt codes.

Hold down the Alt key. There are many number codes, but remember that in order to apply them, you must first hold down the Alt key. Keep the key pressed until you finish entering the numeric code.

On numeric keypad enter the code corresponding to a specific diacritic.

The following codes are used to enter gravity:

a = 0224; А = 0192
и = 0232; È = 0200
м = 0236; М = 0204
ò = 0242; Ò = 0210
ù = 0249; Ù = 0217

The following codes are used to enter an accent (accent):

á = 0225; Á = 0193
é = 0233; É = 0201
í = 0237; Í = 0205
ó = 0243; Ó = 0211
ú = 0250; Ú = 0218
ý = 0253; Ý = 0221

The following codes are used to enter the circumflex:

â = 0226; Â = 0194
ê = 0234; Ê = 0202
î = 0238; Î = 0206
ô = 0244; Ô = 0212
û = 0251; Û = 0219

The following codes are used to enter a tilde:

ã = 0227; Ã = 0195
ñ = 0241; Ñ = 0209
õ = 0245; Õ = 0213

The following codes are used to enter the umlaut:

ä = 0228; Ä = 0196
ë = 0235; Ë = 0203
ï = 0239; Ï = 0207
ö = 0246; Ö = 0214
ü = 0252; Ü = 0220
ÿ = 0255; Ÿ = 0159

Release the Alt key. The superscript will appear above the corresponding letter (as shown in the previous step). The codes can be well memorized after some practice because there are quite a lot of them. If you often enter diacritics, make a cheat sheet and keep it near your computer so you can quickly find the code you need. If you constantly work with letters with superscripts, add appropriate keyboard layouts, which will increase your typing speed.

Entering diacritics in Mac OS X

Use keyboard shortcuts to enter accents on a Mac OS X computer. This method works in Pages and in a web browser. First, you need to hold down the Option key and then press a combination of two other keys to enter a specific superscript character.

Press Option + ` and then press the letter key you want to type gravis. Hold Option and press the "`" key. Release the keys. The screen will display a superscript highlighted yellow. Then press the key with the desired letter. Gravis can be placed over any vowel letter.

Press Option+E and then press the letter key to enter an accent. Hold Option and press the letter "E" key. Release the keys. The screen will display a superscript highlighted in yellow. Then press the key with the desired letter. An accent can be placed above any vowel.

Press Option + I and then press the letter key you want to type circumflex. Hold Option and press the letter "I" key. Release the keys. Then press the key with the desired letter. The circumflex can be placed over any vowel.

Press Option+N and then press the letter key you want to type a tilde. Hold Option and press the letter "N" key. Release the keys. Then press the key with the desired letter. A tilde can be placed above the letters A, N, O.

Press Option+U and then press the letter key you want to type umlaut. Hold Option and press the letter "U" key. Release the keys. Then press the key with the desired letter.

Hold Shift to enter a capital letter with a superscript. Do this before pressing other keyboard shortcuts. As a rule, if the desired letter is at the beginning of a sentence, it is automatically changed to capital.

Copying and pasting letters with diacritics

Learn diacritics first. It is necessary to enter letters with specific accent marks because the wrong diacritic can completely change the meaning of some words. The most common superscript characters used in European languages, are the following:

Gravis – à, è, m, ò, ù
Acute – á, é, í, ó, ú, ý
Circumflex – â, ê, î, ô, û
Tilde – ñ, õ, ã
Umlaut – ä, ë, ï, ö, ü, ÿ

Find an example of the letter or word you need. This can be done in an existing document, in a symbol table, or on the Internet. If you are looking for a word that includes a letter with a superscript on the Internet, copy the word directly from an online resource.

Many have seen unusual and beautiful symbols decorating a name, message or page in social networks, but only a few know where they come from.

In the operating room Windows system characters that are not on the keyboard are encrypted as numbers. Pressing a number in combination with the Alt key produces a special character that will change depending on the number.

Inserting hidden characters

Many people ask the question: “How to enter characters that are not on the keyboard?” This can be done in various ways:

using a symbol table;
combinations of Alt with numbers;
copying from the Internet;
copying from text editing software (Microsoft Office);
special online services.

Symbol table

Above is a table of symbols that are not on the keyboard. With its help, you can easily insert the symbol you like into the text and copy it to social networks.

How to open a symbol table

Opening a symbol table is very simple. The first thing you need to do is click “Start” and enter the phrase “Symbol table” in the computer search window.

Next step: click on the found phrase.

The symbol table can be easily found by knowing its location in the system. The path is as follows:

"Start".
All programs.
Standard.
Service.
Symbol table.

In order not to constantly perform many operations and mouse clicks, you can pin the link to the table on the “Taskbar” or in the “Start” menu. This is done like this: hover the cursor over the icon of the open program on the bottom taskbar, press the right mouse button to open additional functions, then with the left mouse button you need to click on the penultimate line (pin the program).

Using the symbol table

In the table, you can change the font, view help, and copy any of the characters presented to the clipboard. To copy them, double-click on the one you like and click on the “Copy” button. To insert into text, you need to place the cursor in the part of the text in which you want to place the element, click on the "Insert" menu, called up with the right mouse button. Or do the same using Ctrl and V.

Additional Symbol Table Options

The functionality of the program in question contains additional parameters, to enable which you need to check the appropriate box. The checkbox is located under the "For copying" line. The main advantage of additional parameters is the presence of "Grouping". It allows you to very quickly search for the required element to insert into the text by category (monetary, punctuation, arrows, numeric, technical). For proper operation groupings should be Unicode ranges.

For example, you can take the infinity sign. To find it, you need to go to the grouping and select the desired category (for the infinity sign - these are mathematical operators). Double-click on it and copy it to the clipboard.

Alt key and number combinations

In order for the symbol you need to appear on the screen, you need to click on the indicated number while holding down Alt. In order not to lose such a useful table, it is recommended to add it to your browser bookmarks or save it to your computer. For example, the combination of Alt and 1 produces the smiley symbol.

Copying from the Web

A very popular way to obtain the necessary characters that are not on the keyboard is to copy them from the Internet. This method is very simple and understandable for everyone, it consists of 2 steps:

finding the desired symbol or emoticon by creating a request in the search bar of the browser;
copy and paste to the desired location (text, message, status).

Symbols from Microsoft Office Word

You can find original symbols that are not on the keyboard in the very popular software from Microsoft Office Word. This method is similar to that described earlier. Its essence is that first we open Word program(it is installed on almost every computer), look for the “Insert” tab, and in the menu we find the “Insert Symbol” button. After this, a window appears with a huge amount various characters. In order to take the symbol you like from Word and paste it into another place, you need to paste the required symbol onto an empty sheet of Word, then select it and copy it (copying can be done using the Ctrl and C key combination).

Online services

Online services that provide the ability to quickly and conveniently select and copy your favorite symbol, emoticon or sign will help you diversify your page on VKontakte, tweets and posts on Facebook, and simply please your chat interlocutor.

Everything here is very simple and clear. Each button is a specific symbol. After clicking on any of them, the selected symbol appears in the window at the top. Below the window there are buttons with which you can change characters (font, size) or perform some action (copy, tweet, etc.). When you click Copy, the character(s) in the selection window are copied to your computer's clipboard. Only then does the user insert them into the message from the buffer.

Categories of hidden characters

All existing symbols that are not on the keyboard can be divided into the following categories:

numbers;
fractions;
signs of the zodiac;
musical notes;
symbols representing weather or precipitation;
card;
chess;
snowflakes;
flowers;
emotions;
arrows;
others.

12/25/14 63.2K

Everyone can type text today. Even the most staunch opponents of new technologies know how to type symbols on the keyboard ( but they don't do it out of principle). After all, all that is required is to find the key with the desired letter or punctuation mark and press it with your finger:

But sometimes situations arise when the desired character is simply not on the keyboard. For example, a person writes a text about temperature on South Pole, and there is no symbol indicating degrees. In this case, not only a beginner, but also a fairly experienced user may become confused ( or the one who considers himself to be one).

But there is certainly a way out of this situation. When the characters on the keyboard do not meet the requirements, you must use other input methods. Some of them will be discussed in this article.

Why isn't everything on the keyboard?

If you look just below the monitor screen, you can see different symbols on the keyboard, which nevertheless look very familiar. They are used, oddly enough, for printing, and humanity has been interested in this activity for quite a long time.

Back in 1868, the typewriter was introduced to the world ( although they tried to do this a century earlier), the letters on it were arranged in alphabetical order, and it took people 22 years to eliminate this inconvenience. In turn, in 1890, the QWERTY layout appeared, which migrated to modern keyboards.

Thus, the composition and arrangement of the main symbols were developed over the years, and over time, humanity did not come up with something radically new in this regard, but only improved the old.

Why do keyboards remain the same, and there is no one who wants to make money on the newness? You need to understand that large companies producing equipment must focus on a wide audience, so the symbols and signs on the keyboard are designed for the most general needs. To understand manufacturers, it is necessary to define the categories of people who use computers.

Regular users. They need to go online, check their email and, in some cases, write small texts ( messages, announcements):

These people do not require additional characters on the keyboard, and even those that are there are too many.

Programmers:

Keyboard symbols include the basic reserved constructs of many programming languages ( &, |, #, (), etc.). Such popular and most widely used languages as C, C++, Lisp, Java have an established syntax, which was initially partially adjusted to the symbols available on the keyboard. Therefore, if the standard layout changes significantly now, this will lead to significant inconvenience for programmers, and no one wants this.

Office workers. These comrades in most cases operate with numbers, so their needs closely intersect with those of programmers:

Mathematical operations, percentage and dollar signs are faithful companions of each report.

Needless to say, today everyone uses a computer, everywhere. In many cases, people need to enter characters that are not available on the keyboard. These could be some kind of scientific designations or simply more suitable means of display in a particular situation.

In order to accommodate all the known symbols, thousands of keyboards would be needed, but the keys have a remarkable property: they can be pressed several at a time. However, more on this later.

Special characters

We are accustomed to the fact that a character is something visual, but when formatting text it is often necessary to make indentations and line breaks, which are ignored by the browser when displayed. In this case, special characters are used. The keyboard does not have them, but in the html code you can, for example, write , which will mean a non-breaking space.

Let's imagine another situation: you are writing an article about Internet technologies and want to give examples of tags html language. But here’s the problem: you know how to put the symbols ( not small anymore), but the browser treats the tags as tags and renders nothing. In this case, special symbols come to the rescue again.

Sometimes the authors of articles are faced with a complicated problem: how to write characters on the keyboard if there are none on it. The weak give up and use tricks, calling into words what they could not type. Initiates turn to special symbols and find what they need:

For example, 7 is the Jewish star; The symbol is not on the keyboard, but it is very useful when writing religious texts.

Character codes

The codes for special characters in the html language have already been discussed above, but there are other ways to show what is not shown on the keyboard keys.

First of all, encoding standards should be mentioned: ASCII, Unicode, UTF-8, which allow you not only to enter characters using the keyboard, but also to set them programmatically, when not the number 300 is displayed on the screen, but beautiful heart (if the encoding is set to ASCII).

There is a way to expand existing characters on the keyboard - ALT code. To enter characters this way, you don’t need to go to any special editor:

In order to know how to make symbols on the keyboard ( even those that are not there and that you don’t know about), just have a sign in front of your eyes and, holding down the alt key, enter a sequence of numbers.

How to enter something that is not on the keyboard?

For those who do not know how to make symbols on the keyboard that are not displayed on the keys, putting together everything mentioned above, there are several ways.

Often, when first getting acquainted with a personal computer, the user has a question about what characters are on the keyboard and how to enter them. Within the framework of this article, each group of keys will be described in detail, indicating its purpose. A method for entering non-standard characters using ASCII codes will also be outlined. This material is of greatest interest to those who work with a text editor, such as Microsoft Word or another similar application (OpenOffice Writer).

Functional set

Let's start with There are 12 of them on the keyboard. They are located in the top row. Their purpose depends on open application at the current moment in time. Usually a hint is displayed at the bottom of the screen, and these are the most frequently performed operations in this program (for example, creating a directory in Norton Commander is “F7”).

Keys and register

A special group of keys are keys. They control the operation mode of another part of the keyboard. The first one is "Caps Lock". It changes the case of letters. By default, lowercase characters are entered. If we press this key once, then even when pressing the keys will appear This is the simplest and convenient way how to put characters on the keyboard with different case. The second key is "Num Lock". It is used to toggle the numeric keypad. When it is turned off, it can be used for navigation. But when turned on, it works like a regular calculator. The last key in this group is “Scroll Lock”. It is used in table processors. When it is inactive, it moves through the cells, and when it is turned on, the sheet scrolls.

Control

Separately, it is worth considering the control keys. First of all, these are arrows. They move the cursor one position left, right, up and down. There is also page navigation: “PgUp” (page up) and “PgDn” (page down). To go to the beginning of the line use “Home”, to the end - “End”. The control keys include “Shift”, “Alt” and “Ctrl”. Their combination switches the keyboard layout (this depends on the settings operating system).

While holding “Shift”, the case of the entered characters changes and it becomes possible to enter auxiliary characters. For example, let's find out how to type characters from this set on the keyboard. Let's enter "%". To do this, hold down “Shift” and “5”. The set of auxiliary characters depends on the active keyboard layout at the current time. That is, some characters are available in the English layout, and others are available in the Russian layout.

We pay attention to the symbols that are on the keyboard. Deleting a character on the left is "Backspace" and on the right is "Del". “Enter” - goes to a new line. Another special key is “Tab”. In a table, it provides a transition to the next cell, and at the end adds a new line. For text, pressing it causes an “increased” indentation between characters to appear. And in the file manager, pressing it leads to a transition to another panel.

Basic set

The main set depends on the active layout at the current time. It can be Russian or English. Switching between them is carried out using the combinations “Alt” + “Shift” on the left or “Ctrl” + “Shift”. The selected combination is determined in the operating system settings. You can find out the active combination by selection. That is, we click the first of them and look at the state language bar(located in the lower right corner of the screen). If the language has changed, it means that this is the combination we need (for example, from “En” to “Ru” or vice versa). The first one is installed by default.

The alphabetic characters on the keyboard are located in its central part and are divided into three rows. The more often a symbol is used, the closer it is to the center, the less often it is used, the further away it is from it. That is, the letters are distributed not alphabetically, but according to At first, it is difficult to get used to this principle of organizing the distribution of characters, but the more you work, the more you get used to it and understand that it is really convenient. One more nuance that needs to be taken into account. To momentarily switch between capital and in capital letters It is better to use “Shift”, and for long typing - “Caps Lock”.

Numeric keypad

Another required component of such input devices is a numeric keypad. It is located on the right side of it. It has two modes of operation: input and navigation. In the first case, characters are typed on the keyboard (these are numbers and basic mathematical operations). This is convenient when working with large A; in the second option, the keys for moving the cursor and page navigation are duplicated. That is, arrows for moving the marker, “PgUp”, “PgDn”, “Home” and “End” - all this is present here.

Switching between them is done using the “Num Lock” key. When it is turned off (the LED is inactive), navigation works, and when turned on, digital dialing works. If necessary, you can set the desired operating mode after loading personal computer in the BIOS (this is best done by advanced users, since beginners may have problems with this operation).

Punctuation marks

Punctuation marks on the keyboard are concentrated mostly near the right “Shift” key. This is a period and a comma. Also in English version layout is located here. The remaining symbols (colon, question mark and exclamation marks) are found on the main numeric keypad, which is located immediately below the function keys. To enter them, briefly hold down “Shift” and together with it the corresponding button.

About what doesn't exist

But what about the characters that are not on the keyboard? Is there any way to get them? The answer to this question is yes. There are two ways to type such characters. The first of them involves the use of text Word editor. After launching it, go to the “Insert” toolbar and select “Symbol” there. In the list that opens, select “Others”. Then a special input window will open. Here, using the navigation keys, find the desired symbol and press “Enter”.

Additional characters on the keyboard can be typed in another way - using ASCII codes. This works in all Windows applications - a major plus. The downside is that it uses a lot of code that you need to remember. First, we find out the digital code of the sign we need on the official website of Microsoft Corporation or in any other source where there is a corresponding table, and remember it. Then we go to the application we need.

Be sure to turn on “Num Lock”, hold down “Alt” and on the numeric keypad on the right, sequentially type the code found in the previous step. At the end, you need to release “Alt” and after that the desired symbol must appear. For example, to enter “ ”, use the combination “Alt” + “9829”. This is convenient to use for non-standard

Design of text messages in chat or pages on social networks. After all, it is much more convenient to remember a non-standard record than a regular one. And this decision just contributes to this.

Results

Within of this material all the characters on the keyboard that exist today were described. The purpose of all keys is indicated and practical examples of operation are given. It also shows a working methodology that allows you to go beyond the usual set of characters using ASCII codes. All this together will help the novice user to thoroughly understand the operation of the keyboard and understand the basic principles of the functioning of a personal computer.