Guest Nathan Sokalski Posted September 12, 2007 Posted September 12, 2007 I am attempting to enter Unicode characters in Notepad. From my understanding, this is done by using ALT+<DECIMAL CODE ON KEYPAD>. I have tried this with several codes that I got from the http://www.unicode.org site, but it did not show the correct characters (I admit that I did have to convert from hexadecimal to decimal, but that is not a hard task). For example, ALT+65532 should show the object replacement character, right? I thought that was correct, but it did not show that character. Is there something I am doing wrong? Also, does anybody know of a website that gives a complete listing of Unicode characters, with their codes in decimal, without categorizing them into groups (I basically just want a long scrollable list, or maybe a paged list, but I don't want to have to guess as to what category a character is in). If anybody can tell me what I am doing wrong in Notepad and/or where I can get a complete continuous list of Unicode characters, I would appreciate it. Thanks. -- Nathan Sokalski njsokalski@hotmail.com http://www.nathansokalski.com/
Guest Nightowl Posted September 12, 2007 Posted September 12, 2007 Re: Entering Unicode Characters in Notepad Hi Nathan There are several problems here :-) It can depend on your font, your input method and the program you want to use. First you need to make sure your selected font includes that character. Not all of them do. Times New Roman and Arial are two Windows standard fonts that have it, but Trebuchet, for example, just shows an empty box. With characters whose decimal code is higher than 255, the Alt+number method doesn't work in Notepad (some are remapped to lower numbers). More advanced programs such as Wordpad or Word will accept an Alt-code (but see note on Wordpad below). Or you can type the hex code, followed by Alt+X. So in Word 2003 I typed FFFC Alt+X and got your Object Replacement Character. Note that you must first select an appropriate font, as mentioned above. Notepad won't do it, but try it in Word, Wordpad or another "rich text" program. Another method is to copy the character from Character Map or similar program to the clipboard and paste it into your document. I like BabelMap, a free program with many more features: http://www.babelstone.co.uk/Software/BabelMap.html But yet another problem is it seems that not all glyphs are created equal, at least in Windows :-). I experimented with the Object Replacement Character in Times New Roman. I could type it directly in Word 2003 using the hex code or the Alt-code, but Wordpad resolutely showed a blank space. When I copied it from BabelMap to the clipboard and pasted it, Notepad happily displayed it while Wordpad still refused, even with "Paste Special". Both programs were set to use Times New Roman. In contrast, when I chose a small letter "w" with circumflex, both Wordpad and Notepad pasted it with no problems. In Wordpad I could also type it directly with 0175 Alt+X or the decimal equivalent Alt+373. Sorry if this all sounds terribly confusing, but I hope some of it helps :-) Oh, P.S.: in both Character Map and BabelMap, if you know the character you want you can search for it by name, rather than have to guess which category it's in. Nathan Sokalski <njsokalski@hotmail.com> wrote on Wed, 12 Sep 2007: >I am attempting to enter Unicode characters in Notepad. From my >understanding, this is done by using ALT+<DECIMAL CODE ON KEYPAD>. I have >tried this with several codes that I got from the http://www.unicode.org site, but >it did not show the correct characters (I admit that I did have to convert >from hexadecimal to decimal, but that is not a hard task). For example, >ALT+65532 should show the object replacement character, right? I thought >that was correct, but it did not show that character. Is there something I >am doing wrong? Also, does anybody know of a website that gives a complete >listing of Unicode characters, with their codes in decimal, without >categorizing them into groups (I basically just want a long scrollable list, >or maybe a paged list, but I don't want to have to guess as to what category >a character is in). If anybody can tell me what I am doing wrong in Notepad >and/or where I can get a complete continuous list of Unicode characters, I >would appreciate it. Thanks. -- Nightowl
Guest Luigi M Bianchi Posted September 13, 2007 Posted September 13, 2007 Re: Entering Unicode Characters in Notepad Nathan, You may also want to try BabelPad, at the same URL as BabelMap. This is a full unicode editor, which uses BabelMap. /luigi Nightowl <owl@[127.0.0.1]> wrote in news:Bo8N5uGBXA6GFwRh@black.hole: > Hi Nathan > > There are several problems here :-) It can depend on your font, your > input method and the program you want to use. > > First you need to make sure your selected font includes that > character. Not all of them do. Times New Roman and Arial are two > Windows standard fonts that have it, but Trebuchet, for example, just > shows an empty box. > > With characters whose decimal code is higher than 255, the Alt+number > method doesn't work in Notepad (some are remapped to lower numbers). > More advanced programs such as Wordpad or Word will accept an Alt-code > (but see note on Wordpad below). Or you can type the hex code, > followed by Alt+X. So in Word 2003 I typed FFFC Alt+X and got your > Object Replacement Character. Note that you must first select an > appropriate font, as mentioned above. Notepad won't do it, but try it > in Word, Wordpad or another "rich text" program. > > Another method is to copy the character from Character Map or similar > program to the clipboard and paste it into your document. I like > BabelMap, a free program with many more features: > http://www.babelstone.co.uk/Software/BabelMap.html > > But yet another problem is it seems that not all glyphs are created > equal, at least in Windows :-). I experimented with the Object > Replacement Character in Times New Roman. I could type it directly in > Word 2003 using the hex code or the Alt-code, but Wordpad resolutely > showed a blank space. When I copied it from BabelMap to the clipboard > and pasted it, Notepad happily displayed it while Wordpad still > refused, even with "Paste Special". Both programs were set to use > Times New Roman. > > In contrast, when I chose a small letter "w" with circumflex, both > Wordpad and Notepad pasted it with no problems. In Wordpad I could > also type it directly with 0175 Alt+X or the decimal equivalent > Alt+373. > > Sorry if this all sounds terribly confusing, but I hope some of it > helps >:-) Oh, P.S.: in both Character Map and BabelMap, if you know the > character you want you can search for it by name, rather than have to > guess which category it's in. > > > Nathan Sokalski <njsokalski@hotmail.com> wrote on Wed, 12 Sep 2007: > >>I am attempting to enter Unicode characters in Notepad. From my >>understanding, this is done by using ALT+<DECIMAL CODE ON KEYPAD>. I >>have tried this with several codes that I got from the http://www.unicode.org >>site, but it did not show the correct characters (I admit that I did >>have to convert from hexadecimal to decimal, but that is not a hard >>task). For example, ALT+65532 should show the object replacement >>character, right? I thought that was correct, but it did not show that >>character. Is there something I am doing wrong? Also, does anybody >>know of a website that gives a complete listing of Unicode characters, >>with their codes in decimal, without categorizing them into groups (I >>basically just want a long scrollable list, or maybe a paged list, but >>I don't want to have to guess as to what category a character is in). >>If anybody can tell me what I am doing wrong in Notepad and/or where I >>can get a complete continuous list of Unicode characters, I would >>appreciate it. Thanks. > -- Luigi M Bianchi Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Guest Nathan Sokalski Posted September 13, 2007 Posted September 13, 2007 Re: Entering Unicode Characters in Notepad Thanks, it definitely explains why I was unable to enter the characters in Notepad, but was able to copy & paste them (NOTE: you can select a font in Notepad, you just have to use the same one for the whole document). It's also interesting to know that even with the same font not all programs display it the same. Thank you for your help, maybe if we're lucky programs will start following the standard more completely, and possibly having a "font" called Unicode (something that is not really a font, but simply displays the Unicode character, with the keyboard characters mapped to the correct characters). Thanks again. -- Nathan Sokalski njsokalski@hotmail.com http://www.nathansokalski.com/ "Nightowl" <owl@[127.0.0.1]> wrote in message news:Bo8N5uGBXA6GFwRh@black.hole... > Hi Nathan > > There are several problems here :-) It can depend on your font, your input > method and the program you want to use. > > First you need to make sure your selected font includes that character. > Not all of them do. Times New Roman and Arial are two Windows standard > fonts that have it, but Trebuchet, for example, just shows an empty box. > > With characters whose decimal code is higher than 255, the Alt+number > method doesn't work in Notepad (some are remapped to lower numbers). More > advanced programs such as Wordpad or Word will accept an Alt-code (but see > note on Wordpad below). Or you can type the hex code, followed by Alt+X. > So in Word 2003 I typed FFFC Alt+X and got your Object Replacement > Character. Note that you must first select an appropriate font, as > mentioned above. Notepad won't do it, but try it in Word, Wordpad or > another "rich text" program. > > Another method is to copy the character from Character Map or similar > program to the clipboard and paste it into your document. I like BabelMap, > a free program with many more features: > http://www.babelstone.co.uk/Software/BabelMap.html > > But yet another problem is it seems that not all glyphs are created equal, > at least in Windows :-). I experimented with the Object Replacement > Character in Times New Roman. I could type it directly in Word 2003 using > the hex code or the Alt-code, but Wordpad resolutely showed a blank space. > When I copied it from BabelMap to the clipboard and pasted it, Notepad > happily displayed it while Wordpad still refused, even with "Paste > Special". Both programs were set to use Times New Roman. > > In contrast, when I chose a small letter "w" with circumflex, both Wordpad > and Notepad pasted it with no problems. In Wordpad I could also type it > directly with 0175 Alt+X or the decimal equivalent Alt+373. > > Sorry if this all sounds terribly confusing, but I hope some of it helps > :-) Oh, P.S.: in both Character Map and BabelMap, if you know the > character you want you can search for it by name, rather than have to > guess which category it's in. > > > Nathan Sokalski <njsokalski@hotmail.com> wrote on Wed, 12 Sep 2007: > >>I am attempting to enter Unicode characters in Notepad. From my >>understanding, this is done by using ALT+<DECIMAL CODE ON KEYPAD>. I have >>tried this with several codes that I got from the http://www.unicode.org site, >>but >>it did not show the correct characters (I admit that I did have to convert >>from hexadecimal to decimal, but that is not a hard task). For example, >>ALT+65532 should show the object replacement character, right? I thought >>that was correct, but it did not show that character. Is there something I >>am doing wrong? Also, does anybody know of a website that gives a complete >>listing of Unicode characters, with their codes in decimal, without >>categorizing them into groups (I basically just want a long scrollable >>list, >>or maybe a paged list, but I don't want to have to guess as to what >>category >>a character is in). If anybody can tell me what I am doing wrong in >>Notepad >>and/or where I can get a complete continuous list of Unicode characters, I >>would appreciate it. Thanks. > > -- > Nightowl
Guest Nightowl Posted September 13, 2007 Posted September 13, 2007 Re: Entering Unicode Characters in Notepad Nathan Sokalski <njsokalski@hotmail.com> wrote on Wed, 12 Sep 2007: >Thanks, it definitely explains why I was unable to enter the characters in >Notepad, but was able to copy & paste them (NOTE: you can select a font in >Notepad, you just have to use the same one for the whole document). It's >also interesting to know that even with the same font not all programs >display it the same. Thank you for your help, maybe if we're lucky programs >will start following the standard more completely, and possibly having a >"font" called Unicode (something that is not really a font, but simply >displays the Unicode character, with the keyboard characters mapped to the >correct characters). Thanks again. You're very welcome, Nathan. Hmm. . . I think you'd really need to be a multi-tentacled creature with a very large desk if you were to have such a keyboard, since there are thousands of Unicode characters :-) Just teasing, I know what you mean and it's definitely A Good Thing that programs are becoming more compliant -- especially from my point of view as a typesetter. -- Nightowl
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