Novice users may not be aware of the existence of a simple way to enter special characters from the keyboard. You don't even need additional programs for this.
It is a well-known fact that a limited set of special characters can be entered from the keys of a conventional computer keyboard. Fortunately for users, any operating system has a special toolkit that allows you to freely enter rare characters such as paragraph, degree, Christmas tree quotes, etc. in text documents.
How to enter absolutely any characters using standard Windows OS tools?
Each character in the operating systems of the Windows family is assigned its own numeric code. Theoretically, if the user knows the code of a special character, then he can enter it from his keyboard, and Windows will automatically convert this code into the corresponding character. To enter the code, hold down the alt="Image" key (both left and right) and hold it until the end of entering the numeric code on the additional block of numeric keys.
Tellingly, the code of many special characters in Windows starts with the letter "A", which is actually replaced by pressing the Alt key. For example, to enter the character A065, the user just needs to hold down the alt="Image" key and then dial the code 065 on the block of digital keys.
Categories of special character codes
All codes can be divided into two categories - three and four digits. If the special character code contains only three digits, then this is a simple code of the old PC866 table. Values over 255 are not found in this category and are compatible with DOS applications. Windows OS correctly displays these codes, but transforms them into CP1251 tables or Unicode.
All existing characters are theoretically encoded in four-digit codes. All four-digit codes in the range from 0128 to 0255 correspond to characters from table CP1252. If the code exceeds the value 0255, then it is clearly contained in the Unicode table. But most of the old and simple Unicode programs cannot handle codes greater than 0255. There is no problem with this nuance, except for Microsoft Word.
In order not to memorize the codes of all frequently used special characters, you can use the symbol table. It is present in all generations of Windows and is contained in the Start menu in the general list of programs in the Utilities category.
In the main window of the symbol table, the user sees a set of special symbols. It is enough for him to select the required symbol and look at the lower right corner of the program window - there is indicated a key combination for entering this symbol from the keyboard. You can act differently: select the desired symbol, click on the "Select" button, and then "Copy". To paste a symbol copied to the clipboard, just go to a text editor and use the CTRL + V keyboard shortcut.
