Special Characters - The Alt Key Entry Method
The chart below lists many special characters supported by DBT. Although superseded by more convenient methods on most Windows systems, the "Alt-key" method for entering characters that do not appear on the keyboard can still occasionally be quite useful. In the list below, find your character, note the number next to "DOS:" or "Win:" and follow these directions.
Turn on the Num Lock (a key on the numeric keypad on full keyboards). Hold down the Alt key (you might be required to use the left Alt key), and enter a 3 or 4 digit decimal number on the Numeric keypad. Then release the Alt key.
If the number does not start with zero, it is accepted as a character in the old MS-DOS code page, also known as Code Page 437.
If the number starts with zero, it is interpreted as a character in the current Windows 8-bit code page. For the chart below, we assume the use of Code Page 1252 (the most common).
For example, using the chart below you can enter the Euro symbol by keying Alt + 0128.
Note: If there is no DOS or Windows value for a character, a dash (-) appears in the column. (See also, the notes below this chart.)
|
Char |
DUSCI |
DOS |
Windows-1252 |
Character Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Ç |
D+80 |
DOS:128 |
Win:0199 |
Latin capital letter c with cedilla |
|
ü |
D+81 |
DOS:129 |
Win:0252 |
Latin small letter u with diaeresis |
|
é |
D+82 |
DOS:130 |
Win:0233 |
Latin small letter e with acute |
|
â |
D+83 |
DOS:131 |
Win:0226 |
Latin small letter a with circumflex |
|
ä |
D+84 |
DOS:132 |
Win:0228 |
Latin small letter a with diaeresis |
|
à |
D+85 |
DOS:133 |
Win:0224 |
Latin small letter a with grave |
|
å |
D+86 |
DOS:134 |
Win:0229 |
Latin small letter a with ring above |
|
ç |
D+87 |
DOS:135 |
Win:0231 |
Latin small letter c with cedilla |
|
ê |
D+88 |
DOS:136 |
Win:0234 |
Latin small letter e with circumflex |
|
ë |
D+89 |
DOS:137 |
Win:0235 |
Latin small letter e with diaeresis |
|
è |
D+8a |
DOS:138 |
Win:0232 |
Latin small letter e with grave |
|
ï |
D+8b |
DOS:139 |
Win:0239 |
Latin small letter i with diaeresis |
|
î |
D+8c |
DOS:140 |
Win:0238 |
Latin small letter i with circumflex |
|
ì |
D+8d |
DOS:141 |
Win:0236 |
Latin small letter i with grave |
|
Ä |
D+8e |
DOS:142 |
Win:0196 |
Latin capital letter a with diaeresis |
|
Å |
D+8f |
DOS:143 |
Win:0197 |
Latin capital letter a with ring above |
|
É |
D+90 |
DOS:144 |
Win:0201 |
Latin capital letter e with acute |
|
ô |
D+93 |
DOS:147 |
Win:0244 |
Latin small letter o with circumflex |
|
ö |
D+94 |
DOS:148 |
Win:0246 |
Latin small letter o with diaeresis |
|
ò |
D+95 |
DOS:149 |
Win:0242 |
Latin small letter o with grave |
|
û |
D+96 |
DOS:150 |
Win:0251 |
Latin small letter u with circumflex |
|
ù |
D+97 |
DOS:151 |
Win:0249 |
Latin small letter u with grave |
|
ÿ |
D+98 |
DOS:152 |
Win:0255 |
Latin small letter y with diaeresis |
|
Ö |
D+99 |
DOS:153 |
Win:0214 |
Latin capital letter o with diaeresis |
|
Ü |
D+9a |
DOS:154 |
Win:0220 |
Latin capital letter u with diaeresis |
|
€ |
D+ed5c |
- |
Win:0128 |
Euro symbol |
|
¢ |
D+9b |
DOS:155 |
Win:0162 |
Cent sign |
|
¥ |
D+9d |
DOS:157 |
Win:0165 |
Yen sign |
|
á |
D+a0 |
DOS:160 |
Win:0225 |
Latin small letter a with acute |
|
í |
D+a1 |
DOS:161 |
Win:0237 |
Latin small letter i with acute |
|
ó |
D+a2 |
DOS:162 |
Win:0243 |
Latin small letter o with acute |
|
ú |
D+a3 |
DOS:163 |
Win:0250 |
Latin small letter u with acute |
|
ñ |
D+a4 |
DOS:164 |
Win:0241 |
Latin small letter n with tilde |
|
Ñ |
D+a5 |
DOS:165 |
Win:0209 |
Latin capital letter n with tilde |
|
¿ |
D+a8 |
DOS:168 |
Win:0191 |
Inverted question mark |
|
¡ |
D+ad |
DOS:173 |
Win:0161 |
Inverted exclamation mark |
|
÷ |
D+f6 |
DOS:246 |
Win:0247 |
Division sign (line between two dots) |
|
× |
D+f7 |
DOS:247 |
Win:0215 |
Multiplication sign |
|
° |
D+f8 |
DOS:248 |
Win:0176 |
Degree sign |
|
· |
D+f9 |
DOS:249 |
Win:0183 |
Middle dot |
|
 |
D+9c83 |
- |
Win:0194 |
Latin capital letter a with circumflex
|
|
À |
D+9c85 |
- |
Win:0192 |
Latin capital letter a with grave accent |
|
Ê |
D+9c88 |
- |
Win:0202 |
Latin capital letter e with circumflex
|
|
Ë |
D+9c89 |
- |
Win:0203 |
Latin capital letter e with diaeresis |
|
È |
D+9c8a |
- |
Win:0200 |
Latin capital letter e with grave accent |
|
Ï |
D+9c8b |
- |
Win:0207 |
Latin capital letter i with diaeresis |
|
Î |
D+9c8c |
- |
Win:0206 |
Latin capital letter i with circumflex
|
|
Ì |
D+9c8d |
- |
- |
Latin capital letter i with grave accent |
|
Ô |
D+9c93 |
- |
Win:0212 |
Latin capital letter o with circumflex
|
|
Ò |
D+9c95 |
- |
Win:0210 |
Latin capital letter o with grave accent |
|
Û |
D+9c96 |
- |
Win:0219 |
Latin capital letter u with circumflex
|
|
Ù |
D+9c97 |
- |
Win:0217 |
Latin capital letter u with grave accent |
|
Á |
D+9ca0 |
- |
Win:0193 |
Latin capital letter a with acute accent |
|
Í |
D+9ca1 |
- |
Win:0205 |
Latin capital letter i with acute accent |
|
Ó |
D+9ca2 |
- |
Win:0211 |
Latin capital letter o with acute accent |
|
Ú |
D+9ca3 |
- |
Win:0218 |
Latin capital letter u with acute accent |
|
£ |
D+f523 |
DOS:156 |
Win:0163 |
Pound sign (British pound sterling) |
|
§ |
D+f527 |
- |
Win:0167 |
Section sign (Section mark) |
|
± |
D+f531 |
- |
Win:0177 |
Plus-minus sign (plus or minus) |
|
¶ |
D+f536 |
- |
Win:0182 |
Pilcrow sign (paragraph mark) |
|
à |
D+f543 |
- |
Win:0195 |
Latin capital letter a with tilde |
|
Õ |
D+f555 |
- |
Win:0213 |
Latin capital letter o with tilde |
|
ã |
D+f563 |
- |
Win:0227 |
Latin small letter a with tilde |
|
õ |
D+f575 |
- |
Win:0245 |
Latin small letter o with tilde |
If your document is not using the Windows-1252 code page, you can still look up the DOS value for most of these characters. Also, Duxbury can expand this chart if given good input from our users regarding which other code pages are most helpful in their work.