Family Historian User Group

Below is a table of the special characters available using the Alt key and the number pad.
For example to type a euro symbol € hold down the ALT key and type 0128 on the numberpad of your keyboard.
In addition The Character Map utility is free on all Windows machines and can be used to copy and paste accented letters and other foreign language characters characters into any Windows application. The Character Map is similar to the Insert Symbol tool found in some Windows applications such as Microsoft Word and Microsoft FrontPage.
To open the Character Map utility Click on the Windows Start menu, on the lower left of your screen. Select Programs » Accessories » System Tools » Character Map. (OR click Start, Run, and type Charmap).
After choosing a font, double click the desired character(s), click on Copy, return to your document and paste.
NOTE: On some PCs, the Character Map may be in another location under Accessories or the Start menu.

Alt-0128  € Alt-0252  ü Alt-0129   Alt-0130  ‚ Alt-0131  ƒ Alt-0132  „ Alt-0253  ý Alt-0133  … Alt-0134  † Alt-0135  ‡ Alt-0136  ˆ Alt-0254  þ Alt-0137  ‰ Alt-0138  Š Alt-0139  ‹ Alt-0140  Œ Alt-0255  ÿ Alt-0141   Alt-0142  Ž Alt-0143   Alt-0144   Alt-0248  ø Alt-0145  ‘ Alt-0146  ’ Alt-0147  " Alt-0148  " Alt-0249  ù Alt-0149  • Alt-0150  – Alt-0151  — Alt-0152  ˜ Alt-0250  ú Alt-0153  ™ Alt-0154  š Alt-0155  › Alt-0156  œ Alt-0251  û Alt-0157   Alt-0158  ž Alt-0159  Ÿ Alt-0160  Alt-0244  ô Alt-0161  ¡ Alt-0162  ¢ Alt-0163  £ Alt-0164  ¤ Alt-0245  õ Alt-0165  ¥ Alt-0166  ¦ Alt-0167  § Alt-0168  ¨ Alt-0246  ö Alt-0169  © Alt-0170  ª Alt-0171 « Alt-0172  ¬ Alt-0247  ÷ Alt-0173  ­ Alt-0174  ® Alt-0175  ¯ Alt-0176  ° Alt-0240  ð Alt-0177  ± Alt-0178  ² Alt-0179  ³ Alt-0180  ´ Alt-0241  ñ Alt-0181  µ Alt-0182  ¶ Alt-0183  · Alt-0184  ¸ Alt-0242  ò Alt-0185  ¹ Alt-0186  º Alt-0187  » Alt-0188  ¼ Alt-0243  ó Alt-0189  ½ Alt-0190  ¾ Alt-0191  ¿ Alt-0192  À Alt-0236  ì Alt-0193  Á Alt-0194   Alt-0195  à Alt-0196  Ä Alt-0237  í Alt-0197  Å Alt-0198  Æ Alt-0199  Ç Alt-0200 È Alt-0238  î Alt-0201  É Alt-0202  Ê Alt-0203  Ë Alt-0204  Ì Alt-0239  ï Alt-0205  Í Alt-0206  Î Alt-0207  Ï Alt-0208  Ð Alt-0232  è Alt-0209  Ñ Alt-0210  Ò Alt-0211  Ó Alt-0212  Ô Alt-0233  é Alt-0213  Õ Alt-0214  Ö Alt-0215  × Alt-0216  Ø Alt-0234  ê Alt-0217  Ù Alt-0218  Ú Alt-0219  Û Alt-0220  Ü Alt-0235  ë Alt-0221  Ý Alt-0222  Þ Alt-0223  ß Alt-0224  à Alt-0231  ç Alt-0225  á Alt-0226  â Alt-0227  ã Alt-0228  ä Alt-0230  æ Alt-0229  å

Many thanks for the key to the special characters.
However, ther may be more than one set available - or different results may be obtained for different font sets.
I have used a different set for years (covering many font sets, typically Helvetica, Arial, Times New Roman, and other popular fonts) which gives completely different results. A few of the ones I use frequently are illustrated below:-

Alt-128 Ç Alt-130 é Alt-138 è Alt-136 ê

If it would be useful (or would it only confuse things ?) I could post a full set here.

Following my comment yesterday,(02/11/04), I should have mentioned that the codes I used as examples are the Decimal ASCII codes for the respective symbols. Likewise Alt+171 gives ½, and Alt+172 gives ¼.

.. to post any additional information.

If you use special characters a lot (as I do as most of my family comes from Poland nad have names full of them) it may be worth installing a particular language keyboard. Windows (from 2000 onwards) comes with dozens of foreign keyboards. You can isntall them easilly from 'Regional and Language Options' (XP) or 'Keyboard' (2k) of the Control Panel. Then type as if you were resident in the country af a keyboard. Because The FH doesn't support unicode character sets (as yet) initially you'll get unintended characters on screen, but changing the sub-set of a font of a diagram or records window to, say, Central European from the default Western cures the problem.

On 27.10.2004, Jane (Admin)produced a list of special characters, that were available by using a series of codes e.g. Alt + a 4 digit number. I would like to use a small solid black square in my box type printouts. Is there a code for such a character, as in the TT Marlett font, please ? Thanks.

I need to use French accents in my family tree and I can see from Jane's post (above) that ALT plus some digits would allow that. Of course one can cut and paste from WORD too.

I also saw that support for Unicode is on the wish list and that Simon had indicated this should help with multiple-language support. Is it intended as part of this unicode support to provide some kind of symbol insertion function within the Property Dialogue box (as in MS WORD)? I find that helpful for occasional use as it avoids having to remember the ALT+xxxx codes.