Special characters

The Numlock key? Try pressing it. XP is like all other windows. Alt + Number
from Keypad. XP helps explains it in detail. Note ñ (Alt + 164) is different
to ¤ (Alt + 0164)
To input characters that are not on your keyboard

1.. Press and hold the ALT key, and then press the keys on the numeric
keypad that represent the decimal code value of the character you want to
input.
2.. After you finish typing, release the ALT key.
Windows generates the character you specified.

Notes

a.. If the first digit you type is 0, the value is recognized as a code
point, or character value, in the current input language. For example, when
your current input language is US-English (Code page 1252: Windows Latin-1),
pressing ALT and then typing 0163 on the numeric keypad produces £, the
pound sign (U+00A3). When your current input language is Russia (code page
1251: Windows Cyrillic), the same key sequence produces the Cyrillic capital
letter JE (U+0408).
b.. If the first digit you type is any number from 1 through 9, the value
is recognized as a code point in the system's OEM code page. The result
differs depending on the Windows system language specified in Regional and
Language Options in Control Panel. For example, if your system language is
English (US), the code page is 437 (MS-DOS Latin US), so pressing ALT and
then typing 163 on the numeric keypad produces ú (U+00FA, Latin lowercase
letter U with acute). If your system language is Greek (OEM code page 737
MS-DOS Greek), the same sequence produces the Greek lowercase letter MU
(U+03BC).
"Russell McGee" <rmcgee@kcbx.net> wrote in message
news:092501c3854a$fdd2a360$a101280a@phx.gbl...

> I recently converted from Windows 98 to Windows XP. I
> usually enter text in English, but some times use some
> Spanish. When I used Windows 98, I could enter special
> Spanish Characters such as vowels with an accent mark or
> an "n" with a tilde over it by typing ALT + code, where
> code is a three digit number entered on the keypad. For
> example, an "n" with a tilde over it is obtained by
> typing ALT + 164.
>
> Since the installation of Windows XP, this no longer
> works. Has this feature been discontinued or is there a
> setting or an option that I must activate?