"Maxine" <missmax2@yahoo.com> wrote:
> "Carey Frisch [MVP]" <cnfrisch@nospamgmail.com> wrote:
>> "Maxine" <missmax2@yahoo.com> wrote:

>> I cannot get the correct symbol or character to show when I used the Alt
>> +
>> code in Windows mail or in Microsoft Works. For example when I type
>> Alt+0162 which should be the 'cent' sign I get a smiley face. It only
>> works
>> when I copy and paste to the document. How can I make it work using the
>> Alt+ command?

>> Make sure your keyboard's Num Lock is "on", then
>> press & hold ALT and type in 0162 using only the Numeric
>> Keyboard.

> I checked and the num lock is 'on', pressed & held ALT and typed 0162
> using numeric keypad and this is what I get ? ( a smiley face). Any
> other suggestions I can try?

I don't know what configurations you've set for your system, but your smiley
face as pasted into this message is certainly not what you should get with
ALT+0162.

Looking at the actual character in your posting I see that your smiley face
is Unicode character U263B, which is the negative smiley face in almost
every current Unicode-supporting font you're likely to find on a Windows
box. Similarly, ALT+0162 (also known as Unicode character U00A2) is the
cent sign in almost all fonts.

A fragment from your posting that includes the smiley is actually:

w+h+a+t+ +I+ +g+e+t+ + + +;& +(+ +a+ +s+m+i+l+e+y+

where '+' represents a zero byte (0x00). Note that your smiley is the only
character with both bytes nonzero; the cent sign would be 0xA200.

I would be inclined to look for some setting on your system that is
"helpfully" trying to convert emoticons into "art" glyphs, although I'm
hard-pressed to see how a cent sign maps to a negative smiley.

On my system entering ALT+0162 yields the expected ¢ glyph.

Joe Morris