Thursday, February 14, 2008

Part 2: ASCII WHY?

When I want to type a cents sign (¢) on a Mac, I type option-4 (option-#) and it pops right up. If I want to type a jolly pounds sign (£), it's option-3 (option-#). If I want a Paragraph marker (¶) it's option-7. Sure not all of the shortcuts make sense (option-E then __ for an accent) and some are kind of roundabout (the aforementioned accent, the option-U then __ for a diaseris) but they are all there. When all else fails I hold down the option key and the shift-option and scroll across the keyboard until I get what I want.

¡™£¢∞§¶•ªº–œ∑´®†¥¨ˆøπåß∂ƒ©˙∆˚¬…Ω≈ç√∫⁄€‹›fifl‡°·‚—

Look at all that good stuff!

Now...in Windows, there is no option key. There is an alt key that seems to be pretty much useless. To get one of these symbols, you have to figure out (using google in my case) that you have to hold down the ALT key and type a three digit ascii code that has nothing to do with anything. At least in html you can type & and get an ampersand. Not in Windows. Nope.

I hate windows.

my dad responds

In Word there is a whole screen that you can get to insert a special
character, and it even gives you a hint of the keystroke combination.
Talk about shooting fleas with an elephant gun...

1 comment:

Buffalo said...

just found this blog. love it. i'm forced to use a pc at work, and it makes me completely insane.

a couple of points; option-e makes sense since that accent can (in french at least) only be used on an e. option-u makes sense because it's also called an umlaut.