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High byte of Unicode keypad input ignored

Anonymous
2010-05-23T15:49:23+00:00

On Windows 2000, one could enter Unicode characters numerically by holding down Alt and typing the Unicode code prefixed with a 0. On Windows Vista, this does not work correctly as only the low order byte is used. For example, Alt+08801 produces a lowercase "a" instead of the identical sign ≡. Is Microsoft aware of this, and is a fix planned? Or is it just a configuration issue?

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Devices and drivers

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  1. Anonymous
    2010-05-24T02:13:42+00:00

    Ever since at least Windows 3.1, holding down the Alt key and typing numeric-keypad 0 followed by the decimal value of the current 256-character character set has produced the corresponding character in that character set. This has never had anything to do with Unicode and is unchanged in Windows Vista. If you type a number greater in value than 255, the character value has always wrapped. Vista works in exactly the same fashion.

    In Microsoft Word and in WordPad a fix was added to enable Unicode characters if you typed a decimal number greater than 255, with or without a leading 0, on the numeric keypad while holding down the Alt key. Then the number typed would cause the corresponding Unicode character to appear. But this only works in Word or WordPad. You must be misremembering if you believe this worked generally.

    If you want this to work in the entire Windows system rather than just in Microsoft Word and WordPad, I suggest you download and install the free Quick Unicode Input Tool from http://www.cardbox.com/quick.htm .

    Search on EnableHexNumpad in Google to see a method which Microsoft set up to allow Unicode entry, but does not enable, probably because the keystrokes required often cause a menu to activate.

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  2. Anonymous
    2013-01-20T04:03:15+00:00

    Cardbox unicode input tool page is 'not found' .There is no mention of it on their website. Any ideas anyone,

    Thanks

    S

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  3. Anonymous
    2014-04-14T23:44:15+00:00

    You can still access and download the unicode input tool via the Wayback Machine https://web.archive.org/web/20080329011713/http://www.cardbox.com/quick.htm. 

    If you're on Windows 7 or 8, you will probably have to install as administrator (and set the program to run using Windows XP SP3 compatability mode).

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