Computersight -

You can see an option of all the special characters available on Windows by opening a small program that comes with your computer called: “Character Map”

To bring out the Program on any version of Windows you can find it under Programs/Accessories/System Tools/Character Map. To bring out this program on Vista is very easy just enter in “Start Search” the programs name Char… you can write part of the name and it will come out.  

Then open the program and a small window like this shows, up like on the image below:

 
screenshot by author

Here you select the symbol you want to use, and on the bottom right edge of that window, it shows you which keys you have to press to bring out the symbol. Remember to hold down the Alt key during the whole time that you’re typing numbers, and that the numbers be the ones from numeric keypad which is normally placed on the right hand side on a Desktop’s keyboard. Num Lock can sometimes affect your number typing so check it is off. So to make this symbol “ Þ “  you type Alt + 0222. Makes a cool smiley =Þ   

In a laptop it’s pretty similar, you just have to hold another key besides Alt, called Fn, this key is usually on the bottom left side of your laptop and has a different color like blue or purple. This key works with all other things labeled on your keys in the same color: So if you want to use the code Alt + 0222, you hold down Alt + Fn + 0222, and make sure you hold down Fn and Alt during the whole time you type with the blue numbers.

Location of Keys on Laptop

image by author