Tip #33 - How to enter a © (copyright) symbol (and others...)

Windows allows you to enter many alternate symbols besides those you see on the keyboard keys, and these include things such as: ©, ®, £, ¼, ½, ¾, † and others. There are at least two ways to enter these kinds of symbols:

Use Windows' Character Map:

Go to the Start menu and look under Programs|Accessories for the "Character Map" application (this is an accessory which might not be installed by default with Windows, so if you can't find it on your Start menu you may have to install it from your Windows installation disk).

This accessory displays all the characters available with the various fonts on your system, and most fonts include a copyright symbol, and others. To use it, click on the symbol you want, hit "Select" to put the character in the "Characters to Copy" window, then hit "Copy" to copy the character to the clipboard.

Now you can paste the symbol into any text line or "Staff Text" dialog by hitting Ctrl+V so you get something like this:

© 1998 by Yowza Software

While you have the Character Map open notice that when you click on a symbol you'll see a "Keystroke" hint in the bottom right corner. This is useful for the other method of entering these exotic symbols...

Use Alt+Keystroke Code

The Character Map says the keystroke code for © is Alt+0169. This means you can enter a © symbol anywhere you want by simply holding down the Alt key, then USING THE NUMERIC KEYPAD enter 0169 (don't forget the leading "0"), then lift the Alt key. You must use the numeric keypad (the group of number keys in a separate block, usually on the right side of most keyboards) because hitting the regular number keys won't work.

If you use a laptop (as I always do) you will probably have to activate the "numeric keypad overlay" which turns a portion of your keyboard into a virtual numeric keypad, then hold down Alt, then hit the numeric keypad overlay digits (NOT THE REGULAR NUMBER KEYS!), then let go of Alt. Then don't forget to de-activate the numeric keypad overlay!

Here are keyboard codes for some of the exotic symbols you may want to use (from the Times Roman character map):

ƒ - 0131 (for fortissimo symbol in staff text?)
† - 0134 (for footnotes, and Christian music?)
™ - 0153 (if you want to be a stickler for stuff like: Windows™ )
£ - 0163 (for specifying prices in England)
¥ - 0165 (for specifying prices in Japan)
© - 0169 (you know...)
® - 0174 (for registered trademarks, such as MusEdit® -eventually!)
¼ - 0188 (alternatives for MusEdit's "degree of bend" symbols
½ - 0189 -you can use these in Staff Text)
¾ - 0190

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