Keyboard secrets: how to write with characters that are not on the keyboard
Sometimes a situation arises when you need to use a special character in some text, but there is no key with such a character on the keyboard. How to be? There are several ways. If you are typing in a text editor Microsoft Word 2007, then everything is simple: just select the "Symbol" item on the "Insert" tab. In the drop-down list, select the desired symbol or click on "More symbols ...". In the dialog box that opens, find the desired character and press the "Insert" key. You can also paste by double-clicking on the selected symbol.
But what if you are working in a simple Notepad editor? In this case, you need to do this. Press and hold the Alt key and use the numeric keypad to type special code symbol. The number keys you need are usually located on the right side of the keyboard desktop computer, and you can enable them by pressing the NumLock button.
If you are working with a laptop, then these keys are the same as some of the keys for letters. You can "enable" them with a special combination, usually the Fn + key, which says NumLock or NumLk.
Here are some character codes.
●Step by step:
1. Turn on the NumLock button (on the right side of the keyboard)
2. Hold Alt.
3. And simultaneously with the alt key pressed, we type on digital block combination.
4. Press Alt.
5. We admire the icon.
●On laptops without a Num Pad keyboard, open the Start menu > Programs > Accessories > Special abilities > Screen keyboard. Use virtual buttons.
● You can also use transliteration for character set.
● The ALT key also allows you to type standard characters such as dog or bullets.
●Do not skip zeros in the code, zero must also be pressed.
● Hold down the ALT key + the combination of numbers specified in the code. You need to hold the ALT key without releasing until you have dialed all the digits of the code. Then a symbol will appear.
More symbols:
Copyright
heart
® Reserved
℠ Service Mark
℃ Celsius
℉ Fahrenheit
No. License plate
℗ Recording copyright
℞ Pharmaceutical symbol
℧ Inverted Ohm
☀ Sun
☂ Umbrella
☃ Snowman
☄ Comet
★ Star (shaded)
☆ Star (outlines)
☇ Lightning
☉ Sun (outline)
☊ Ascending node
☋ Descending node
☌ Pairing
☍ Opposition
☎ Phone (shaded)
☏ Telephone (contour) 9743]
☐ Empty square
☑ Checkbox
☒ Crossed Square X
☓ St. Andrew's Cross
☚ Finger pointing left (shaded)
☛ Finger pointing right (shaded)
☜ Finger pointing left (outline)
☝ Finger pointing up (outline)
☞ Finger pointing to the right (outline)
☟ Finger pointing down (outline)
☠ Skull and Bones
☡ Warning sign
☢ Sign of radiation
☣ Biohazard sign
☤ Caduceus (rod of Hermes)
☦ Eastern Christian Cross
☧ Christogram
☨ Patriarchal Cross
☩ Greek Cross
☪ Moon and star
☫ Farsi symbol
☬ Adi Shakti
☭ Hammer and sickle
☮ Peace sign
☯ Yin and Yang
☰ Trigram sky
☱ Trigram Lake
☲ Trigram fire
☳ Thunder Trigram
☴ Trigram wind
☵ Trigram Water
☶ Trigram mountain
☷ Trigram earth
☸ Wheel of Dharma
☹ Sad emoticon
☺ Cheerful emoticon
☻ Black smiley
☽ Growing moon
☾ Falling moon
☿ Mercury
♀ Venus (female sign)
♂ Mars (male sign)
♃ Jupiter
♄ Saturn
♆ Neptune
♇ Pluto
♊ Gemini
♏ Scorpio
♐ Sagittarius
♑ Capricorn
♒ Aquarius
♔ White king
♕ White Queen
♖ White Rook
♗ White elephant
♘ White horse
♙ White pawn
♚ Black King
♛ Black Queen
♜ Black Rook
♝ Black elephant
♞ Black horse
♟ Black pawn
♠ Black pike
♤ Pica (outline)
Heart (shaded) or heart
♦ Tambourine (shaded)
♧ Clubs (outline)
♨ Geyser
♩ Musical quarter note
♪ Musical eighth note
♫ Two notes connected
♬ Two notes connected by a double bar
♭ Flat
♮ Natural scale sound
✁ Cut from the top
✂ Cut here
✃ Cut from the bottom
✄ Scissors
✆ Public phone
✇ Cassette
✈ Airport/Airplane
✉ Envelope/email
✌ Mark of Victory
✍ Signature
✎ Diagonal Pencil
✏ Pencil
✐ Diagonal pencil looking up
✓ Checkmark
✔ Bold tick
✕ Multiplication Sign/X
✖ Bold multiplication sign/X
✗ Tilt X sign
✘ Bold slanted X
✝ Roman Cross
✞ Roman Cross 3D
✟ Latin cross (outline)
✠ Maltese Cross
✡ Star of David
❛ Quote sign
❜ Quote Mark (Inverted)
❝ Double quotation marks
❞ Double quotation marks (reversed)
™ Trademark ○= 777
When writing, I ran into a small problem - how to put the ° degree sign (or any other sign that is not on the keyboard) when writing text directly in the browser, without the help of text editors. The solution was found in the Windows help, when typing the word "symbols" in the search bar (for a quick jump to Windows Help press combination WIN+F1 ) :
Also, the windows symbol table will appear before you if you follow the following path Programs→Accessories→Utilities→Character Map:
After opening it, select, for example, the "infinity" sign, copy it to the clipboard and paste it where you want:
In order not to look for a symbol among many others, you can use grouping. To do this, in the column of the same name, select Unicode ranges and in the mini window that appears, look for desired group, for example Symbols and icons:
For some characters (unfortunately not for all), there is the possibility of typing with a combination of hot keys, for example, for the § sign, this will be Alt + 0167:
Only numbers need to be typed on the numeric keypad, and after releasing the Alt key, the desired character is displayed in any program or browser. Here are some character codes:
- Alt+0167 § paragraph
- Alt+0176 ° degree
- Alt+0169 © copyright sign
- Alt+0137 ‰ ppm sign
- Alt+0153 ™ trade mark
- Alt+0177 ± plus or minus
- Alt + 0215 × multiplication sign (works for me with the English keyboard layout)
- ˜˜˜˜˜Alt+0247 ÷ division sign (works for me with English keyboard layout)
small addition
Some time after writing this note, I changed the keyboard (I took it with backlit keys) and was surprised to find that many keyboard shortcuts on the new "keyboard" work differently, for example, when you enter Alt + 0176 (degree), the ♠ symbol appears. Therefore, to facilitate the search, I copied the main characters into text file, which you can download to your computer from this one (after unpacking the archive, it will open in standard Windows Notepad). Here's what it looks like:
That's all, I hope this note helped you answer the question of how to put a sign that is not on the keyboard ?
Finally a video for a good mood:
Existing symbols - and these are not only letters, numbers, mathematical and punctuation signs, and many others - are much larger than the keys on a computer keyboard. Microsoft employees who developed Windows system, solved this problem by assigning each character a unique code, which is entered using the Alt key.
To get acquainted with the list of all existing symbols, you need to go to the "Start" menu and then:
All Programs -> Accessories -> System Tools -> Symbol Table
This will open the character table in Unicode.
For reference: Unicode is a character encoding standard that allows you to represent the characters of almost all written languages. Unicode was originally created to eliminate encoding errors.
To translate the table into an encoding convenient for you, you need to check the box next to " Additional options view" and use the drop-down menu to select the required character set ("Cyrillic" for the Russian language).
Alt codes
To dial the Alt code, you need to hold down the Alt key and press the indicated digits of the code one by one, after which the Alt key is released. The symbol will appear when the key is released.
HTML mnemonics
In addition to Alt codes, the table contains HTML mnemonics.
A mnemonic is the encoding of a character in HTML that begins with the ampersand "&" and ends with a semicolon ";".
Accordingly, in HTML, for example, the greater than symbol can be written in two ways:
> - as a regular character
> - as a mnemonic code;
A character can only be displayed if it is represented in the font being used. Otherwise, you'll see a rectangle, a question mark, and something else indicating no image for the specified character.
Now this problem successfully solved thanks to the included fonts.
Keyboard special character table
| Symbol | Alt+ | Mnemonics | Name/purpose |
| Most Useful Symbols | |||
| - | 151 | — | em dash (m-dash), for Russian spelling is the only correct one |
| « | 171 | « | opening quotation mark "Christmas tree" |
| » | 187 | » | closing quotation mark "Christmas tree" |
| 160 | non-breaking space (words separated by such a space are always on the same line) | ||
| … | 133 | … | ellipsis |
| „ | 132 | „ | double bottom quote |
| “ | 147 | “ | double left quote |
| ” | 148 | ” | double right quote |
| ‚ | 130 | ‚ | single bottom quote |
| ‘ | 145 | ‘ | single left quote |
| ’ | 146 | ’ | single right quote |
| © | 169 | copyright (mark of copyright protection) | |
| ™ | 153 | ™ | trademark |
| ® | 174 | ® | trademark protection mark |
| – | 150 | - | middle dash (n-dash) |
| " | 34 | " | programmer's double quote |
| < | 60 | < | "less than" sign |
| > | 62 | > | greater than sign |
| ‘ | 39 | " | regular single quote (located to the left of the Enter key) |
| & | 38 | & | ampersand |
| ° | 248 (176) | ° | degree sign |
| № | 252 (185) | № | number sign (Shift+3 in Russian layout) |
| √ | 251 | √ | Square root |
| · | 250 (183) | · | interpunct (point for word separation in Latin writing) |
| ¤ | 253 (164) | ¤ | currency sign |
| € | 0136 (0128) | € | Euro symbol |
| ¥ | 165 | ¥ | yen symbol |
| ¢ | 162 | ¢ | cent symbol (American) |
| £ | 163 | £ | pound symbol (British) |
| × | 215 | × | multiplication sign |
| ÷ | 247 | ÷ | division sign |
| − | - | − | minus sign (correct, not the same as minus-hyphen) |
| + | 43 | + | plus sign |
| ± | 177 | ± | plus or minus |
| ¹ | 185 | ¹ | superscript "1" |
| ² | 178 | ² | superscript "2" |
| ³ | 179 | ³ | superscript "3" |
| ‰ | 137 | ‰ | ppm |
| 173 | - | "soft" transfer (meaning that in this place the browser, at its discretion, can transfer part of the word) | |
| Arrows | |||
| 16 | right | ||
| ◄ | 17 | ◄ | to the left |
| ▲ | 30 | ▲ | up |
| ▼ | 31 | ▼ | way down |
| 18 | ↕ | up down | |
| ↔ | 29 | ↔ | left-right |
| 24 | up | ||
| ↓ | 25 | ↓ | way down |
| → | 26 | → | right |
| ← | 27 | ← | to the left |
| ¶ | 20(182) | ¶ | paragraph character |
| § | 21(167) | § | paragraph symbol |
| ` | 96 | - | typewritten backtick (to the left of the 1 key, above Tab) |
| Other symbols | |||
| 1 | - | smiley | |
| ☻ | 2 | - | inverted emoticon |
| 3 | hearts (heart) | ||
| ♦ | 4 | ♦ | diamonds |
| ♣ | 5 | ♣ | clubs (crosses) |
| ♠ | 6 | ♠ | peaks |
| 7(149) | . | list marker | |
| ♂ | 11 | - | male gender designation (symbol of the planet Mars) |
| ♀ | 12 | - | female designation (mirror of Venus) |
| ƒ | 131 | ƒ | latin f with "tail" |
| † | 134 | † | cross |
| ‡ | 135 | ‡ | double cross |
| ¡ | 161 | ¡ | inverted exclamation mark |
| ¦ | 166 | ¦ | "torn" vertical bar |
| ¬ | 172 | ¬ | negation sign |
| µ | 181 | µ | symbol "micro" (used in the SI system to indicate the corresponding prefix) |
| Greek lowercase letters | |||
| α | - | α | alpha |
| β | - | β | beta |
| γ | - | γ | gamma |
| δ | - | δ | delta |
| ε | - | ε | epsilon |
| ζ | - | ζ | zeta |
| η | - | η | this |
| θ | - | θ | theta |
| ι | - | ι | iota |
| κ | - | κ | kappa |
| λ | - | λ | lambda |
| μ | - | μ | mu |
| ν | - | ν | nude |
| ξ | - | ξ | xi |
| ο | - | ο | omicron |
| π | - | π | pi |
| ρ | - | ρ | ro |
| σ | - | σ | sigma |
| τ | - | τ | tau |
| υ | - | υ | upsilon |
| φ | - | φ | fi |
| χ | - | χ | hee |
| ψ | - | ψ | psi |
| ω | - | ω | omega |
| Greek capital letters | |||
| Α | - | Α | alpha |
| Β | - | Β | beta |
| Γ | - | Γ | gamma |
| Δ | - | Δ | delta |
| Ε | - | Ε | epsilon |
| Ζ | - | Ζ | zeta |
| Η | - | Η | this |
| Θ | - | Θ | theta |
| Ι | - | Ι | iota |
| Κ | - | Κ | kappa |
| Λ | - | Λ | lambda |
| Μ | - | Μ | mu |
| Ν | - | Ν | nude |
| Ξ | - | Ξ | xi |
| Ο | - | Ο | omicron |
| Π | - | Π | pi |
| Ρ | - | Ρ | ro |
| Σ | - | Σ | sigma |
| Τ | - | Τ | tau |
| Υ | - | Υ | upsilon |
| Φ | - | Φ | fi |
| Χ | - | Χ | hee |
| Ψ | - | Ψ | psi |
| Ω | - | Ω | omega |
| Fractions | |||
| ½ | 189 | ½ | fraction "one-half" |
| ⅓ | - | ⅓ | fraction "one third" |
| ¼ | 188 | ¼ | fraction "one quarter" |
| ⅕ | ⅕ | fraction "one fifth" | |
| ⅙ | - | ⅙ | fraction "one sixth" |
| ⅛ | - | ⅛ | fraction "one eighth" |
| ⅔ | - | ⅔ | fraction "two thirds" |
| ⅖ | - | ⅖ | fraction "two-fifths" |
| ¾ | 190 | ¾ | fraction "three-fourths" |
| ⅗ | - | ⅗ | three-fifths fraction |
| ⅜ | - | ⅜ | fraction "three eighths" |
| ⅘ | - | ⅘ | fraction "four-fifths" |
| ⅚ | - | ⅚ | fraction "five sixths" |
| ⅝ | - | ⅝ | fraction "five-eighths" |
| ⅞ | - | ⅞ | fraction "seven eighths" |
The computer keyboard is the main device for manually entering information, commands and data. This article discusses the device and layout of the computer keyboard, hot keys, symbols and characters on the keyboard.
Computer keyboard: principle of operation
Basic keyboard functions do not need special software. The drivers required for its operation are already available in the BIOS ROM. Therefore, the computer responds to the commands of the main keyboard keys immediately after being turned on.
The principle of the keyboard is as follows:
- After pressing a key, the keyboard chip generates a scan code.
- The scan code enters the port integrated into the motherboard.
- The keyboard port tells the processor a fixed interrupt number.
- Having received a fixed interrupt number, the processor turns to special. region random access memory, containing the interrupt vector - a list of data. Each entry in the data list contains the address of the program serving the interrupt, which matches the entry number.
- Having determined the program entry, the processor proceeds to its execution.
- The interrupt handler program then directs the processor to the keyboard port, where it finds the scan code. Further, under the control of the handler, the processor determines which of the characters corresponds to this scan code.
- The handler sends code to the keyboard buffer, notifying the processor, and then terminates.
- The processor moves to the pending task.
- The entered character is stored in the keyboard buffer until it is picked up by the program for which it is intended, for example, the Microsoft Word text editor.
Keyboard Composition: Key Assignment
The standard keyboard has more than 100 keys divided into functional groups. Below is a photo of a computer keyboard with a description of the key groups.
Alphanumeric keys
The alphanumeric keys are used to enter information and spell commands. Each of the keys can work in different registers, as well as denote several characters.
Switching the case (inputting lowercase and uppercase characters) is carried out by holding the Shift key. For hard (permanent) case switching, Caps Lock is used.
If the computer keyboard is used to enter text data, the paragraph is closed by pressing the Enter key. Next, data entry starts on a new line. When the keyboard is used to enter commands, Enter terminates the input and starts its execution.
Function keys
Function keys are located at the top of the keyboard and they consist of 12 buttons F1 - F12. Their functions and properties depend on the running program, and in some cases operating system.
A common function in many programs is the F1 key, which calls up help, where you can find out the functions of other buttons.
Special keys
Special keys are located next to the alphanumeric group of buttons. Due to the fact that users often resort to using them, they have an increased size. These include:
- Shift and Enter discussed earlier.
- Alt and Ctrl are used in combination with other keyboard keys to form special commands.
- Tab is used for tabulation when typing.
- Win - opens the start menu.
- Esc - refusal to use the started operation.
- BACKSPACE - delete the characters just entered.
- Print Screen - print the current screen or save a snapshot of it to the clipboard.
- Scroll Lock - switches the operating mode in some programs.
- Pause/Break - pause/interrupt the current process.
Cursor keys
The cursor keys are located to the right of the alphanumeric pad. The cursor is a screen element that indicates where information is entered. The arrow keys move the cursor in the direction of the arrows.
Additional keys:
- Page Up/Page Down - move the cursor one page up/down.
- Home and End - move the cursor to the beginning or end of the current line.
- Insert - traditionally switches the data entry mode between insert and replace. AT different programs, the effect of the Insert button may be different.
Additional numeric keypad
The additional numeric keypad duplicates the actions of the numeric and some other keys of the main input panel. To use it, you must first enable the Num Lock button. Also, additional keyboard keys can be used to control the cursor.
Keyboard shortcut
When a certain key combination is pressed, this or that command is executed for the computer.
Frequently used keyboard shortcuts:
- Ctrl + Shift + Esc - Open Task Manager.
- Ctrl + F - search box in the active program.
- Ctrl + A - Selects all content in the open window.
- Ctrl + C - copy the selection.
- Ctrl + V - paste from clipboard.
- Ctrl + P - print the current document.
- Ctrl + Z - cancel the current action.
- Ctrl + X - cut the selected section of text.
- Ctrl + Shift + → select text by words (start at cursor position).
- Ctrl + Esc - opens/closes the start menu.
- Alt + Printscreen - screenshot of the active program window.
- Alt + F4 - closes the active application.
- Shift + Delete - permanent deletion of the object (past the trash).
- Shift + F10 - call context menu active object.
- Win + Pause - system properties.
- Win + E - launches the explorer.
- Win + D - Minimizes all open windows.
- Win + F1 - Opens Windows Help.
- Win + F - Brings up the search box.
- Win + L - lock the computer.
- Win + R - open "Start the program."
Keyboard symbols
Surely, many users noticed symbols for nicknames on VKontakte, Odnoklassniki and others. in social networks. How to make symbols on the keyboard if there are no explicit keys for this?
You can put characters on the keyboard using Alt-codes - additional commands for entering hidden characters. These commands are entered by simply pressing Alt + a number in decimal system reckoning.
You can often find questions: how to make a heart on the keyboard, an infinity sign or a euro on the keyboard?
- alt+3=
- Alt+8734 = ∞
- Alt + 0128 = €
These and other symbols on the keyboard are represented in the following tables in the form of figures. The "Alt code" column contains a numeric value, after entering which, in combination with the Alt key, a certain character will be displayed. The character column contains the final result.
Please note that if the optional numeric keypad is not enabled - Num Lock is not pressed, then the Alt + number key combination may lead to unexpected results.
For example, if you press Alt + 4 in the browser, without Num Lock enabled, the previous page will open.
Punctuation marks on the keyboard
Sometimes users, when trying to put a punctuation mark on the keyboard, do not get exactly what they expected. This is due to the fact that a different keyboard layout implies a different use of the keyboard shortcut.
Below is how to put punctuation marks on the keyboard.
Cyrillic punctuation marks
- » (quotes) - Shift + 2
- No. (number) - Shift + 3
- ; (semicolon) - Shift + 4
- % (percentage) - Shift + 5
- : (colon) - Shift + 6
- ? (question mark) - Shift + 7
- ((open bracket) - Shift + 9
- - (dash) - button with the inscription "-"
- , (comma) - Shift + "dot"
- + (plus) - Shift + button with a plus sign "+"
- . (dot) - button to the right of the letter "U"
Latin punctuation marks
- ~ (tilde) - Shift + Yo
- ! (exclamation point) - Shift + 1
- @ (dog - used in the address Email) - Shift + 2
- # (pound) - Shift + 3
- $ (dollar) - Shift + 4
- % (percentage) - Shift + 5
- ^ - Shift + 6
- & (ampersand) - Shift + 7
- * (multiply or asterisk) - Shift + 8
- ((open bracket) - Shift + 9
- ) (close bracket) - Shift + 0
- - (dash) - a key on the keyboard with the inscription "-"
- + (plus) - Shift and +
- = (equal to) – equals sign button
- , (comma) - key with the Russian letter "B"
- . (dot) - a key with the Russian letter "U"
- < (левая угловая скобка) - Shift + Б
- > (right angle bracket) - Shift + Yu
- ? (question mark) - Shift + question mark button (to the right of "Y")
- ; (semicolon) - the letter "Ж"
- : (colon) - Shift + "W"
- [ (left square bracket) - Russian letter "X"
- ] (right square bracket) - "Ъ"
- ( ( (left brace) - Shift + Russian letter "X"
- ) (right curly brace) - Shift + "Ъ"
Computer keyboard layout
Computer keyboard layout - a scheme for assigning symbols of national alphabets to specific keys. Switching the keyboard layout is performed programmatically - one of the functions of the operating system.
On Windows, you can change the keyboard layout by pressing Alt + Shift or Ctrl + Shift. Typical keyboard layouts are English and Russian.
If necessary, you can change or add the keyboard language in Windows 7 by going to Start - Control Panel - Clock, language and region (sub-item "change keyboard layout or other input methods").
In the window that opens, select the tab "Languages and keyboards" - "Change keyboard". Then, in the new window, on the "General" tab, click "Add" and select the desired input language. Don't forget to save your changes by clicking OK.
Virtual computer keyboard
The virtual keyboard is a separate program or an add-on included in the software. With its help, letters and symbols are entered from the computer screen using the mouse cursor. Those. in the process of typing, the computer keyboard is not involved.
The virtual keyboard is needed, for example, to save confidential data (login and password). When entering data using a regular keyboard, there is a risk of information being intercepted by malicious spyware. Then, through the Internet, the information is transmitted to the attacker.
Find and download virtual keyboard possible with the help search engines, it won't take much of your time. If Kaspersky Anti-Virus is installed on your PC, you can launch the virtual keyboard through the main program window, it is included in it.
Screen keyboard
On-Screen Keyboard - On-Screen Keyboard touch screen tablet, smartphone, touch monitor, which is pressed by the user's fingers. Sometimes, the on-screen keyboard is called the virtual keyboard.
Also, the on-screen keyboard on the computer is included in the list of special Windows features. If your keyboard does not work, stopped typing, suddenly turned off, etc., the on-screen keyboard for Windows will come to the rescue.
To launch the On-Screen Keyboard in Windows 7, go to Start - All Programs - Accessories - then Ease of Access - On-Screen Keyboard. It looks like this.
To switch the keyboard layout, use the corresponding buttons on the taskbar (near the date with time, at the bottom left of the monitor screen).
What to do if the keyboard does not work
If your keyboard suddenly stops working - do not rush to get upset, first find out what caused the breakdown. All the reasons why the keyboard does not work can be divided into hardware and software.
In the first case, if the keyboard hardware is broken, it is very problematic to fix the problem without special skills. Sometimes it's easier to replace it with a new one.
Before you say goodbye to a seemingly faulty keyboard, check the cable that it is connected to system unit He may have moved away a bit. If everything is in order with the cable, make sure that the failure is not caused by a computer software failure. To do this, restart your PC.
If, after a reboot, the keyboard does not show signs of life, try to shake it up using the available in Windows solutions. The sequence of actions is shown on the example of Windows 7, if you have a different version of the operating Windows systems- act by analogy. The principle is about the same, the names of the menu sections may differ slightly.
Go to Start - Control Panel - Hardware and Sound - Device Manager. In the window that opens, if you have problems with the keyboard, it will be marked with a yellow label with an exclamation point. Select it with the mouse and select Action - Delete from the menu. Close Device Manager after uninstallation.
Return to the "Hardware and Sound" tab and select "Add a device". After searching for hardware, your keyboard will be found and its drivers will be installed.
If the hardware installation was successful and the failure of the keyboard was due to a software failure, the Num Lock key light on the keyboard will light up.
If the problem persists, the on-screen keyboard may be a temporary solution.
These days, the computer keyboard, like the mouse, is considered a low-value device. However, she plays an important role in working with a computer.
Often, when first getting to know a personal computer, the user has a question about what characters are on the keyboard and how to enter them. Within the framework of this article, each group of keys will be described in detail, indicating its purpose. A method for entering non-standard characters using ASCII codes will also be described. This material is of greatest interest to those who work with a text editor, such as Microsoft Word or another similar application (OpenOffice Writer).
Function set
Let's start with There are 12 of them on the keyboard. They are located in top row. Their purpose depends on the currently open application. Usually, a tooltip is displayed at the bottom of the screen, and these are the most frequently performed operations in this program (for example, creating a directory in Norton Commander is "F7").
Keys and register
A special group of keys are the keys. They control the mode of operation of another part of the keyboard. The first one is "Caps Lock". It changes the case of letters. By default, lowercase characters are entered. If we press this key once, then when the keys are pressed, they will appear. This is the easiest and most convenient way to put characters on the keyboard with different case. The second key is "Num Lock". It is used to switch the numeric keypad. When it is off, it can be used for navigation. But when you turn it on, it works like a regular calculator. The last key in this group is "Scroll Lock". It is used in spreadsheets. When it is inactive, there is a transition through the cells, and when turned on, the sheet scrolls.
Control
Separately, it is worth considering the control keys. First of all, these are arrows. They move the cursor one position left, right, up, and down. There is also pagination: "PgUp" (page up) and "PgDn" (page down). To go to the beginning of the line, "Home" is used, to the end - "End". Control keys include "Shift", "Alt" and "Ctrl". Their combination switches the keyboard layout (it depends on the settings of the operating system).
When the "Shift" is pressed, the case of the entered characters is changed and it becomes possible to enter auxiliary characters. For example, let's find out how to type characters on the keyboard from this set. Enter "%". To do this, hold down "Shift" and "5". The set of auxiliary characters depends on the active keyboard layout at the current time. That is, in the English layout, some characters are available, and in the Russian one, others.
Pay attention to the symbols that are on the keyboard. Deleting a character on the left is "Backspace" and on the right is "Del". "Enter" - switch to newline. Another special key is "Tab". In the table, it provides a transition to the next cell, and at the end adds a new line. For text, pressing it results in an "increased" indent between characters. And in file manager pressing it leads to the transition to another panel.
Basic set
The main set depends on the active layout at the current time. It can be Russian or English. Switching between them is carried out using the combinations "Alt" + "Shift" on the left or "Ctrl" + "Shift". The selected combination is determined in the operating system settings. You can find out the active combination by selecting. That is, we press the first of them and look at the state of the language bar (located in the lower right corner of the screen). If there was a change in language, then this is the combination we need (for example, from “En” to “Ru” or vice versa). The first one is set by default.
The alphabetic characters on the keyboard are located in its central part and are divided into three rows. The more often the symbol is used, the closer it is to the center, the less often, the farther it is from it. That is, the letters are not distributed alphabetically, but according to. At first, it is difficult to get used to this principle of organizing the distribution of characters, but the more you work, the more you get used to it and understand that it is really convenient. Another nuance to take into account. For short-term switching between uppercase and lowercase letters, it is better to use "Shift", and for long-term typing - "Caps Lock".
Numeric keypad
Another mandatory component of such input devices is the numeric keypad. It is located on the right side of it. It has two modes of operation: input and navigation. In the first case, characters are typed on the keyboard (these are numbers and basic mathematical operations). This is convenient when working with a large A in the second version, the keys for moving the cursor and page navigation are duplicated. That is, the arrows for moving the marker, "PgUp", "PgDn", "Home" and "End" - all this is present here.
Switching between them is done using the "Num Lock" key. When it is off (the LED is inactive), navigation works, and when it is turned on, digital dialing works. If necessary, you can set the desired mode of operation after loading personal computer in the BIOS (this is best done by advanced users, as beginners may have problems with this operation).
Punctuation marks
Punctuation marks on the keyboard are mostly concentrated near the right "Shift" key. It's a dot and a comma. Also in the English version of the layout, here is the rest of the symbols (colon, question mark and exclamation points) are located on the main numeric keypad, which is located immediately below the function keys. To enter them, briefly hold down "Shift" and with it the corresponding button.
About what is not
But what about the characters that are not on the keyboard? Is there any way to get them? The answer to this question is positive. There are two ways to set such characters. The first one involves the use of text word editor. After launching it, go to the "Insert" toolbar and select the "Symbol" item there. In the list that opens, select "Others". Then a special input window will open. Here, using the navigation keys, we find the desired character and press "Enter".
Additional characters on the keyboard can be typed in another way - using ASCII codes. This works in all Windows applications - a major plus. Its minus is the use of a large code that needs to be remembered. To begin with, we find out the digital code of the sign we need on the official website of Microsoft Corporation or in any other source where there is a corresponding table, and remember it. Then we go to the application we need.
Be sure to turn on "Num Lock", hold down "Alt" and on the numeric keypad on the right, sequentially type the code found in the previous step. At the end, you need to release "Alt" and after that the desired character must appear. For example, to enter " ", the combination "Alt" + "9829" is used. It is convenient to use for non-standard
Design text messages in chat or pages on social networks. After all, it is much more convenient to remember a non-standard record than a regular one. And this decision just contributes to this.
Results
Within the framework of this material, all the characters on the keyboard that exist today were described. The purpose of all keys is indicated and practical examples of work are given. It also shows a working technique that allows you to go beyond the usual character set using ASCII codes. All this in total will help the novice user to thoroughly understand the operation of the keyboard and understand the basic principles of the functioning of a personal computer.