Special Characters – shortcut keys

[ChrisGreaves]

Word 2003
I am tired of wrist-twisting to hold down the Ctrl, Shift and Alt keys while tapping the question-mark key in order to introduce the spanish ¿ into my text.
Ditto Ctrl, Shift and Alt exclamation to produce ¡

I wanted to avoid a recorded macro.

I thought to use Tools, Customize, Keyboard, Categories=Common Symbols, but there appears to be no way for me to introduce new candidates for the job.

So I have fallen back on Tools, Autocorrect using “?>” (w/o quotes) for the upside-down question mark and “!~” for the upside-down exclamation mark.
This method is easy for me to use because:-
(1) Each combination includes the basic symbol
(2) I need to be holding down the Shift key anyway
(3) My index finger slips easily one key to the left of the basic symbol.

I am open to suggestions ...

[BobH]

Get a Spanish keyboard?

[Jay Freedman]

Use the Unicode character codes followed by Alt+X.

For ¡, type 00a1 and press Alt+X.

For ¿, type 00bf and press Alt+X.

[Rudi]

Another way is:

For the í, hold down the ALT key and on the numeric keypad type: 161
For the ¿, hold down the ALT key and on the numeric keypad type: 168

One of my favourite methods for typing other accent characters (very easily), is the following:

Instead of trying to remember the ASCII codes table using the ALT+136 style of code to insert special characters, all of the accented characters can be typed using a shortcut key combination. To do this, press [CTRL] and the second symbol together, let go, and then type the letter.

Characters	Shortcut Keys
à, è, ì, ò, ù À, È, Ì, Ò, Ù	[Ctrl]+[`] (accent grave), the letter
á, é, í, ó, ú, ý Á, É, Í, Ó, Ú, Ý	[Ctrl]+['] (apostrophe), the letter
â, ê, î, ô, û Â, Ê, Î, Ô, Û	[Ctrl]+[Shift[+[^] (caret), the letter
ä, ë, ï, ö, ü, ÿ Ä, Ë, Ï, Ö, Ü, Ÿ	[Ctrl]+[Shift]+[:] (colon), the letter
ã, ñ, õ Ã, Ñ, Õ	[Ctrl]+[Shift]+[~] (tilde), the letter
å, Å	[Ctrl]+[Shift] +[@], a or A
æ, Æ	[Ctrl]+[Shift] +[&], a or A
œ, Œ	[Ctrl]+[Shift] +[&], o or O
ç, Ç	[Ctrl]+[,] (comma), c or C
ð, Ð	[Ctrl]+[' ] (apostrophe), d or D
ø, Ø	[Ctrl]+[/,] o or O

[ChrisGreaves]

Get a Spanish keyboard?

Get real Bob. I have enough trouble teaching the current one how to type Proper English (grin)

[ChrisGreaves]

Use the Unicode character codes followed by Alt+X....

Jay, this almost seems like an anti-climax!

[ChrisGreaves]

For the í, hold down the ALT key and on the numeric keypad type: 161

Thanks Rudi. But this doesn't work on this DELL laptop keyboard.
I tried with Numlock on, and with it off.
I tried too with the Alt key on the LHS and with the "Alt Car" key immediately to the right of the space bar.
Nada!

(later) Then I tried it in Word2003 and waddyaknow it worked. What a dummy I can be at times.

One of my favourite methods for typing other accent characters (very easily), is the following:... press [CTRL] and the second symbol together, let go, and then type the letter....

This one I know and use for the regular accented characters, as in my tutor's name "Raúl" and the combinations with other vowels.
The Ctrl-Shift-Alt-Question-Mark while trying to rub my tummy anti-clockwise was getting to tricky for me.

[AlanMiller]

My thread on Special Characters might be of some use.

Alan

[ChrisGreaves]

My thread on...

Thanks Alan, I replied there with my confusion over the target of the link(s)