Putting Character Codes to Work

If you know the ASCII or ANSI codes for a particular character, and you want to enter it into your document, you can do so by holding down the Alt key and using the numeric keypad. If you enter a three-digit code, then Windows assumes you want the ASCII character associated with that code. If you enter a four-digit code, then Windows assumes you want the ANSI character associated with that code.

For instance, the ASCII code for an uppercase A is 65. You could enter this character by holding down the Alt key and pressing 065 (a three-digit code) on the numeric keypad. It just so happens that this is the same as the ANSI code for an uppercase A, as well. Thus, you could hold down the Alt key and press 0065 (a four-digit code) for the same result. This works because the ASCII and ANSI codes are the same for all values between 0 and 127. When you work with values between 128 and 255, they are different.

You can see this difference by holding down the Alt key and pressing 163 (a three-digit code) on the numeric keypad. This inserts a foreign language character in your document. If you instead use a four-digit code for the same number (hold down the Alt key and press 0163), Word inserts the symbol for the British pound.

You should also know that you can use the Alt key with a regular value. For instance, you can type Alt and then the number 3 on the keypad. This inserts a character for a heart. The values between 0 and 31 do not represent printable characters in either ASCII or ANSI codes. If you hold down the Alt key and enter a number between 1 and 31 on the numeric keypad, Word inserts various miscellaneous dingbat characters in your document. The best way to see how this works is to simply try it in a document of your choosing.

Now for a technical aside: When you press Alt and follow it with a three-digit code, you are inserting characters from what is called the "code page 437," which is the set of characters used in the original IBM PC. When you use a four-digit code, you are inserting characters from what is called "code page 1252" or simply "Windows 1252." Even though I have so far in this tip referred to these as ANSI codes—as is done by many other mere-mortal users of Word—they aren't, technically ANSI codes. There are Microsoft's adaptation of ANSI codes to create what is (again, technically) called "Windows 1252."

More information than you wanted or needed to know? Probably.

Both the "code page 437" (ASCII) and "Windows 1252" (ANSI) code pages are single-byte codes, which is why they go from a value of 0 to 255. However, Unicode characters can use one byte (UTF-8), two bytes (UTF-16), or four bytes (UTF-32), which mean they can use values between 0 and 4,294,967,295. That's obviously a lot of characters, but not all of them are in use.

You can insert Unicode characters, if you know them, by holding down the Alt key and using the numeric keypad. Doing so can be a bit hit-and-miss because it can be difficult to remember such codes. To insert the full range of Unicode characters, you are better off to display the Symbols dialog box. (Display the Insert tab of the ribbon, click Symbol in the Symbols group, and then click More Symbols.) You can then choose a font and a Unicode subset. Word then displays the available characters in the dialog box, and you can select the character you want to insert.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (11219) applies to Microsoft Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, Word in Microsoft 365, and 2021. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Word here: Putting Character Codes to Work.