How To Type Symbols Using the ALT Key

The world has more characters than space available on a keyboard. If they placed every little symbol, then your keyboard would extend a mile. Thankfully they found a way to incorporate these little symbols in without having to extend your keyboard to impractical lengths. They did this by using a special alt key to access the ASCII codes.  ASCII stands for American Standard Code for Informational Interchange.  To access these codes using a standard keyboard you can follow these simple steps.

1. Turn on the Numlock key.  You need to make sure that the numlock key is turned on. Numlock stands for Numeral Lock. The numlock key can be found at the upper left portion of the number keypad.  To determine if the numlock is turned on check the leftmost light indicator which sits right on top of the keyboard.  If the light is on then you should be good to go.
2. Press the alt key. Press and hold the alt key. There are two alt keys on your keyboard. They can be found at both ends of your space bar. Press either one. It doesn't matter if you press both of them or just one, it will work just the same. Leave your finger pressed on the ALT key for the next step.
3. Put in the four digit code. The four digit code would correspond to a symbol on ASCII code.  If you are using a laptop, hold the fn key with the alt. If you try putting in the code in your laptop without holding the fn key, all you will do is access your menu bar. You can also put in just one, two, or three numbers but remember that pressing ALT 168 will not yield the same result as ALT 0168.
4. Release the alt key.  Once you have typed in the desired code, let go of the alt key. This will cause the symbol to appear.  If you entered the wrong code you will have to repeat the process again.

There are several uses for symbols on the alt key. It can be used to spice up your profile or an interesting ending to your letter.  Some common alt key symbols include, ALT 130 - é; ALT171 - ½; ALT172 - ¼; ALT0190 - ¾; ALT0128 - €; ALT157 - ¥; ALT0169 - ©; ALT0153 - TM; ALT0174 - ®; and ALT248 - °.