# For all the reasons Microsuck is going to hell, Alt+0146 is the hellishest **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [January 18, 2009, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-all-the-reasons-microsuck-is-going-to-hell-alt-0146-is-the-hellishest/481830 "2009-01-18T05:19:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Charlie\_Tan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/charlie_tan/32/12582_2.png) [@Charlie\_Tan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Charlie_Tan)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2009, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-all-the-reasons-microsuck-is-going-to-hell-alt-0146-is-the-hellishest/481830/21 "2009-01-18T16:51:45Z")
> [@kushiel](#): > > You tell the users not to copy straight from Word to their CMS editor? Ha ha ha like they listen. The guy who wrote the code for our CMS added a nice feature: “You’re trying to paste text from MS Word. This is not allowed.” Dunno how he did it, but text from winword can’t be pasted. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2009, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-all-the-reasons-microsuck-is-going-to-hell-alt-0146-is-the-hellishest/481830/22 "2009-01-18T17:00:01Z")
> [@Charlie\_Tan](#): > > The guy who wrote the code for our CMS added a nice feature: > “You’re trying to paste text from MS Word. This is not allowed.” > Dunno how he did it, but text from winword can’t be pasted. So how difficult would it to be to auto-replace the troublesome characters? Dreamweater has a command ‘Clean up Word HTML’ for example. ---
**Author:** ![Bosstone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/22d042/32.png) [@Bosstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosstone)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2009, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-all-the-reasons-microsuck-is-going-to-hell-alt-0146-is-the-hellishest/481830/23 "2009-01-18T17:01:12Z")
> [@Charlie\_Tan](#): > > The guy who wrote the code for our CMS added a nice feature: > “You’re trying to paste text from MS Word. This is not allowed.” > Dunno how he did it, but text from winword can’t be pasted. Most likely he rigged up a trigger to check for non-ASCII characters. Some of Word’s characters do not exist outside of Word. ---
**Author:** ![GusNSpot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gusnspot/32/436_2.png) [@GusNSpot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GusNSpot)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2009, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-all-the-reasons-microsuck-is-going-to-hell-alt-0146-is-the-hellishest/481830/24 "2009-01-18T18:41:32Z")
With my skill level, if I remember to put any mark up or down there, is doing good… ---
**Author:** ![alterego](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/6bbea6/32.png) [@alterego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alterego)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2009, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-all-the-reasons-microsuck-is-going-to-hell-alt-0146-is-the-hellishest/481830/25 "2009-01-18T19:42:10Z")
lol, this thread is full of Windows noobs. ‘’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’'LINUX FTW!!! ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2009, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-all-the-reasons-microsuck-is-going-to-hell-alt-0146-is-the-hellishest/481830/26 "2009-01-18T19:57:21Z")
> [@lissener](#): > > Thanks, Microsoft, for removing the apostrophe from our culture. Rather than find some way to make your “curly quotes” easier to manage, you hid the apostrophe behind the ASCII code Alt+0146 and put the left single-quote mark in its place. And since it’s less important an issue than, oh say the Holocaust, most people could give a shit, and see no problem in going through life apostrophe free. Now we have an entire generation of people who probably have no earthly idea what I’m talking about. Fucking fascists. Go into auto-correct. Turn off the feature to automatically change apostrophes to single curly quotes. Problem solved. ---
**Author:** ![BJMoose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/5fc32e/32.png) [@BJMoose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BJMoose)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2009, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-all-the-reasons-microsuck-is-going-to-hell-alt-0146-is-the-hellishest/481830/27 "2009-01-18T20:39:48Z")
When I type alt+146 I get Æ . (I see a capital AE ligature. Anyone see anything different? I’m on an XP platform.) How will Greco-Roman historians survive without Æ? Perhaps the real question is, where does Microsoft get the idea it can create it’s own ASCII code? ---
**Author:** ![Dead\_Badger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/848f3c/32.png) [@Dead\_Badger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dead_Badger)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2009, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-all-the-reasons-microsuck-is-going-to-hell-alt-0146-is-the-hellishest/481830/28 "2009-01-18T20:49:18Z")
You need to type alt+0146 - the zero is important. ---
**Author:** ![rayh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@rayh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rayh)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2009, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-all-the-reasons-microsuck-is-going-to-hell-alt-0146-is-the-hellishest/481830/29 "2009-01-18T21:20:35Z")
[The third wor\*d war](http://everything2.com/e2node/The%2520third%2520wor%252Ad%2520war) - Apostrophe Theory ---
**Author:** ![Vox\_Imperatoris](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Vox\_Imperatoris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Vox_Imperatoris)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2009, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-all-the-reasons-microsuck-is-going-to-hell-alt-0146-is-the-hellishest/481830/30 "2009-01-18T21:35:29Z")
I’m in Firefox, and for some reason, whenever I type these things with the alt key, it keeps refreshing the page. It hasn’t done this before. Can anyone help me out? Valete, Vox Imperatoris ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2009, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-all-the-reasons-microsuck-is-going-to-hell-alt-0146-is-the-hellishest/481830/31 "2009-01-18T22:29:50Z")
Try putting numlock on. I often use alt codes for papers and things and if numlock is off then all sorts of funky things can happen like going back a page in a browser and whatnot. I dunno why but numlock solves the problem. ---
**Author:** ![Vox\_Imperatoris](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Vox\_Imperatoris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Vox_Imperatoris)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2009, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-all-the-reasons-microsuck-is-going-to-hell-alt-0146-is-the-hellishest/481830/32 "2009-01-18T23:15:34Z")
> [@Inner\_Stickler](#): > > Try putting numlock on. I often use alt codes for papers and things and if numlock is off then all sorts of funky things can happen like going back a page in a browser and whatnot. I dunno why but numlock solves the problem. That was it, thanks! I could have sworn I turned Numlock on, but I guess I hadn’t. Valete, Vox Imperatoris ---
**Author:** ![TWDuke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e495f1/32.png) [@TWDuke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TWDuke)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2009, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-all-the-reasons-microsuck-is-going-to-hell-alt-0146-is-the-hellishest/481830/33 "2009-01-18T23:22:24Z")
> [@Malacandra](#): > > Well, apostrophes are all very well, but some people just get too fond of them. And some people try to contribute useful information while others are just too fond of pointing out typos. > [@Half Man Half Wit](#): > > OK, so what exactly are the distinctions between ´, ’, `,‘ and '? Or, for that matter, between ", “ and ”? ´ and `are diacritical marks. In olden days, you would combine these with other characters to create vowels such as à or é. Computer programmers decided to assign some functionality to` so now the rest of us are stuck with it taking up valuable keyboard space. ’ and " signify feet and inches or minutes and seconds. In everyday usage, they are perfectly adequate as apostrophes and quotation marks. They are sometimes referred to as typewriter apostrophe and typewriter quotes, respectively. ‘ and ’ are opening and closing single quotation marks. In the most common U.S. style, they are used to enclose a quotation within a quotation. (“He said, ‘I never want to see you again,’” she sobbed.) The closing single quotation mark doubles as an apostrophe, which signifies missing characters (e.g., the _o_ and the _19_ in “I haven’t seen hair like that since the ’80s!”). It is sometimes called the typographer’s apostrophe, and many people simply think it looks better than the straight version. > [@Merneith](#): > > I suspect the most common work-around is to not care in the first place. This works pretty well, unless you’re working for someone who _does_ care. About the only time this comes up in everyday use is in reference to years, so unless they occurred in direct quotes, I would change them all to four-digit forms - '80s became 1980s - and problem solved. No incorrect punctuation, and nothing to get screwed up when imported into another program. Of course if you’re working for someone else you might not have the autonomy to do that, but at some point it becomes their problem, doesn’t it? ---
**Author:** ![vison](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/e47774/32.png) [@vison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vison)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2009, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-all-the-reasons-microsuck-is-going-to-hell-alt-0146-is-the-hellishest/481830/34 "2009-01-18T23:37:42Z")
I am sobbing with joy. Thank you, thank you all. My apostrophe problem may be fixed. I will creep away and try the solutions proffered. ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2009, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-all-the-reasons-microsuck-is-going-to-hell-alt-0146-is-the-hellishest/481830/35 "2009-01-18T23:58:16Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > Go into auto-correct. Turn off the feature to automatically change apostrophes to single curly quotes. Problem solved. Nope. ---
**Author:** ![seodoa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4af34b/32.png) [@seodoa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/seodoa)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2009, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-all-the-reasons-microsuck-is-going-to-hell-alt-0146-is-the-hellishest/481830/36 "2009-01-19T00:19:59Z")
> [@alterego](#): > > lol, this thread is full of Windows noobs. > > ‘’‘’‘’‘’‘’‘’‘’‘’‘’‘’‘’‘’‘’‘’‘’‘’‘’‘’‘’‘’‘’‘’‘’‘’‘’‘’‘’‘’‘’‘’‘’‘’‘’‘’‘’‘’‘’‘’‘’‘’‘’‘’‘’‘’‘’‘’‘’‘’‘’‘’‘’‘’‘’‘’‘’‘’‘’‘’‘’‘’‘’‘’‘’‘’‘’‘’'LINUX FTW!!! And then the \*nix fanboy came to shit all over it. :rolleyes: You, sir, are what is wrong with the Linux community. ---
**Author:** ![Vox\_Imperatoris](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Vox\_Imperatoris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Vox_Imperatoris)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2009, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-all-the-reasons-microsuck-is-going-to-hell-alt-0146-is-the-hellishest/481830/37 "2009-01-19T03:15:46Z")
\*\*dijjij, \*\*(thanks for that, by the way ;)) I just have memorized Alt-0151 for — and Alt-0150 for –. And I guess I’ll add Alt-0146 for ’ to that, as well. Valete, Vox Imperatoris ETA: I’ve also got the US-International keyboard enabled secondarily to type all those æéìøü’s. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2009, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-all-the-reasons-microsuck-is-going-to-hell-alt-0146-is-the-hellishest/481830/38 "2009-01-19T04:11:02Z")
> [@seodoa](#): > > …You, sir, are what is wrong with the Linux community. There’s a Linux community? Yes, I suppose there is, come to think of it. The idea of a community formed around software is vaguely disturbing. ---
**Author:** ![Apex\_Rogers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e480ec/32.png) [@Apex\_Rogers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Apex_Rogers)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2009, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-all-the-reasons-microsuck-is-going-to-hell-alt-0146-is-the-hellishest/481830/39 "2009-01-19T04:48:57Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > There’s a Linux community? Yes, I suppose there is, come to think of it. The idea of a community formed around software is vaguely disturbing. Yes, the idea that an open source, collaborative project would have some sort of group of people who interact is very disturbing indeed. ---
**Author:** ![Robin\_Goodfellow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Robin\_Goodfellow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robin_Goodfellow)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2009, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-all-the-reasons-microsuck-is-going-to-hell-alt-0146-is-the-hellishest/481830/40 "2009-01-19T05:23:32Z")
> [@lissener](#): > > Nope. Really, now? What MS bizarreness are you using? I haven’t tried Windows 7, but I’m fairly certain they don’t actually make it impossible to single-apostrophe throughout the whole OS. Curly quotes is an aesthetic substitution in Microsoft Word. It’s correctable and, if it’s not, you can always just use Notepad. I’m all for complaining about stupid technology, but this time it’s a non-issue. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-all-the-reasons-microsuck-is-going-to-hell-alt-0146-is-the-hellishest/481830.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-all-the-reasons-microsuck-is-going-to-hell-alt-0146-is-the-hellishest/481830.md?page=3)