# 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:** 8\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/half_man_half_wit/32/21766_2.png) [@Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Half_Man_Half_Wit)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2009, 12:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-all-the-reasons-microsuck-is-going-to-hell-alt-0146-is-the-hellishest/481830/41 "2009-01-19T12:25:15Z")
> [@TWDuke](#): > > ´ 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. Thanks, that was actually very enlightening! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![BJMoose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/5fc32e/32.png) [@BJMoose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BJMoose)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2009, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-all-the-reasons-microsuck-is-going-to-hell-alt-0146-is-the-hellishest/481830/42 "2009-01-20T02:11:23Z")
> [@Dead\_Badger](#): > > You need to type alt+0146 - the zero is important. So it is. So it is. This is the first I’ve heard about this group of codes. Interesting. ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2009, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-all-the-reasons-microsuck-is-going-to-hell-alt-0146-is-the-hellishest/481830/43 "2009-01-20T03:23:43Z")
> [@BJMoose](#): > > So it is. So it is. This is the first I’ve heard about this group of codes. Interesting. Because everything is more easily accessible on the character map, unless there’s one you use enough to memorize. I actually used to have several memorized, but I’ve been on a laptop for the last 6 years, and thus cannot use them, so I’ve forgotten. ---
**Author:** ![Auntbeast](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Auntbeast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Auntbeast)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2009, 12:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-all-the-reasons-microsuck-is-going-to-hell-alt-0146-is-the-hellishest/481830/44 "2009-01-20T12:11:37Z")
You can’t use charmap on a laptop? or those codes? The hell? One of my installation of windows beefs is that charmap is no longer installed by default. Seems like a silly program, until you actually need it. ---
**Author:** ![chorpler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chorpler/32/2888_2.png) [@chorpler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chorpler)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2009, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-all-the-reasons-microsuck-is-going-to-hell-alt-0146-is-the-hellishest/481830/45 "2009-01-20T12:31:25Z")
> [@seodoa](#): > > Two minus signs in a row will give you an em dash, IIRC. En dashes are not so easily written. Two minus signs with spaces around them are converted into en dashes. Nowadays I just use ctrl-alt-[Numpad Minus] and ctrl-[Numpad Minus]. ETA: Oh, and in MS Word, you can type in a character’s unicode number and then hit alt-X to convert it to that character, I believe. Going into Insert … Symbol will let you see the codes for characters. Sadly, for characters like ’, you still have to use the Alt method. ---
**Author:** ![chorpler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chorpler/32/2888_2.png) [@chorpler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chorpler)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2009, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-all-the-reasons-microsuck-is-going-to-hell-alt-0146-is-the-hellishest/481830/46 "2009-01-20T12:41:56Z")
Er, actually, for characters like ’ and “ in Word, evidently you can either do the unicode and alt-X trick, or you can do ctrl-`,` for ‘, ctrl-’,’ for ’, ctrl-`," for “, and ctrl-’," for ”. Interesting. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2009, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-all-the-reasons-microsuck-is-going-to-hell-alt-0146-is-the-hellishest/481830/47 "2009-01-20T14:47:24Z")
> [@Auntbeast](#): > > You can’t use charmap on a laptop? or those codes? The hell? Yes you can, but no numeric keypad. I’m having to use the codes for ñ and Ñ on my work desktop: no permissions to change the keyboard’s language, the guys from IT don’t have permission to give me the permissions (it’s either “user” or “admin” profiles) and we have to write docs in Spanish. Design docs. That’s _documentación de diseño…_ :smack: At least Brit keyboards have a way to type áéíóú. But the ñ is hidden under some complicated sequence like “type these three keys followed by these two.” UGH! ---
**Author:** ![Hunter\_Hawk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/50afbb/32.png) [@Hunter\_Hawk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hunter_Hawk)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2009, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-all-the-reasons-microsuck-is-going-to-hell-alt-0146-is-the-hellishest/481830/48 "2009-01-20T15:07:46Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > no permissions to change the keyboard’s language, the guys from IT don’t have permission to give me the permissions (it’s either “user” or “admin” profiles) and we have to write docs in Spanish. Design docs. Hmm…are you at least able to record macros? I wonder if you might be able to create one to insert the appropriate character. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-all-the-reasons-microsuck-is-going-to-hell-alt-0146-is-the-hellishest/481830.md?page=2)