Can you assign keys in XP

happyhero

Hi My father lives in Holland and has bought his PC over there. He likes his keyboard layout so does not necessarily want to change it to UK layout but what he does want is a key that will give him the £ symbol.

So can this be done?

What key would you assign it to?

How do you do it if it is possible?

He is using XP. I have told him how to do it using the ALT key and ascii codes but he never remembers it the next time so he asked me if he could have one key to do it on his keyboard that he could always use.

All help appreciated.

ABH_3

happyhero wrote:

Hi My father lives in Holland and has bought his PC over there. He likes his keyboard layout so does not necessarily want to change it to UK layout but what he does want is a key that will give him the £ symbol.

So can this be done?

What key would you assign it to?

How do you do it if it is possible?

He is using XP. I have told him how to do it using the ALT key and ascii codes but he never remembers it the next time so he asked me if he could have one key to do it on his keyboard that he could always use.

All help appreciated.

Alt Codes here tell him to hold down the "Alt" key press the number sequence "0163" in his chosen application, release the "Alt" key and it will appear.

Depending upon which application he is using the "£" symbol in, there maybe a way to create a "macro" to do this automatically.

HTH

happyhero

As I said already above I have told him how to do it with the Alt keys but he wants a permanent key and we dont know how to do it as a permanent key. We dont really understand macro anyway and he would probably need it in many programs rather than say just Word for example.

Out of interest we considered changing to a UK keyboard but there is only an American one listed. Is there something you could download to make the Uk one available as well?

isgman

If you set the "keyboard" to UK Keyboard then press the Shift and number "3" key tis should give you the "£" sign.. (i think)

espresso

isgman wrote:

If you set the "keyboard" to UK Keyboard then press the Shift and number "3" key tis should give you the "£" sign.. (i think)

But as the user is in Holland, presumably they would need the € symbol as well.

If the UK keyboard setting is acceptable, the € can be obtained by pressing Alt Gr + 4

:beer:

happyhero

"But as the user is in Holland, presumably they would need the € symbol as well.

If the UK keyboard setting is acceptable, the € can be obtained by pressing Alt Gr + 4"

Yes exactly he wants to keep the keyboard in Euro format but just wants to add the £ key somehow.

ABH_3

happyhero wrote:

As I said already above I have told him how to do it with the Alt keys but he wants a permanent key and we dont know how to do it as a permanent key.

There are several ways, the first would be to read the "Help" section of the application you are in and search for "macro" then follow the instructions on how to create one. A macro is simply a series of instructions ie "alt0163" and bound to a key that has no functionality within that application, for instance "F1" = Help, "F2" = Cut? or whatever. So create a macro so that pressing an unused key ie: "F11" or "F12" runs the macro and delivers the character you need.

There are external freeware macro programs ie:

http://pricelessware.org/thelist/dev.htm#Automation:Macros
http://www.nonags.com/nonags/auto.html

We dont really understand macro anyway and he would probably need it in many programs rather than say just Word for example.

In that case it looks like the best alternative is one of the macro building programs listed on the sites above. Though another alternative occurs to me, perhaps you could build your own "start page" and put a list of Alt key designations on there, alongside the usual google links or whatever.

Out of interest we considered changing to a UK keyboard but there is only an American one listed. Is there something you could download to make the Uk one available as well?

WinXp is multilingual to some degree; More here so using two charactersets on one keyboard shouldn't be a problem.

HTH