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General discussion

Character Map

Jun 10, 2005 7:01AM PDT

I'm using Windows XP, SP2...

I can handle inserting special characters from the Character Map up to #256 using Alt + Keypad.

I can't handle Unicode Characters above 256.
The specific character I need is Greek Lambda [lower].
The unicode is 03BB.

1) Help me extract this character into eMail, or
2) Help me learn how to extract ANY character
expressed in Unicode.

Many thanks for any help anyone can render!

Discussion is locked

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Test it. Works fine here.
Jun 10, 2005 7:19AM PDT

I ran charmap and selected the Palatino Unicode font.

I use the alt-8710 and as expected, the triangle showed up.

-> Not all applications support unicode. Charmap does.

Bob

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Character Map
Jun 11, 2005 1:34PM PDT

My PC doesn't have your Palatino Unicode Font but I use Courier New Font and it has this character. I don't know how you arrived at the Hex #8710 but I used it with Alt and got a ? - I can use Hex #0955 with Alt [which is Lambda Unicode 03BB converted to Hex/Decimal] and get

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You showed the answer.
Jun 11, 2005 10:09PM PDT

You convert from hexidecimal to decimal. But why would you need to learn how to use Charmap given what you've written? You seem to be adept at that application.

Maybe you need to ask another question such as how to use UNICODE in some word processor. But I don't see what word processor you have so that's not the issue (yet.)

Bob

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Character Map and Unicode
Jun 12, 2005 6:37AM PDT

Bob,
Once I've manually converted the code I want from Hex to Decimal, how do I get it inserted into my eMail [or Notepad] like when using Alt + NumberPad [Alt+182=

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I just did it (more or less).
Jun 10, 2005 7:28AM PDT

In fact, Windows did it for me (more or less).

In MS Word, I used Insert>Symbol. The Greek characters are in the Symbol font. Then I copied them (copy, paste) into e-mail (html-format, of course) and sent it to myself. And they arrived unharmed, without Outlook Express even bothering to ask me about sending it in Unicode (as it does when the message contains an Euro-sign). In fact, it isn't translated to Unicode at all. This is the html-source of the message:

<BODY bgColor=3D#ffffff><DIV>
<P><FONT face=3DSymbol>l</FONT> is a Greek=20
lambda</P></DIV></BODY></HTML>

I really don't know what the 3D means, but Outlook Express manages to understand it.

Of course, the message is only readable in the intended form by people with the Windows character set installed. It's not Unicode at all. It's just the Greek lambda from a special character set, like the symbols from Wingdings. But with 90% of all people using Windows, it seems an acceptable work-around, depending of course on to whom you want to send the message.

I didn't try the WordPerfect Greek Century, Courier and Helvetica fonts, but I'm sure they would work as long as the receivers had them installed. But that won't be many people!

All of this in Windows 95/OE5.5. It's sure to work in Windows XP also. I'm afraid you need some special editor to work in real Unicode. Never had to do it, so I can't answer your real question, I'm afraid.

Hope this helps nonetheless.


Kees

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Unicode editor
Jun 10, 2005 7:48AM PDT

I'm afraid not everybody has the Palatino Unicode font (my XP computer doesn't, just 4 variants of Palatino Linotype, and I don't know where they come from). So I'm not sure how an email (or a Word document for that matter) containing a greek lambda using this font would show up on my computer (either in Outlook Express or in Word). The sender may send two bytes containing #8710, if he likes, but the receiver must translate it to something on the screen using a font definition. Maybe Bob can try if he has a basic (no fancy fonts, just plain vanilla out of the box) Windows XP computer or even a Windows 98 or Linux computer with email somewhere.

All I know: Outlook Express 5.5 knows enough about Unicode to ask about it when I send a mail with an alt-0-1-2-8 (= euro) character, that isn't defined in the alt-0-0-0 through alt-2-5-5 range (the 256 available one-byte characters). But, of course, we all had to download euro charactersets and euro patches for windows when the euro was invented back in 1999, so it's a rather special case.

Anyway, http://www.google.com/search?q=unicode+editor give all kinds of interesting hits, that will probably answer your question. It makes for more interesting experiments, I think.


Kees

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unicode character picker
May 18, 2008 9:04AM PDT