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Degree Symbol On Computer


tnfishdaddy

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Posted

There are three quickie ways:

 

1. Just copy this: ° to you clipboard and paste it in your document

 

2. Hold down the ALT key and type 0176 on the number pad (assuming you're using windows), the Degree sign should appear in your document.

 

3. Find the Character Map tool. Mine is in Start\Programs\System Tools. Copy and Paste as in #1

 

Good Luck.

Posted
Huh, I use ALT + 248.

 

I was ripping my hair out recently trying to do it on my laptop though. It does not have the numbers keypad.

No kidding. on my laptop, it's Fn + numberpad then ALT + 0178 (or 0248) then Fn + numberpad again. Quite a drag

Posted
Huh, I use ALT + 248.

 

I was ripping my hair out recently trying to do it on my laptop though.  It does not have the numbers keypad.

 

So, Criminal, did you ever get it to work? We also have a laptop that does not have the keypad.

 

Shirley~

Yes, I have to hold down the Fn key the Alt key, and press K U and then 8. The numbers pad is on the letters in blue.

 

Always learning...

Posted

Wow...I'm reading all these ways to do the degree sign, and I've always done it differently: Hold down the ALT key and then hit 1447 on the numbers pad (easy for me to remember, as they're all on the left of the numbers pad and the 4 is a double-beef sandwich in the middle).

Posted
On a Mac- much easier  (option+K).

  Hmmm… I've been using Shift-Option-8.  It's a different character. I wonder which one is correct.

 

    Option–K:  ?

    Shift–Option–8:  °

 

    Option–K & Shift–Option–8 side-by-side:  ?°

Posted

  Option–K displayed correctly while I was editing and previewing, but got turned into a question mark when I submitted the post, while Shift–Option–8 posted correctly.  Option–K was a smaller circle, positioned higher, than Shift–Option–8.

 

  As far as posting to this forum goes, therefore, I have to say that Shift–Option–8 is clearly the one to use.

Posted
Huh, I use ALT + 248.

Alt+186 works too :blink:

That's actually not a degree symbol. It's called the masculine ordinal indicator. In most fonts, it's slightly bigger. In some fonts, you may not be able to notice the difference.

° = alt-176

º = alt-186

Posted
Huh, I use ALT + 248.

 

I was ripping my hair out recently trying to do it on my laptop though.  It does not have the numbers keypad.

No kidding. on my laptop, it's Fn + numberpad then ALT + 0178 (or 0248) then Fn + numberpad again. Quite a drag

On a Mac it is: alt, shift, 8 °

Very easy.

 

Yet another reason to go Mac. :rolleyes:

 

HWyatt

Posted
On a Mac- much easier  (option+K).

Hmmm… I've been using Shift-Option-8.  It's a different character. I wonder which one is correct.

 

    Option–K:  ?

    Shift–Option–8:  °

 

    Option–K & Shift–Option–8 side-by-side:  ?°

I don't have an "option" key :rolleyes:

Posted (edited)
Option–K displayed correctly while I was editing and previewing, but got turned into a question mark when I submitted the post, while Shift–Option–8 posted correctly.  Option–K was a smaller circle, positioned higher, than Shift–Option–8.

 

  As far as posting to this forum goes, therefore, I have to say that Shift–Option–8 is clearly the one to use.

I'd say option-shift-8 is the correct one on Mac- it coresponds to A1 in hexidecimal, or character #161, while option-K is hexidecimal FB, or #251. If I remember correctly, only characters corresponding to #128 or below are supposed to be standard between operating systems (the letters a-z correspond to decimal #97-122, for example), while anything higher is operating system- or font- specific. As an example, typing option-shift-K gives you the Apple logo, and I don't imagine this symbol would appear in fonts in Windows... However, I think a number of symbols at the lower end of the range of Hex 81-FF are still identical between systems, such as the ° symbol. I'd have to mess around with Windows to say for sure, though, since I only have a mac at my disposal right now. Looking at the characters nearby, Hex A2 and A3 are curreny symbols, which I think would be standard, while FC-FF are special symbols such as "smart quotes", so it is more likely that the symbol that corresponds to option-K is mac-specific and should be avoided on the web. I've always thought that, in Windows, the reason behind typing alt and 0xxx is that you are entering the decimal value for the character (if so, I would guess that typing alt-0048 = the number 1, alt-0097 = a, alt-0098 = b and so on.), while the Mac OS assigns key sequences to them. In older versions of the mac os, the program Key Caps would give you a virtual map of the keyboard, and holding down a modifier key (command, control, shift, etc) would give you a map of what modifier and key combination corresponded to each symbol.

 

Sorry if that was much more technical and confusing than it should have been ;)

 

edit: ha, apparently I had a typo that was censored as a dirty word. Better watch my spelling :rolleyes:

Edited by DavidMac
Posted
Option–K displayed correctly while I was editing and previewing, but got turned into a question mark when I submitted the post, while Shift–Option–8 posted correctly.  Option–K was a smaller circle, positioned higher, than Shift–Option–8.

 

  As far as posting to this forum goes, therefore, I have to say that Shift–Option–8 is clearly the one to use.

I'd say option-shift-8 is the correct one on Mac- it coresponds to A1 in hexidecimal, or character #161, while option-K is hexidecimal FB, or #251. If I remember correctly, only characters corresponding to #128 or below are supposed to be standard between operating systems (the letters a-z correspond to decimal #97-122, for example), while anything higher is operating system- or font- specific. As an example, typing option-shift-K gives you the Apple logo, and I don't imagine this symbol would appear in fonts in Windows... However, I think a number of symbols at the lower end of the range of Hex 81-FF are still identical between systems, such as the ° symbol.

  I don't think that's true.  I'm fairly sure than the Macintosh and classic PC character sets do not have any matching characters above 127.

 

  Where we ever get into common ground beyond the basic ASCII standard is Unicode, which is a 16-bit international character set that is now widely-used.  Any decent browser will try, on posting a PC- or Mac-specific character, to translate it first to the corresponding Unicode character.  When I post a degree symbol from my Macintosh, it is represented on my end as a particular number that corresponds to its placement in the Macintosh character set.  But it is sent and stored on Groundspeak's servers in Unicode, and when viewed on a PC, may be translated first back to an entirely different number that represents it in the PC's character set.

 

I've always thought that, in Windows, the reason behind typing alt and 0xxx is that you are entering the decimal value for the character (if so, I would guess that typing alt-0048 = the number 1, alt-0097 = a, alt-0098 = b and so on.)…

  Close.  When you do Alt-nnn, where nnn is a 1-, 2-, or 3-digit number, you're entering the PC character set value, which would be the same as standard ASCII if nnn is <128.  When you enter 4 or more digits, you're generating a Unicode character; this only works, of course, under any version of Windows which is new enough to support Unicode.

 

…while the Mac OS assigns key sequences to them. In older versions of the mac os, the program Key Caps would give you a virtual map of the keyboard, and holding down a modifier key (command, control, shift, etc) would give you a map of what modifier and key combination corresponded to each symbol.

  Key Caps is still here under MacOS X 10.2.8.

Posted
Huh, I use ALT + 248.

Alt+186 works too :rolleyes:

That's actually not a degree symbol. It's called the masculine ordinal indicator. In most fonts, it's slightly bigger. In some fonts, you may not be able to notice the difference.

° = alt-176

º = alt-186

This is true. Not to mention some of these other combinations might be giving different symbols on the other end. What you see with your font on your end might be different in the font the other guy is using.

 

For a PC, I think it's safe to always use ALT-0176 Don't forget the zero in front, some PCs need it. On my machine ALT-176 just gives me an underscore.

 

(I work with lots of fonts every day.)

Posted (edited)
I don't think that's true.  I'm fairly sure than the Macintosh and classic PC character sets do not have any matching characters above 127.

 

  Where we ever get into common ground beyond the basic ASCII standard is Unicode, which is a 16-bit international character set that is now widely-used.  Any decent browser will try, on posting a PC- or Mac-specific character, to translate it first to the corresponding Unicode character.  When I post a degree symbol from my Macintosh, it is represented on my end as a particular number that corresponds to its placement in the Macintosh character set.  But it is sent and stored on Groundspeak's servers in Unicode, and when viewed on a PC, may be translated first back to an entirely different number that represents it in the PC's character set.

 

I've always thought that, in Windows, the reason behind typing alt and 0xxx is that you are entering the decimal value for the character (if so, I would guess that typing alt-0048 = the number 1, alt-0097 = a, alt-0098 = b and so on.)…

Close. When you do Alt-nnn, where nnn is a 1-, 2-, or 3-digit number, you're entering the PC character set value, which would be the same as standard ASCII if nnn is <128. When you enter 4 or more digits, you're generating a Unicode character; this only works, of course, under any version of Windows which is new enough to support Unicode.

 

You got me there. I guess I was going on some old information- I forgot to consider unicode and was only considering the old 8- bit ASCII. Can't always rely on the accuracy of my posts after 12:30 AM :rolleyes:

 

Key Caps is still here under MacOS X 10.2.8.

 

True, but it disappeared in Panther, or has moved to some obscure location.

Edited by DavidMac
Posted
Key Caps is still here under MacOS X 10.2.8.

True, but it disappeared in Panther, or has moved to some obscure location.

  Try looking under /Applications/Utilities/

 

  That's where it is under Jaguar (MacOS X 10.2.x).  If it's not there under Panther (MacOS X 10.3.x) then it's gotta be there somewhere else.  Try doing a search on your hard drive for “Key Caps”.

 

  I can't imagine that they'd do away with it at this point.  I think it's been a part of MacOS from the very beginning.

Posted

I think it's amazing that there's been 27 posts already to this rather simple topic question. Winter must have arrived; caching must be getting backburnered. B)

Posted

Panther Keyboard Viewer:

 

Click International Pref Pane in System Preferences.

 

Click Input Menu tab.

 

Click Checkbox next to Keyboard Viewer to activate - also click Show Input Menu in Menu Bar at bottom of pane.

 

Quit System Preferences.

 

You should see a "US Flag" on the right hand side of the menu bar. Click this menu.

 

Select Show Keyboard Viewer.

 

Select font.

 

That's all...

 

"Bassmedic"

Posted

If you're on Windows, use Google to find the neat freeware "AllChars", which lets you build almost "any" character using a combination of keys.

 

Eg:

º = . and o

ß = s and s

é = e and '

 

It works in every application and after a very short while it becomes intuitive - no need to remember reams of ALT-numbers. It's not spyware or anything stupid like that. We use it on 1000+ PCs at my place of work (where we need to type a lot of accents, etc, with QWERTY keyboards).

 

Nick

Posted
On a Mac it is:  alt, shift, 8  °

Very easy.

 

Yet another reason to go Mac.  :D

 

HWyatt

Yeah, the posts about whether it's "option K" or "option 8", about not having an option key, etc. make it clear how much easier the Mac is to use. :lol:

 

I guess Mac users have to brag about something, since they don't have any compatible software to run! :smile:

Posted

I visited this topic solely becaues it was getting so much activity. I thought maybe you all had discovered something marvelous in this pursuit! :lol:

 

So anyway, as long as we're on this topic, how do I do the º on my Palm running OS5? It's not on the virtual keyboards and yet James Eli's Coordinate Conversion Program has it displayed in the data fields, so I know it's in there somewhere!

Posted
So anyway, as long as we're on this topic, how do I do the º on my Palm running OS5? It's not on the virtual keyboards and yet James Eli's Coordinate Conversion Program has it displayed in the data fields, so I know it's in there somewhere!

  I understand that Grafitti has changed from PalmOS 4.x to 5.x, but under 4.x and under 3.x, you get a degree symbol by doing the “extended shift” stroke (a diagonal from upper left to lower right), followed by a clockwise circle starting at the bottom.

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