NOTE FROM BILL HAYLES
My column got rather chewed up in the conversion from my typing to the print in The Grapevine, mainly due to the differences between the character sets of PC and Apple Mac systems. The accents, and accented characters in this page will only work correctly on PCs, and then only if you are using the Courier New font (which you should be). What I wrote applies only to PC systems using the IBM Character Set Number 2 (i.e. almost all of them).
Furthermore, there's no Oasis session this Saturday, and a surgery on Easter Saturday. The next full class is on April 6th. I have amended the text below to reflect this.
Anyway, here's the column:
Computing for the Bewildered. By Bill Hayles
Hello again.
Both from talking to students at my Oasis sessions, and from the
e-mails I've been receiving, it seems I'm not being forward enough in
plugging the facilities I make available on the Internet.
My web site is at http://billnot.com
(You'll note there's no "www" in that URL)
As well as much personal material, there are the following sections:
This column:
After each column has appeared in "The Grapevine" (and only after, not
before), it will be posted to the web site. Sometimes my columns
contain many links to other web pages. On the web site, these are in
the form of hyperlinks, so that you can just click on the link, rather
than having to keep typing them in (and running the risk of a typing
error).
The Oasis Sessions:
All the material I write for my classes at The Oasis is available for
browsing. Everything is still there, right from the very first session
last year. In addition, there is a search engine list, and downloads
of additional items that have been produced, such as one of my old
booklets and a table of the history of operating systems. I'm hoping
that more use will be made of the site - that's why I maintain it. If
you have any comments, favourable or otherwise, please let me know!
Last month, we were talking about plain text, and mentioned ASCII
codes. This month, we're following on from that and looking at
keyboards, and in particular how to get those accented and other
characters that don't appear on your keyboard.
Many software programs include facilities for incorporating non
standard characters in your work, but the disadvantage is that they can
only be understood by somebody else with exactly the same software as
you. There are many characters which can be used almost universally,
without the need for special software, if only you know how to type
them. Included in this set are all the accented characters (é, â, Ç ñ
etc). PC keyboards come in many sorts. Most of you are probably using
a UK layout keyboard. If you find yourself frequently needing accented
characters, it's much easier with a Spanish layout board. On a Spanish
layout keyboard, such as I'm typing this with, you get an accented
character by typing the accent then the letter. For example, to get an
é, I type the ´followed by the e, and it appears as a single character.
This doesn't work with a UK board, but there's another, universal
though longer way, which works on all keyboards with a numeric key pad
(i.e. all except certain laptops).
As we learned last month, every character has an ASCII code - a capital
A is character 65, a lower case c 99. Codes from 128 to 254 are
allocated to accented and other characters. A table of these
characters can be found at
http://www.jimprice.com/jim-asc.htm
while the particular section you will probably want is
http://www.jimprice.com/ascii-128-255.gif
Knowing the code of the character, how do we type it? Suppose, for
instance we wanted an a with a circumflex (â). We look up the code -
131. Making sure the numlock is on, we hold down the left hand Alt
key, whilst typing the three figure number on the number key pad, then
releasing the alt key. In other words, Altkey on - 1 - 3 - 1 - Alt key
off. The â should appear on our screen. It's perfectly possible to
type an entire letter (or newspaper column) using only the Alt key and
the number key pad, but I wouldn't recommend it except for masochists.
And what, I hear you ask, about the Euro sign? You'll notice that this
appears nowhere in the list of ASCII codes, for the simple reason that
it wasn't thought of when the ASCII table was devised. How you get the
€ sign depends, once again on your keyboard. For a Spanish keyboard
it's AltGr-E. For a British keyboard it's AltGr-4, although the
results may not be correct if you have an older (pre Windows95OSR2)
operating system installed. The AltGr key is the right hand Alt key,
just to the right of the space bar.
If you decide to take the plunge and change to a Spanish keyboard
(they're not very expensive, and any computer shop will sell you one),
you'll need to change your software settings to let your system know.
Assuming you're using Windows 95 or later, open "My Computer", then
"Control Panel", and from that, "keyboard". Under "language" click
"add", and then select "Spanish - Modern Sort" You can either remove
your British option, or keep it, when you will be able to swap between
them.
My sessions on the basic use of computers continue at the Oasis Centre.
The next dates are Saturdays March 16th and April 6th at 1030 and the
subject of the sessions is "Computing
for the Bewildered"; we're starting from absolute basics. n those
Saturdays when there's no formal session, I will be at The Oasis holding
a "surgery", where I will attempt to sort out your computer problems,
large, small and trivial. There is NO session on 23rd March, and 30th March
(Easter Saturday) is a surgery.
Everybody is welcome to all my sessions - there's no charge, and on
"formal" days we always break for tea or coffee. However, if you're
thinking of lugging your computer into a surgery, please e-mail me
first to make sure I'll be able to look at it. Additionally, we have
started our "Project Computer", where we will be building a computer
from donated bits and pieces. We already have much of what we require,
but if you have any spare parts you don't require, particularly a sound
card or a printer, that you'd like donate to our cause, I'd be
delighted to hear from you.
That's it for this month, but if you have a question you'd like me to
answer in the column,or maybe an idea for a topic, please e-mail it to
questions@billnot.com, If you don't have e-mail, you can always leave
your question at the CopiShop. However, I can't guarantee to answer
questions personally.
My Costa Blanca Expats Internet Group can be found at
http://groups.costablancaexpats.net
and the "Rogues' Gallery" at
If you have been, thanks for reading this.
