I have been using ALT+numeric keys to insert special characters in all Libre Office file types for many years but have found that this function is no longer working. Instead a Navigator pop-up window appears. It works successfully in this text box, e.g. ô has been entered with ALT+0244, but the same keystrokes are not doing so in either Calc or Writer. (I write regularly in French and German from an English keyboard so the lack is frustrating.)
FAQ
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This Alt+<Number> is a Windows-specific trick dating back to the time when character repertoire was limited to 256 characters. Now most computers in the world use Unicode which provides zillions characters. But Windows kept the 256-character paradigm and the number entered with the Alt key stills requires the obsolete encoding.
By chance, most of the upper 128 characters encoding coincide with Unicode (this is the case of your “ô” LATIN SMALL LETTER O WITH CIRCUMFLEX U+00F4 = octal 0244), but this does not always hold.
A more general feature, allowing to enter any Unicode character is to enter “U+<hex_encoding>” (without quotation marks) followed by Alt+X. This works in any application of the suite (Writer, Calc, Impress, Draw, Math, →).
Note also the differences:
- hexadecimal encoding is used instead of octal
- you press the “transformation” shortcut after the encoding
If there is no ambiguity (i.e. what precedes the encoding does not contain hexadecimal digits), you can omit “U+”. “U” can be uppercase or lowercase.
ajlittoz
Thank you for the prompt and comprehensive reply.
I have been trying this out, and although the …Alt+x sequence works satisfactorily in Libre Office applications, it does not appear to be functional in other text applications such as my email (gmail) or the simple text application ‘Notepad’. It doesn’t seem to work in this forum either!
I have most of the common ALT… memorised, so it looks as if I shall have to set up a new memory set for Libre Office!
The Alt+X is a LO feature. Consequently, it does not work in other applications.
This site is HTML based. Consequently “special” characters must be specified as Html entities like < for <. Yet another procedure, sigh!
Entering Unicode character (outside LO) depends on the OS keyboard manager. The procedure is different under W$, MacOS and *nix. And in the latter case at least, you can customise to your liking which creates as many divergences as users.
It works just the same in Word 2010 (but not Excel 2010 due to existing shortcut) and in Notepad from Windows 11
@amr It is best to move forward and learn to use the Unicode characters because of the wider variety of characters.
If you are really struggling, you could look at my answer for how to remove the key assignments and allow the Windows-only shortcuts to work, [regression] cannot enter alt+number codes for unicode symbols anymore after updating to LibreOffice 7.6.3.2 - #9 by EarnestAl
@EarnestAl
Thanks. I have done a reassessment of how much I am actually likely to use these characters in LO and don’t feel that I need to mess around with shortcuts at this time. However, the background info has been useful.
It is confusing to see a vivid discussion of the alternatives to input these characters, and at the same time, complete silence / no reaction to the very first solution, which explained that this bug is already fixed, in already released version. Not saying that the existing discussion has no value; just strange to not see a reaction to what could effortlessly resolve it 100% for the OP.
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