Enter Unicode craracters with Alt+Numpad

There are over million of Unicode characters and it’s obviously impossible to place all of them on the standard 101-keys keyboards.

Alt+Numpad helps. Using this method you may enter any character by its number. Turn on NumLock, hold down left Alt key (not an AltGr), and type type number.

Note All numbers must be entered on the numpad (numeric keypad, right part of keyboard) with NumLock turned on! With exception of hexadecimal A..F, of course they are entered on the main keyboard part.

• Unicode: ‘Alt’-‘+’-‘xxxx’
  • Enable ‘Alt’-‘+’-‘xxxx’ globally in Windows
• ‘Alt’-‘0ddd’ or ‘Alt’-‘ddd’
  • ANSI: ‘Alt’-‘0ddd’
  • OEM: ‘Alt’-‘ddd’

Unicode: ‘Alt’-‘+’-‘xxxx’

This method allows to enter character by its hexadecimal number. Find character codebase on the www.unicode.org.

• Hold Alt;
• press + on the numeric keypad (aka GrayPlus);
• enter unicode ‘codebase’, up to six hex numbers;
• release Alt.

Few examples below.

• Russian capital ‘Я’: press Alt-+-42F.
• Pound sign ‘£’: press Alt-+-A3.

Also, ConEmu is able to convert entered codepoints to surrogate pairs, so you may enter uncommon symbols outside from BMP. Examples below.

• Double-struck ‘𝔸’: press Alt-+-1D538.
• Sushi emoticon ‘🍣’: press Alt-+-1F363

Enable ‘Alt’-‘+’-‘xxxx’ globally in Windows

Since ConEmu build 160203 hexadecimal Alt+HexNumber input is supported from the box, internally by ConEmu. Therefore, registry modification is not required anymore.

However, if you want to use hexadecimal input in other applications, you must ensure that your registry has been set up properly. If not, change registry and re-logon.

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Input Method]
"EnableHexNumpad"="1"

‘Alt’-‘0ddd’ or ‘Alt’-‘ddd’

Enter character by its decimal codepoint in ANSI or OEM. In theory, Windows uses system ACP and OEMCP to convert entered codebases to characters, but how it works in the real life… check yourself.

To check what is your ACP and OEMCP look at About/SysInfo.

ANSI: ‘Alt’-‘0ddd’

• Hold Alt;
• press 0 on the numeric keypad;
• enter ANSI ‘codebase’, up to three decimal numbers;
• release Alt.

Example: Alt-096 types ‘Grave Accent’.

Note Strangely, I can’t find a way to enter Russian characters using this method, regardless the fact my ACP is 1251 and ‘Russian’ was set as default for non-unicode applications in regional settings.

OEM: ‘Alt’-‘ddd’

• Hold Alt;
• enter OEM ‘codebase’, up to three decimal numbers;
• release Alt.

Example: Alt-240 types Russian capital ‘Ё’ if OEMCP is 866.