Ways to get around missing £ sign?

[bigDave]

Hello,

I am planning on buying a poker 2 in the near future, however the only one's that seem to be available are ANSI variants. I am fine with this as it would give me a larger variety of key caps to choose from.

What I am wondering is what is the best way to quickly inputting a "£" when you don't have a dedicated key for it?

Any help is appreciated.

David

[tufty]

⌥-3

[bigDave]

⌥-3

What does that mean?

[BlueNalgene]

£ is alt+156

[jacobolus]

Hi BigDave,

What kind of operating system do you use?

The keyboard sends "scan codes" to the computer, which the operating system interprets to decide what character to put in when you type a key. Different keyboard layouts often send the same scan codes, so the character you get depends on what keyboard layout you have set up in the software.

How to type a £ symbol depends on what OS you’re using and what settings it has. On a Macintosh, typing option + 3 will put in a £ character, as tufty pointed out. On Windows, you should be able to use a UK layout, or an “international” layout, and have easy access to the £ character. Otherwise you can hold Alt and type 156 on the numpad (not the number row) to get a pound symbol. I wouldn’t recommend using that method though.

[bigDave]

Hi BigDave,

What kind of operating system do you use?

The keyboard sends "scan codes" to the computer, which the operating system interprets to decide what character to put in when you type a key. Different keyboard layouts often send the same scan codes, so the character you get depends on what keyboard layout you have set up in the software.

How to type a £ symbol depends on what OS you’re using and what settings it has. On a Macintosh, typing option + 3 will put in a £ character, as tufty pointed out. On Windows, you should be able to use a UK layout, or an “international” layout, and have easy access to the £ character. Otherwise you can hold Alt and type 156 on the numpad (not the number row) to get a pound symbol. I wouldn’t recommend using that method though.

As I am planning on getting a poker 2 I won't have a number pad.

I am currently using windows 7 ultimate.

[jacobolus]

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/change-keyboard-layout#1TC=windows-7

[bigDave]

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/change-keyboard-layout#1TC=windows-7

Thanks for the link, so does this mean that if I change my layout to us international I can use right control + shift + 3 to get a pound sign?

[vvp]

Tufty is probably using an Apple computer. ⌥ is a symbol for Alt Option.

I'm more of an Compose key user: ⎄=L gives you ₤. You can write almost any character with a compose key quite intuitively. Or even write u̲n̲d̲e̲s̲c̲o̲r̲e̲d̲ ̲t̲e̲x̲t̲ in a funny way. Of course, there is a question whether the other side interprets Unicode properly.

[tufty]

Tufty is probably using an Apple computer. ⌥ is a symbol for Alt Option.

I'm more of an Compose key user: ⎄=L gives you ₤. You can write almost any character with a compose key quite intuitively. Or even write u̲n̲d̲e̲s̲c̲o̲r̲e̲d̲ ̲t̲e̲x̲t̲ in a funny way. Of course, there is a question whether the other side interprets Unicode properly.

Yeah.  Tufty is also slightly trolling.  It aways helps to mention what OS you're using.  Still, at least I didn't come back with the symbolics lisp machine way of doing things, mainly because I can't remember if it needed special treatment.

I like composition too, makes a lot more sense than most OSs manage.  Oddly, although OSX has a bunch of largely nonsensical (effectively) alt+<key> combos, it manages to more or less compose for (at least most of) the  european accent combos; a grave accent is alt-` <letter>, umlaut is alt-u <letter>, acute alt-e <letter>, cedilla alt-c <letter> and so on.

Shame it doesn't do greeks that way. it would be nice to be able to do something like alt-/ \ to get λ (or alt-g l)

[Oobly]

On a Windows machine, AltGr (right Alt key) and either 4 or 5 will give you £.

You can also switch between installed keyboard languages with Alt+Shift. Of course you can actually use UK character layout all the time if you like, but you'll lose the \| key. I have become used to using US ANSI layout (on my KBT Pure ANSI board) for coding and only switching to Finnish / Swedish when writing emails, etc, so I can get the öäå characters. The <>()/\[]{}^ characters are all easier to reach in US ANSI than Finnish ISO and they're used quite often in coding.

[vvp]

I do Greek letters with ⎄g prefix: e.g. ⎄go is ω etc.
The nice thing about it is that it can be easily extended with .XCompose. So one can extend it to do things like: ∑(1,½,¼,⅛…)=2; √2≅1.414; ∇×E=-∂B/∂t

It is a pity windows does not support Compose key natively. It is the best thing I know for rarely used characters. Of course, it is better to switch the keyboard layout when typing in a different language often.

[bigDave]

On a Windows machine, AltGr (right Alt key) and either 4 or 5 will give you £.

You can also switch between installed keyboard languages with Alt+Shift. Of course you can actually use UK character layout all the time if you like, but you'll lose the \| key. I have become used to using US ANSI layout (on my KBT Pure ANSI board) for coding and only switching to Finnish / Swedish when writing emails, etc, so I can get the öäå characters. The <>()/\[]{}^ characters are all easier to reach in US ANSI than Finnish ISO and they're used quite often in coding.

Cheers

If I change my keyboard to us international and then press Alt gr + shift + 4 I get a pound sign, however this doesn't work when in chrome. Any fix?
Also the poker 2's right alt is not labeled as alt gr but am I right in assuming this would still work.

[hoggy]

I'd suggest leaving your settings as UK layout, and as Oobly points out, you'll need to deal with the blackslash.  You could use Autohotkey to remap another key, or set it up a combination of keys for it.

[vvp]

If you really need some mix of more layouts at once in Windows then you can try this too:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/goglobal/bb964665.aspx
I used it in far far past and it worked OK at that time.

[bigDave]

If you really need some mix of more layouts at once in Windows then you can try this too:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/goglobal/bb964665.aspx
I used it in far far past and it worked OK at that time.

Thanks for the suggestions, this will more than likely be a last resort.

[bigDave]

If you really need some mix of more layouts at once in Windows then you can try this too:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/goglobal/bb964665.aspx
I used it in far far past and it worked OK at that time.

As I am planning on getting an ansi keyboard having the key caps not match the mapping would drive me mad, however there is always the option of getting key caps new key caps with an international number row and long shift + long enter, I will definitely bear this in mind.

[Oobly]

On a Windows machine, AltGr (right Alt key) and either 4 or 5 will give you £.

You can also switch between installed keyboard languages with Alt+Shift. Of course you can actually use UK character layout all the time if you like, but you'll lose the \| key. I have become used to using US ANSI layout (on my KBT Pure ANSI board) for coding and only switching to Finnish / Swedish when writing emails, etc, so I can get the öäå characters. The <>()/\[]{}^ characters are all easier to reach in US ANSI than Finnish ISO and they're used quite often in coding.

Cheers

If I change my keyboard to us international and then press Alt gr + shift + 4 I get a pound sign, however this doesn't work when in chrome. Any fix?
Also the poker 2's right alt is not labeled as alt gr but am I right in assuming this would still work.

I noticed in Windows 7 it only switches the layout for the active application, so if you switch it in Notepad and then change to Chrome, Chrome will see the keyboard as the previous layout until you switch it while in Chrome.

With MKLC you can make your own custom layout, works pretty well. You can mix and match ISO and ANSI sets if you want UK characters on the number rows and other places, but ANSI physical layout.

To be honest, I'd encourage you to simply learn US International ANSI layout and get the odd characters with AltGr. I found it quick to learn other layouts and can switch between them easily now. One of the benefits is the huge range of keycap sets in US ANSI layout. I like to change my caps a lot, really loving SA profile at the moment. 

[luisbg]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QWERTY#US-International

It's what people are recommending. It is what I use (with some variation to have ~, ' and " more accesible).

[luisbg]

I noticed in Windows 7 it only switches the layout for the active application, so if you switch it in Notepad and then change to Chrome, Chrome will see the keyboard as the previous layout until you switch it while in Chrome.

Windows has the most bizarre features that are just really bugs. Who thought of that?

[bigDave]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QWERTY#US-International

It's what people are recommending. It is what I use (with some variation to have ~, ' and " more accesible).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QWERTY#US-International

It's what people are recommending. It is what I use (with some variation to have ~, ' and " more accesible).

On a Windows machine, AltGr (right Alt key) and either 4 or 5 will give you �.

You can also switch between installed keyboard languages with Alt+Shift. Of course you can actually use UK character layout all the time if you like, but you'll lose the \| key. I have become used to using US ANSI layout (on my KBT Pure ANSI board) for coding and only switching to Finnish / Swedish when writing emails, etc, so I can get the ��� characters. The <>()/\[]{}^ characters are all easier to reach in US ANSI than Finnish ISO and they're used quite often in coding.

Cheers

If I change my keyboard to us international and then press Alt gr + shift + 4 I get a pound sign, however this doesn't work when in chrome. Any fix?
Also the poker 2's right alt is not labeled as alt gr but am I right in assuming this would still work.

I noticed in Windows 7 it only switches the layout for the active application, so if you switch it in Notepad and then change to Chrome, Chrome will see the keyboard as the previous layout until you switch it while in Chrome.

With MKLC you can make your own custom layout, works pretty well. You can mix and match ISO and ANSI sets if you want UK characters on the number rows and other places, but ANSI physical layout.

To be honest, I'd encourage you to simply learn US International ANSI layout and get the odd characters with AltGr. I found it quick to learn other layouts and can switch between them easily now. One of the benefits is the huge range of keycap sets in US ANSI layout. I like to change my caps a lot, really loving SA profile at the moment. 

On a Windows machine, AltGr (right Alt key) and either 4 or 5 will give you �.

You can also switch between installed keyboard languages with Alt+Shift. Of course you can actually use UK character layout all the time if you like, but you'll lose the \| key. I have become used to using US ANSI layout (on my KBT Pure ANSI board) for coding and only switching to Finnish / Swedish when writing emails, etc, so I can get the ��� characters. The <>()/\[]{}^ characters are all easier to reach in US ANSI than Finnish ISO and they're used quite often in coding.

Cheers

If I change my keyboard to us international and then press Alt gr + shift + 4 I get a pound sign, however this doesn't work when in chrome. Any fix?
Also the poker 2's right alt is not labeled as alt gr but am I right in assuming this would still work.

I noticed in Windows 7 it only switches the layout for the active application, so if you switch it in Notepad and then change to Chrome, Chrome will see the keyboard as the previous layout until you switch it while in Chrome.

With MKLC you can make your own custom layout, works pretty well. You can mix and match ISO and ANSI sets if you want UK characters on the number rows and other places, but ANSI physical layout.

To be honest, I'd encourage you to simply learn US International ANSI layout and get the odd characters with AltGr. I found it quick to learn other layouts and can switch between them easily now. One of the benefits is the huge range of keycap sets in US ANSI layout. I like to change my caps a lot, really loving SA profile at the moment. 

From all I have heard my best option is to learn the ansi layout and use the international map to get other characters.

Thanks for all the advice

[luisbg]

From all I have heard my best option is to learn the ansi layout and use the international map to get other characters.

Thanks for all the advice

No problem! Enjoy your PokerII

[bigDave]

From all I have heard my best option is to learn the ansi layout and use the international map to get other characters.

Thanks for all the advice

No problem! Enjoy your PokerII

Cheers, hopefully ordering it soon.