Infinity symbol on a Windows keyboard: Does anyone know what the Alt code is for the infinity symbol (horizontal figure 8) on a Windows keyboard? It is NOT "Alt 236" as many internet...

Searcher Loc: Kent, England

Does anyone know what the Alt code is for the infinity symbol (horizontal figure 8) on a Windows keyboard?

It is NOT "Alt 236" as many internet sites say it is.

I have tried Wingdings, Wingdings 2 and Wingdings 3, also Arial fonts.

Would be most grateful if some one know the answer.

Bob Yankle Loc: Burlington, NC

Searcher wrote:

Does anyone know what the Alt code is for the infinity symbol (horizontal figure 8) on a Windows keyboard?

It is NOT "Alt 236" as many internet sites say it is.

I have tried Wingdings, Wingdings 2 and Wingdings 3, also Arial fonts.

Would be most grateful if some one know the answer.

I just tried it - Alt 236 IS the infinity symbol, but you have to have your Numlocks key turned on to get it, as well as keying in the numbers from the number pad. Is this what you're talking about? " ∞ "

ottopj Loc: Annapolis, MD USA

This worked for me. Go to: http://fsymbols.com/signs/infinity/

Click on the infinity symbol in the white background and then you can paste it where you want it.

ottopj Loc: Annapolis, MD USA

Bob, That only works with a detached keyboard and not on a laptop, correct?

Bob Yankle Loc: Burlington, NC

ottopj wrote:

Bob, That only works with a detached keyboard and not on a laptop, correct?

I used a full keyboard, that's true. I don't know if this would work on a laptop.

ottopj Loc: Annapolis, MD USA

It doesn't. However, the website I mentioned above does work, even if it is a bit cumbersome.

For others who need the same thing and have a laptop, you need to open the document where you want to place the symbol before you copy it from the website.

You can also place it in a document, copy what you just placed and put it onto another document which you then save and when you need it you can go and get it.

This is too much detail for 06:30

Pandylou Loc: The Levant

I cannot find an ALT binding for the infinity code.

(Using Vista here)

ALT 236 does not work.....

However, try typing 221EAltX (no spaces)

Works fine in MSWord and Notepad

Searcher Loc: Kent, England

Further research reveals that Microsoft changed the keyboard pages in Europe to cope with additional symbols (such as the Euro) and most European versions of Windows don't actually have the infinity symbol built in.

I have spoken to Microsoft and they have just told me to uninstall Windows, then reinstall with extra codes to get the Alt 236 to show the infinity symbol.

I don't think I will bother, I will draw one in Photoshop and install it as a symbol.

Thank you all for trying.

Madman Loc: Gulf Coast, Florida USA

Searcher wrote:

Does anyone know what the Alt code is for the infinity symbol (horizontal figure 8) on a Windows keyboard?

It is NOT "Alt 236" as many internet sites say it is.

I have tried Wingdings, Wingdings 2 and Wingdings 3, also Arial fonts.

Would be most grateful if some one know the answer.

∞ I typed alt+236 and the infinity symbol came right up - however-

Just a few days ago, I printed out a list of symbols I found on the UHH search to find the code for the degree sign. That list shows the code for the infinity sign to be alt+8236. Trying it now: , again ,.

I can't explain why some work and some don't but I'm sure someone here can.

Searcher Loc: Kent, England

Madman wrote:

∞ I typed alt+236 and the infinity symbol came right up - however-

Just a few days ago, I printed out a list of symbols I found on the UHH search to find the code for the degree sign. That list shows the code for the infinity sign to be alt+8236. Trying it now: , again ,.

I can't explain why some work and some don't but I'm sure someone here can.

Alt + 8236 give me a comma ","

Madman Loc: Gulf Coast, Florida USA

Searcher wrote:

Alt + 8236 give me a comma ","

Yup, me too (shows in my first msg.) But the alt+236 did work! Go figure!

Searcher Loc: Kent, England

I copied the following extract from a Yahoo answers screen, some of it is interesting, some of it is understandable. What it does make clear is that not all keyboard/character layouts are the same.

Code page 437 is the original MS-DOS character set on the PC. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_page_4... . In this character set, character 236 is ∞ .

But Microsoft later invented other code pages for different languages or to be more similar to the Windows code page 1252. Windows Code page 1252 covers western European languages and is the normal Windows code page installed on computers where the language is set to a form of English. The DOS code page that most closely resembles Windows code page 1252 was originally Code page 850. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_page_8... . In this code page character 236 has the value ý. When the Euro system was invented, Microsoft invented yet another DOS code page which they called 858 which was identical to Code page 850, except that it included instead of ı, the dotless i. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_page_8... .

You obviously have either Code page 850 or Code page 858 installed instead of Code page 437. This is sometimes done because Code page 437 is missing accented characters that are usually thought to be more necessary in common business use and Code pages 850 and 858 contain all the characters from the ISO Latin-1 alphabet (although recoded) which was the basis of Code page 1252. So a file can more likely be translated from one to the other without losing information,

Some installing programs make this change and some individuals make it because they feel that Code page 850 or Code page 858 better fits their use of the computer.

Web sites giving the values of Alt codes more often than not are produced by ignoramuses who have no idea about code pages or character sets.

You can change your DOS code page back to 437 if you want by reinstalling Windows. You should be asked to select a code page at some time during the install. You may also issue the command chcp 437 in a DOS window, but that only effects the appearance of DOS Windows using Windows fonts and will not effect characters you get using the Alt key.

I consider Code Page 850 and Code Page 858 to be superior to Code Page 437 in any case.

What I think you should do is to download and install the free Quick Unicode Input Tool from http://www.cardbox.com/quick.htm . This allows you to type any Unicode character from U+0000 to U+FFFF using either the hexadecimal number itself or its decimal counterpart. To get ∞, since its Unicode code point value is U+221E, I would type Alt numeric-keypad-dot 2 2 1 e (without the spaces).

Note that while Quick Unicode Input Tool is running, the normal Alt-key method will not work, but since all the characters are available from Quck Unicode Tool, that really isnt a problem as long as you know their Unicode hexadecimal values.

jcs Loc: USA

I have windows 8.1

Num.lock ON
Alt 236 = ∞

Madman Loc: Gulf Coast, Florida USA

Searcher wrote:

I copied the following extract from a Yahoo answers screen, some of it is interesting, some of it is understandable. What it does make clear is that not all keyboard/character layouts are the same.

Code page 437 is the original MS-DOS character set on the PC. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_page_4... . In this character set, character 236 is ∞ .

But Microsoft later invented other code pages for different languages or to be more similar to the Windows code page 1252. Windows Code page 1252 covers western European languages and is the normal Windows code page installed on computers where the language is set to a form of English. The DOS code page that most closely resembles Windows code page 1252 was originally Code page 850. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_page_8... . In this code page character 236 has the value ý. When the Euro system was invented, Microsoft invented yet another DOS code page which they called 858 which was identical to Code page 850, except that it included instead of ı, the dotless i. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_page_8... .

You obviously have either Code page 850 or Code page 858 installed instead of Code page 437. This is sometimes done because Code page 437 is missing accented characters that are usually thought to be more necessary in common business use and Code pages 850 and 858 contain all the characters from the ISO Latin-1 alphabet (although recoded) which was the basis of Code page 1252. So a file can more likely be translated from one to the other without losing information,

Some installing programs make this change and some individuals make it because they feel that Code page 850 or Code page 858 better fits their use of the computer.

Web sites giving the values of Alt codes more often than not are produced by ignoramuses who have no idea about code pages or character sets.

You can change your DOS code page back to 437 if you want by reinstalling Windows. You should be asked to select a code page at some time during the install. You may also issue the command chcp 437 in a DOS window, but that only effects the appearance of DOS Windows using Windows fonts and will not effect characters you get using the Alt key.

I consider Code Page 850 and Code Page 858 to be superior to Code Page 437 in any case.

What I think you should do is to download and install the free Quick Unicode Input Tool from http://www.cardbox.com/quick.htm . This allows you to type any Unicode character from U+0000 to U+FFFF using either the hexadecimal number itself or its decimal counterpart. To get ∞, since its Unicode code point value is U+221E, I would type Alt numeric-keypad-dot 2 2 1 e (without the spaces).

Note that while Quick Unicode Input Tool is running, the normal Alt-key method will not work, but since all the characters are available from Quck Unicode Tool, that really isnt a problem as long as you know their Unicode hexadecimal values.

I copied the following extract from a Yahoo answer... (show quote)

I don't have much need for these symbols and I find that the ones that I might use (degree, copyright, male, female,etc.) do work off the list I got here on this site. I will make a note of the info that you have found just in case I need it in the future. Thanks for your research and posting. ☺☺☺

traveler90712 Loc: Lake Worth, Fl.

I just tried it here and it worked
∞