[Web4lib] What is the microkey?

[Bob Rasmussen]

On Wed, 22 Jun 2005, Phalbe Henriksen wrote:

> Folks,
>
> A student at the local vo-tech has an assignment question that we can't
> answer. What is the microkey on a keyboard? It apparently has something to do
> with math software.

Ooh, good question. Let me try...

I bet he's trying to type something like "micrometer", abbreviated as
  μm

The first character, representing "micro", is the lowercase Greek
character "mu".  From the Windows utility "Charmap" (Start button, run,
charmap), I found that it has a Unicode (hex) value of 3BC. So how does
one enter it?  several possibilities:

1. From the charmap utility, select it and copy it to the clipboard. Then
in whatever program, Paste it in.

2. Many Microsoft programs allow you to enter hex Unicode values using the
alt-key and the numeric pad. I don't have that info right now (besides,
these things are hard to make work on a laptop).

3. You can use the Windows calculator (Start, run, calc) to convert the
hex 3BC to decimal, which yields 956. Enter this by holding the Alt key,
and typing (on the numeric pad only) "956", then releasing the Alt key.

4. Then I got to wondering if an alternate Windows keyboard definition
would help. I went to
   http://www.microsoft.com/globaldev/reference/keyboards.aspx
and chose "US-International". When I hover my mouse over the "Alt-Gr" key
(the Alt key to the right of the space bar), I see the mu (micron) symbol
in place of the "m". So I installed the US-International keyboard (method
varies by version of Windows). Now I can use AltGR + "m"to get a micron
symbol.

5. At
   http://www.microsoft.com/globaldev/tools/msklc.mspx
you can download a keyboard layout creation tool, and make your own
keyboard layouts. This might be useful for diacritic entry.

So... way more than you wanted to know.

Regards,
....Bob Rasmussen,   President,   Rasmussen Software, Inc.

personal e-mail: ras at anzio.com
 company e-mail: rsi at anzio.com
          voice: (US) 503-624-0360 (9:00-6:00 Pacific Time)
            fax: (US) 503-624-0760
            web: http://www.anzio.com