Apache OpenOffice (AOO) Bugzilla – Issue 61540
Standard MS Windows Alt-Key Unicode input fails
Last modified: 2014-07-11 15:17:19 UTC
Microsoft Windows has from the beginning had a method of inputting characters from the user's 8-bit character set though the numeric keybad with Num Lock on. The user holds down the Alt key (left Alt key on keyboards where the right Alt Key is a Gr Alt key) while entering the decimal number of the character required. An initial 0 indicates the the current 8-bit Windows character set is to be referenced. No initial zero indicates the current 8-bit MS-DOS character set is to be referenced. This works fine in all OpenOffice.org modules, eg. holding down ALT and entering 1 inserts the happy face from the DOS character set, holding down ALT and entering 0256 produces ÿ (y-dieresis) from the Windows 1252 Latin-1 character set (if that is what is installed as the Windows code page.) Under Windows XP this method was extended to allow characters above U+00FF (decimal 255) in the Unicode set to be accessed in the same way, with or without leading zero. So to produce a Greek lower-case alpha, which is Unicode U+03B1, one holds down the ALT key and enters the decimal equivalent: 945, and the alpha is inserted in most programs the allow Unicode input. This can be tested in the WordPad program that comes with Windows XP. However this useful method, which works in Microsoft Office also, does not work in OpenOffice.org. (I am currently running OpenOffice 2.0.1.) Instead, the character insered is the one that corresponds to the numeric value of what would be the last byte in the Unicode value. Alt 945 instead of a Greek lower case alpha produces ± (a plus-minus symbol), Unicode U+00B1 instead of U+03B1. This stripping of the second byte also occurs in some other programs in Windows, including the system program Notepad, though Notepad can accept Unicode values if they are pasted into its window. Since the data from keyboard input is being received, I would think (hopefully) that a change to allow OpenOffice to accept the full Unicode value instead of a truncated value would be a simple one. Inasmuch as currently OpenOffice receives incorrect values, I consider the current behavior to be a defect. Jallan3
confirmed with 680_m154 on WinXP Pro SP2
@ sba: Is this an input method that should be supported in OOo?
SBA-ES: Please proceed.
ES->PL: still the same in m169
This is confirmed on Windows 2K. I jut want to add one more thing. Under Wordpad, by example, it is possible to enter Unicode characters using the following method: <unicode-hexadecimal-character-code> alt+x Example: type 3BB in Wordpad followed by the key combination alt+x The sign λ should be displayed. My 2 cents.
This is still not fixed on OOo 2.3.1 on Windows 2000 and Windows XP, using a variety of computers (mine and at university computer labs). The problem does not exist on Linux, where Ctrl-Shift+u and hex works properly. There is no way to insert characters in the Windows version except by Insert > Special Character, or using Windows Character Map utility. Both are extremely clumsy if you need to enter special characters a lot, as I do for linguistics work. For me this is a showstopper. I'm having to use MS Office instead, much as I'd prefer to use OOo.
I agree with John Jason Jordan that it is sad that neither OpenOffice.org (with OpenOffice, version 4.0) or Microsoft (with Vista) has yet to address this issue in respect to all programs. However a free (though not Open Source) utility named “Quick Unicode Input†is available at http://www.cardbox.com/quick.htm . This doesn’t handle characters beyond the base plane but within the base plane allows input of Unicode characters by entering either the decimal value of the character on the Unicode keypad while holding down the Alt key or entering the hex value of the character by entering Alt-numerickeybard-. and then the hex value (on numeric keypad or regular keyboard) while holding down the Alt key. This I believe is the model that OpenOffice.org should follow, save that it should allow input of characters beyond the base plane. Using Quick Unicode Input will probably be sufficient for John Jason Jordan’s needs unless he is using characters beyond the base plane, so that he need not go back to using MS Word. Note that under Windows Vista, if you set up the program to run automatically by putting its icon in the Startup menu folder, it doesn’t work properly, at least on my machine. I have to start it up manually after the current session has booted. But then it works wonderfully. I have no such problems with Windows XP. Perhaps a note in documentation that such free programs exist with a pointer to the website of Quick Unicode Inputm (and any other similar utilities that might appear) would be an acceptable solution for many users until either OpenOffice.org developers or Microsoft provides a solution that works out of the box. Jallan3
*** Issue 104111 has been marked as a duplicate of this issue. ***
Reset assignee on issues not touched by assignee in more than 2000 days.
Windows has the ability to input unicode charcters with Alt and +nnnn, but this feature has to be switched on in the registry, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unicode_input#Hexadecimal_code_input.
the Unicode Input ISO 14755 require the use of CTRL+SHIFT+u HEXCODE sequence to input unicode symbols. You can open a bug against Windows that require a modification to the registry to accept the common universal hexcodes, still with a non standard key sequence