accessing the hash symbol

[mettajob]

Hello Forum, When i type the hash symbol(#) in windows seven, i get the pound sign. Am using windows xp now. Can somebody please tell me How i can access the hash symbol?

 

[Tews]

Try setting your keyboard layout to US english... hope this helps...

 

[mettajob]

Try setting your keyboard layout to US english... hope this helps...

I tried...But in vain.

 

[Dwarf]

What character do you get with Shift 2 ?

 

[mettajob]

What character do you get with Shift 2 ?

i get @

 

[mitchell65]

Try setting your keyboard layout to US english... hope this helps...

I tried...But in vain.

Exactly how did you set to US English? Go to control Panel Click on Region and Language and post what language is shown under Format and Keyboard.

 

[Dwarf]

What character do you get with Shift 2 ?

i get @

You get that result with a keyboard set to US English. Does it say @ or " on the key itself? If it says " then you need to change the keyboard layout to UK English.

 

[mitchell65]

Does it say @ or " on the key itself?

But the OP pressed Shift and 2 so the key said 2. Is what you are saying that the " and @ are reversed with English US and UK settings?

 

[Dwarf]

I was referring to what was actually printed on the key itself. Whilst most of the keys are the same between the US and UK keyboard layouts, some of them are different, and @ and " are just two of the affected characters.

 

[mitchell65]

I was referring to what was actually printed on the key itself. Whilst most of the keys are the same between the US and UK keyboard layouts, some of them are different, and @ and " are just two of the affected characters.

My apologies. I'd never really looked at what was on the top of the 2 key. See exactly what you mean, sorry there's touch typing for you!!!!

 

[Dwarf]

That's alright, no worries. You say you're a touch typist? Well, everyone's a touch typist. I mean, they all touch the keyboard whilst typing! Let's see what the OP has to say.

 

[mettajob]

Right!

I changed my keyboard settings from UK to New York and all worked fine

 

[mitchell65]

I changed my keyboard settings from UK to New York and all worked fine

Starnge I would have thought you needed to go from US to UK

 

[Dwarf]

Not necessarily. If he's got a US keyboard but has installed the UK keyboard layout, then he will have this result if he enters the appropriate symbol as marked on the keyboard. The keyboard layout itself is quite arbitary, and we are familiar with the standard layout. To the computer, the keyboard is just a series of switches and pressing one merely sends a scan code to the computer. This scan code is like an index to a table - the actual character is that pointed to in the table by that scan code.

These images show the difference in layout between the standard UK and US keyboards.

 

[mitchell65]

Thanks for that. I am now seeing it from the US keyboard angle and it makes sense! We live and learn and hopefully digest!

 

[Dwarf]

You're welcome.

Incidentally, the root of the qwerty layout which we are all familiar with lies in the development of the typewriter, and the need to slow people down to prevent the mechanism jamming. Letters that commonly go together, like Q and U, were placed so that the typehammers approached from a different angle. By the time electric typewriters were developed (the first ones were merely standard ones with electro-mechanical assistance), the layout had become so common and so familiar that it would be impractical to change it. We have since had golf-ball typewriters, where the typehammers are replaced by a single print unit head resembling a golf-ball carrying raised impressions of the various characters to full-blown word processors using keyboards just like the one attached to the computer that I and most other people use. Despite this, the basic layout has remained the same for around 100 years.

 

[stee]

I went through registration just to say:

What a useless ****ing place the internet is! Can do a simple thing like type a hash symbol... yet the coding for the windows operating system is the longest tract ever created by man