Alt function for Spanish characters has stopped working

Pjeffery

I had no problem creating special Spanish characters (using ALT +) on my Aspire 5 keyboard when I first purchased it. Suddenly it stopped functioning. Any suggestions on restoring that function? Thank you.

JackE

Have you tried toggling the numlock key?

Pjeffery

Yes, I did, thank you for the suggestion, JackE!

JackE

Go to this link and  check both ALT key and other key reponses. http://en.key-test.ru/

Pjeffery

I should have been more clear in my response. I toggled the NumLock and it did not correct the problem.

JackE

Yeah, I  figured. Go to this link and  check both ALT key and other key reponses. http://en.key-test.ru/

Pjeffery

Thank you for the link. Both ALT keys (to the left and the right of the space bar) seemed to pass the test, as did the NumLock key.

JackE

What about the numbers that you use to enter the number code such as ALT+164 or ALT+165?

Pjeffery

I tried the ALT options suggested and those did not work either. When in Microsoft Word, now as soon as I hit the "Alt" key, a series of black squares with a single letter (or number) show up at the top of the screen. They seem to have functions of their own.

JackE

Open NotePad. NumLock on. Press ALT+165. What do you see?

Pjeffery

Aha!! The Spanish characters appear in Notepad and they also seem to be working when I compose text in gmail. However, nothing is working in Word, and I certainly used to be able to insert them in that program in the not-too-distant past. I have at least a partial work around, thank you!

JackE

Good. You don't have a hardware issue. Something has changed in Word options. What version are you using? Online 365? Do you know how to change Word options? This Microsoft guide might help. https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/insert-ascii-or-unicode-latin-based-symbols-and-characters-d13f58d3-7bcb-44a7-a4d5-972ee12e50e0

Pjeffery

Thank you, JackE, for all your helpful suggestions. I'll see what I can find in the Microsoft link you provided. 

JackE

Here is further guidance on Microsoft Word specifically. https://www.pcworld.com/article/420167/how-to-get-special-characters-using-alt-key-codes-or-the-word-symbols-library.html

Sometimes toggling both the numlock and scrollock functions fix the problem inside the MS Word environment.