Using the Microsoft WordPad program to support text input for the Microsoft Paint program.

William Overington

Another feature of newer versions of WordPad is that the technique of holding down the Alt key and using the set of digit keys which appear in a block at the right-hand side of an ordinary keyboard works for code points above 255 as well as up to 255 which works for Paint.

This needs to be done by first producing a display using WordPad, then using the Print Screen facility to place the picture onto the clipboard.

This means that, provided that one is using a fount which has the necessary characters, WordPad can be used to enter text using Unicode characters such as accented letters, Greek characters and Cyrillic characters and more, though some care is needed with this Alt technique as I shall now mention.

For possibly historical reasons concerned with the history of the IBM PC, some of the codes for 128 through to 255 do not seem to work using WordPad according to Unicode codes. However, as using the techniques in this document are not to produce encoded text files yet simply to produce pictures, such as diagrams and art, this need not matter too much. It is a matter of readers trying out numbers and observing which characters are displayed by the WordPad program. These codes tend to be for the accented characters for the languages of western Europe and Scandinavia.

However, to the limited extent which I have tried the matter out, using the Alt technique with WordPad seems to behave in accordance with Unicode charts above values of 255 decimal.

Start of supplementary note of Monday 24 June 2002

I have subsequently learned that the technique of using Alt followed by a 0 and then the code number in decimal can produce the Unicode character with a suitable fount.

For example, Alt 0177 gives the Unicode character U+00B1 PLUS-MINUS SIGN with a suitable fount.

What will work with different packages on different platforms is best found by actual tests with the particular package and platform with which you are working.

So, for the é example in the following text, if a proper Unicode é character is available in your location, it could be accessed using Alt 0233 whereas Alt 233 would probably not produce an é character, but something else.

I have found that the Alt 0 technique also works in Paint so as to give the Unicode character, though only characters up to 0255 will work as far as I know at present.

End of supplementary note of Monday 24 June 2002

The matter of which code numbers to try for learning about accented characters and about some other characters is mentioned in the final part of this document.

Readers who already have the Arial typeface on their system may find that they have not got the most recent version. The Microsoft Corporation very generously provides a free download facility for a number of founts at the following web page.

Microsoft Corporation free fonts download page

Readers who are unaware of Unicode might like to know of the Unicode website at

http://www.unicode.org

on the web, where there are lots of free documents available, including charts which show which code point (number) corresponds to which character. Those code points tend to be supplied in hexadecimal notation.

A useful way to obtain a decimal equivalent of a hexadecimal number is to use the Microsoft Calculator. Once the calculator is started up, simply use View Scientific to obtain the scientific calculator.

Click in the Hex radio button. Enter the hexadecimal number. Then click the Dec radio button. The display shows the number you need. Use only the digits when using the Alt key to select a character in WordPad or Paint, do not use the decimal point.

As a first example, suppose that we wish to make another cartoon for the series which was produced for the

Using the "full stop lock and key" method to align text with the Microsoft Paint program.

workshop, yet keying the text in WordPad.

Let us choose as the text the following.

Where is the internet café please?

Now this example is somewhat contrived, for the result could be produced using the Paint program on its own. I could have had a far more convincing demonstration example by using an accented character which could not be produced using Paint. However, for older versions of WordPad which some readers may be using, those characters could not be entered into WordPad either. So, I have chosen a basic example in order that more readers can learn the technique. For, a reader may learn this technique on an older machine and maybe later have a chance to try the technique on a newer machine.

The code for é which we need to use is 130. This is one of the codes mentioned above which does not follow Unicode within the range 128 to 255 mentioned above. Yet, 130 works to produce an é character, and that is what is needed in the picture.

The technique is as follows.

Start WordPad. Select 18 point Arial.

Press the Enter key twice. This is so that the text you produce for the Print Screen effect has clear space around it.

Key in the following.

.Where is the internet caf

Now, hold down the Alt key and, keeping it held down, key 130 using the number keys which are on the right-hand side of the keyboard. Now release the Alt key.

Now press the space bar. This is because the é character was at the end of a word. If an accented character is not at the end of a word, then there is no need to press the space bar.

Now key the following text.

please?

Now highlight the text and choose Format from the menu bar and select Font from the drop down menu which appears. Choose blue from the dialogue box. While here, please note that the Size box allows you to specify a point size for the text. It should be showing 18. There is no need to alter the size for this example, as 18 point is needed, yet please note that although you may choose a point size from the list below, you can also insert a number of your own choice, such as 200 or 400. This is the facility which is used for producing characters larger than 72 point. The TrueType founts can automatically supply a design for any larger size you choose.

Click OK to close the dialogue box.

Your text should now be in blue letters upon a white background.

Now press the Enter key a few times so as to get the cursor away from your text.

Now press the Print Screen button.

Open Paint and paste that screen image into Paint.

Next, cut out the text together with some of the surrounding white area.

Now, within Paint, open the master copy of the cartoon, complete with the lock design upon it.

Save it under a new name before making any alterations.

Now go to 8x magnification.

Move the picture so that the full stop shaped hole of the lock is visible in the lower left-hand part of the display.

Make sure that the background colour in the tool box is set to white.

Paste from the clipboard.

Next, set the pasting to be transparent by clicking the lower panel below the tool box.

Now, move the full stop at the start of the key so as to fit into the hole in the lock.

Go to 1x magnification and make sure that the effect looks correct.

Change the colour of the lock and the leading full stop to become the same colour as the background of the picture, so that they disappear. It may be best to go back to 8x magnification to change the colour of the full stop, then go back to 1x magnification.

Now, save the picture. It is a .bmp file.

Now close the WordPad program.

Incidentally, knowing that sometimes a wordprocessing package may say one size and use another in its display, as it is predicting how a page will look when printed, I checked that the WordPad program produced text in the correct size. I did this by producing the text in blue as above, then I produced it in red directly within Paint, cut it out, then went to 8x magnification and pasted it on top of the blue text. No blue showed.

I also did a test by producing the text in red from within Paint and then pasting the blue text on top of it. No red showed.

So, the two were identical as to pixel locations used to produce the text.

I made a .gif file so as to include the picture in this document. Here is the result.

The next example is using large text, 300 points in size.

Now, it would be quite alright to use an accented character in this exercise, and, indeed, I have tested that out just so as to be absolutely sure in the matter. However, I have decided not to include an accented character in this example so as to show the technique for using large text as directly as possible. However, please include accented characters in your large text if you wish.

Let us choose to use the word Art in bright green lettering, as if we were making a poster.

Start WordPad.

Set Arial at 18 point.

Press the Enter key twice so as to have a clear surround.

Key the word Art then press the Enter key twice.

Now highlight just the three letters of the word Art.

Choose Format from the menu bar and select Font from the drop down menu which appears.

Select the bright green colour, which may be called Lime.

Key 300 into the Size box.

Click OK.

Press Enter twice to get rid of the cursor from near the text, then scroll back up so that the large green letters saying Art are in view.

Use Print Screen.

Now start Paint and paste the picture in from the clipboard.

Cut out the word Art and some surrounding white area.

Start a new picture within Paint.

Make the picture 640 pixels wide by 400 pixels high.

Fill the picture with yellow.

Make sure that the background colour in the tool box is set as white.

Now, paste from the clipboard, adjusting the position of the word Art within the picture as you wish.

Save the picture.

Close WordPad.

I have produced a .gif file showing my result, all produced using WordPad and Paint.

For possibly historical reasons concerned with the history of the IBM PC, some of the codes for 128 through to 255 do not seem to work using WordPad according to Unicode codes. However, as using the techniques in this document are not to produce encoded text files yet simply to produce pictures, such as diagrams and art, this need not matter too much. It is a matter of readers trying out numbers and observing which characters are displayed by the WordPad program. These codes tend to be for the accented characters for the languages of western Europe and Scandinavia.

However, to the limited extent which I have tried the matter out, using the Alt technique with WordPad seems to behave in accordance with Unicode charts above values of 255 decimal.

Codes from 256 decimal and some code points above give accented characters for various European languages. These tend to be for central and eastern European languages, though not exclusively so.

Entering 913 and some code points above should produce Greek uppercase characters. 915 decimal gives a capital gamma. 945 decimal and some code points above should give Greek lowercase characters. 946 gives lowercase beta.

1024 onwards gives Cyrillic letters, though 1040 is a better place to start investigating for basic Cyrillic characters. 1046 gives an interesting character.

It is important to remember that not every fount contains a character for every Unicode code point.

Hopefully the techniques explained in this document will be useful to people producing art and diagrams using the Paint program.