Using special characters

Here's a cool trick:
Open Word (or WordPad or any other word processor program). While viewing the blank document, hold down the Alt key and type the numbers 0161. Instead of those numbers showing up on the screen, you see an inverted exclamation point. Now, this might not be of any use to you (unless you type in Spanish). However, there are lots of special "characters" available for you to use in a document - and many of them are not on your standard keyboard.

To see these characters, go to Start - All Programs - Accessories - System Tools - Character Map. A new window will open, and you can see those fun little characters in a grid. You can copy and paste directly from this window into your document. However, if you use a particular character often, it is cumbersome to have to open this new window each time. Click on one of the characters to highlight it, and then look in the lower right corner of the window. You will see the Alt-key number combination that will display that character. Just make a note of it, and use that key combination whenever you want to type that character.

Video clip: the worst weatherman ever! Actually, this is a local college television station in Athens, Ohio. The "weatherman", Louis, was actually filling in for someone that day and had no experience. He has become somewhat famous for this clip, which has been circulating on the internet for a few years.