Can Apple replicate a Number Lock/ASCII Sequence?

[drgrafix]

JUst wondering out loud here. On PCs, you can use NUMLOCK, then hold down ALT, and type in a 4-digit key code to produce all sorts of ASCII characters like copyright and trademark signs, some fractions, and some specially accented characters. Can you do this on a Mac?

 

[Dan Harkless]

Wow, I completely forgot about the "Darth Vader Apple II Plus" clone from Bell & Howell. I wasn't aware of a //e version, though.

In any case, to answer your question, Apple describes how to "type" special characters using the Character Palette here (and in the pages it links to). Surprisingly it doesn't mention an option to generate such characters directly from the keyboard, but this TidBITS article tells how to do that. Note that the tab in the International preference panel that they refer to is called "Input Menu" rather than "Keyboard Menu" in current versions of OS X.