Why doesn't my keyboard have an interrobang‽?
Inspired by 6rant6’s question about rhetorical questions, I was reading about discarded punctuation marks. Rhetorical was once indicated by a reversed ? mark and I think that’s brilliant in this type-comm day.
The interrobang (‽) seems like an even more useful punctuation in this age of WTF so I wonder why it didn’t catch on? Are there other symbols you wish were on your standard keyboard?
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this question has inspired me to make an interrogation fantasy porn movie
Keyboards and the corresponding code pages are usually determined by the location where the computer is sold. For example, American keyboards have a $ whereas English keyboards have a £. In countries where the language requires an interrobang, I’d guess the keyboards have one. If you’re in an English speaking country, you could always use ?! to show a surprised question as some people do, even though that’s not really grammatically correct.
No no. He means WTH???!!!
I knew the word interrobang, but I had no idea there was a single symbol. I use the word as a mnemonic, because I can never remember if it’s WTF?! or WTF!?
Exactly, @HungryGuy the interrobang is elegant and I want a one stroke key for it. And why not‽
I say.. @jaytkay ? first, and ! second. That’s what I say.But I ain’t no interobangger.
@HungryGuy Ya but I gotta defective keyboard. WTF ‽
We’re talking font deficiency too… when you hit that key on that keyboard with an interobang, what is going to happen ?
I guess the designers think if a character is too esoteric to occupy keyboard space, it can usually be found in the Character Map.
I glanced at it, and I couldn’t find the interrobang in the Unicode set.
I was about to pine for the cent character, but I just now saw it in the CM.
If you want, you can change your keyboard to replace a key you don’t use with the interobang.
True @MyNewtBoobs I can make my keyboard personal but I use just about every available key. I am wondering if keyboards in the future will include a ♥ key (especially for mac users) and an interrobang‽
Oh hell. I’ll go find one! I’m looking for a backward ?, right?
@Blueroses Not unless they come back into fashion.
¿ There. Just memorize the key stroke (for Ariel alt 0191) and it doesn’t take any more time than punctuation or capitalization. Even the ? requires an extra key stroke…the shift plus the key / ? key.
@Blueroses… I don’t have a Mac but…♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ Alt 3.
@Dutchess_III
Thanks for the Alt 3 idea- I should just memorize that instead of hassling with the Character Map.
@Dutchess_III That’s an upside down question mark. An interobang is a question mark and an exclamation point together (Alt + 8253 ‽)
When I’m bored I like to just do alt + random numbers.. ◙ < like I randomly hit alt 666 and came up with that. ╚ < alt 456. ... @MyNewtBoobs trying… = < nah…I don’t recall seeing anything like what you’re describing on the character map…for Fluther it has to be Ariel.
Can we make up our own? Like alt 0167 §?
Alt 0181 µ?... (Anyone know how to translate the ones that don’t have an alternate key, but have a U designation instead?)
Yeah, @Dutchess_III I knew the upside down (Spanish interrogatory) but the discarded rhetorical mark was a backward ? (with the “hook” facing away from the sentence, not upside down)
@Dutchess_III No, I’m saying I just typed it in as Alt + 8253. ‽
And if you want to do it in Courier New, just put it (or anything else) in between the at symbol and it changes to like this ‽
= When I do alt + 8253 I just get the = sign… = see.
I see @Blueroses…I have no idea. I don’t see it on the character map…
@Dutchess_III What browser are you in? What OS do you have? Are you doing the numbers on the number pad, or the combined keys above the letters?
On a laptop, you often have to do Fn/Alt/(letter equiv. of 10 key pad) if that helps.
ex: ♪ is Fn/Alt/JL
There is a way you can convert your keyboard to type other alphabets. I am certain you could get your English speaking keyboard to do this, because my daughter gets hers to write in Japanese.
Running Firefox whatever the latest version is, XP, and to get my characters I…wait….I use the keypad. I just tried Alt + the numbers above the letters and nothing happens. I know the = sign is there, but that’s not what I’m hitting.
@snowberry It’s easy to change the language of the keyboard (look in Start/Control Panel), but then…I couldn’t understand a word I said!
@Blueroses I don’t have a laptop…I don’t have a catch-all function key….
I’m about to break something here with all my ‘sperimenting. I hope it isn’t Fluther!
I feel that interrobangs, along with being unneccesary, take away from the drama of having two punctuation marks, even when it looks like more of an interrogation point than an exclamation point, which carries that drama.
Which sounds more dramatic to you?
“What did you do‽” or What did you do?!
@johnpowell Not fair! You have to tell us the key strokes to do that!
@dxs…maybe unnecessary, but the question made for a great thread!
Again..can anyone tell me how to translate the U + numbers on the character pad, that don’t show a corresponding alt + number so that I can recreate them?
second time I’ve seen you do that @johnpowell and I’m with @Dutchess_III I want to know how it’s done… although it would take away some of the specialness, so go ahead and keep it to yourself
@dxs I personally prefer the ‽
@Blueroses Seriously, for you guys that is alt 8253? What system do you have and why can’t I find it?
ʘ‿ʘʘ‿ʘʘ‿ʘʘ‿ʘʘ‿ʘʘ‿ʘʘ‿ʘʘ‿ʘʘ‿ʘʘ‿ʘʘ‿ʘ I stole it, I stole it!!!
FTW?!...Did anyone else sit there first and try random combinations? LOL
“Dude, I went to the beach today.”
“Oh yeah, how was it?”
”ʘʘ”
“Sweet!”
@ovisaries Only about a thousand of them. So you try and let us know when you find it. And don’t forget to remember what random combination you hit when you hit it sometime tomorrow evening.
QUIT you guys! @johnpowelljaytkay Unless you tell us what it is!!
I copy and paste them when I find them. I keep a text file for copy and paste for when they are needed. I don’t know the keystrokes.
Cool @johnpowell! I took your ⦿⏓⦿ and pasted it into Word to start a file (I have the 97 version) and it just turned it into 3 squares…so I highlighted it and started running though the fonts and toward the end (Palatino Linotype to be specific) came up with some interesting alternatives (which didn’t translate here)! But not ⦿⏓⦿..never did find that…
Yes @ovisaries. We know how to turn things upside down and stuff. But we’re looking specifically for a ?! put together in one character. Let us know when you find it.
No @bob_ Reversed as in right side up but facing the other direction
@bob_ Reversed ? as in ”¿”?
Que?
¿Why are you calling “katie”? She’ll be right back
I think ¿ is a good punctuation mark and should be used. So many times I read and then realize it is a question, even after noticing the the verb is before the subject. I like it, and it helps me in spanish, along with its relative, ¡ , ¡which I think is even more useful!
@jaytkay Que?
@bob_ ¿Qué de qué?
I don’t speak Spanish, that was my American accent.
Or lack of accent? Confusing.
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