Support for Euro currency characters with a Spanish (Traditional Sort) keyboard layout

View products that this article applies to.

This article was previously published under Q312586

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SYMPTOMS

If you use a Spanish (Traditional Sort) keyboard layout and you press the DEL key on the numeric keypad, a PERIOD (.) character is displayed.

Note that the correct symbol for a separator character in the euro currency, or decimal separator, is a COMMA (,) when you want to type values for euro currency.

After January 2002, the change to the way that you use a separator character in the euro currency may affect some programs, such as accounting programs, that do not use the National Language Support (NLS) functionality that is included with versions of Microsoft Windows.

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RESOLUTION

A supported hotfix is now available from Microsoft. However, it is intended to correct only the problem that this article describes. Apply it only to systems that are experiencing this specific problem.

To resolve this problem, contact Microsoft Customer Support Services to obtain the hotfix. For a complete list of Microsoft Customer Support Services telephone numbers and information about support costs, visit the following Microsoft Web site:

http://support.microsoft.com/contactus/?ws=support (http://support.microsoft.com/contactus/?ws=support)

Note In special cases, charges that are ordinarily incurred for support calls may be canceled if a Microsoft Support Professional determines that a specific update will resolve your problem. The usual support costs will apply to additional support questions and issues that do not qualify for the specific update in question. The Spanish version of this fix should have the following file attributes or later:

   Date         Time   Size  File name  Operating system
   --------------------------------------------------------------------
   09-Nov-2001  13:56  601   Kbdsp.kbd  Windows Millennium Edition (Me)
   09-Nov-2001  14:18  601   Kbdsp.kbd  Windows 98 Second Edition
   09-Nov-2001  14:11  601   Kbdsp.kbd  Windows 98

NOTE: The update that is described in this article is available only for the Spanish (Traditional Sort) keyboard layout. The DEL key on a Spanish (Modern) numeric keypad displays a PERIOD character.

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WORKAROUND

You can change the way that you use the a separator character in the euro currency in Windows. To do this:

Click Start, and then click Control Panel.
Double-click Regional Settings in Control Panel.
Click the Currency tab.

On the Currency tab you can change the way that currency is displayed; however, not all programs (such as Notepad) use Regional Settings to format currency characters. When you use programs that do not use Regional Settings, you can use your keypad to type the character that you want to use.

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STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed in the "Applies to" section.

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MORE INFORMATION

When you use a computer that is running Windows 98, Windows 98 Second Edition, or Windows Me, the keyboard layout is mapped in .kbd files and you cannot modify the files. However, on computers that are running Microsoft Windows NT, Microsoft Windows 2000, or Microsoft Windows XP, you can use the Remap Windows Keyboard Layout tool (Remapkey) to change the character that is displayed when you press a key on the keyboard.

For more information about Windows Me hotfixes, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

295413 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/295413/ ) General information about Windows Millennium Edition hotfixes

For more information about Windows 98 and Windows 98 Second Edition hotfixes, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

206071 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/206071/ ) General information about Windows 98 and Windows 98 Second Edition hotfixes

For more information about the National Language Support (NLS) functionality that is included with versions of Microsoft Windows, view more information about the GetCurrencyFormat function from the following Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) Web site:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms776248(VS.85).aspx (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms776248(VS.85).aspx)

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms905229.aspx (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms905229.aspx)

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