How does one enter a control character, like the escape character?

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Guest

I have been trying to use Windows Help to find out how to use the keyboard to
enter an escape character into a text file. Any experience with this one?
 
Bob,
I suppose i need to read what the exact keystrokes are. I tried ALT 027 but
nothing appears afterwards.
 
Perhaps explaining what it is you are attempting to accomplish would go
further than "piecing" it along one question/keystoke at a time?
 
According to Start/Help/"Using printer control codes" -
to enter the (hex) ESC character, type <1B> including the brackets.
 
I send a text string to a printer. The commands and data are separated by the
escape character. If I copy and modify an existing string (using Notepad) the
escape character (displayed as a square) is copied along with the commands
and data but if i want to create a new text file, it is entering the escape
character that has me stymied. I have seen in Help what the hex, decimal, and
ASCII equivalents are but i can't seem to find the right keyboard strokes to
make that escape character "square" appear in the text. Thanks for your help,
Bob I.
 
That "square" is simply used to indicate an unprintable character. Use
notepad to open any exe or dll to confirm.

Perhaps you'll save time if you simply copy/paste the good ESC char into
a notepad file and keep that file handy for future copy/paste use.
 
Dan Seur has provided one method, and another is to use "EDIT.COM" to
create the file. "Start, Run, Edit C:\newfile.txt" as example. Type in
your printer commands (CTRL P to insert ctrl chars like ESC)

Hope this sorts it for you.
 
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