Thanks, me thinks my multimeter is shot - It is just swinging all the way across the screen when measuring on 50v and the same on 250v - I opened it up to change the battery and the - wire fell out, looks like it has corroded away. Time for a new one
Wayne
Yes, its broken. It looks like the internal circuit that looks after the ranges is no longer a working circuit.
On a working one, you can measure any voltage below what the scale says.
The dash with dot underline is a universal symbol for DC, so that is what you would use around batteries. The "~" is the symbol for AC.
Setting for too high a scale will just make the needle give a small travel on a low voltage, moving to a lower scale gives bigger travel and is easier to read. Making the needle travel too far too fast will kill it. A needle meter does not need batteries for reading voltage and current. The batteries are for the resistance scales, which are also very useful for checking whether the meter and leads are fit for use.
If you get a digital one, you get the same ranges, but the results are presented as numbers, thus easier to read. Usually, they don't care which way round the leads are connected, the display just shows a "-" if its reversed. The downside is that they need a battery to work at all.
Without a working one, when trying to track electrical faults, you are just guessing and hoping for good luck and magic.