How to Format Symbols on a Web Page

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By eHow Contributing Writer

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Use symbols to represent marks or words that do not appear on a keyboard, or to add mathematical entries to your web page. Adding symbols (also known as character entities) requires a basic knowledge of HTML.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Step 1

Open the page in a text editing program, such as EditPad or Notepad. Place the cursor where the symbol will appear.
Step 2

Type the code for the symbol exactly as it appears on the listing.
Step 3

Save the page and open it in a browser to view it. If the code is correctly entered, you will see the symbol; otherwise, you will see the text of what you typed.

Tips & Warnings

All symbols have a numeric code, while some entities have both a text code and numeric code. For example, the copyright symbol can be either entered as © or ©.
All entities begin with an ampersand (&) and end with a semi-colon (;).
Numeric entity codes always begin with an ampersand and a numeric pound (#) symbol.
Some older browsers will not recognize character entities. Viewers will simply see the code text.