How to Add Special Characters to a Windows Document

"Special characters" include the many accents that occur in languages other than English, as well as copyright signs, trademark signs and so on. You must have the Character Map accessory installed on your computer.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Computers
• Microsoft Windows

1. Open the Character Map from the Start menu. (Choose Start, then Programs, then Accessories, then Windows System Tools and finally Character Map.)

2. Click on Fonts to select the font you want to use.

3. Locate the special character that you want to use, and click on it.

4. Click on the Select button. An image of the character will appear in the text box above the Select button.

5. Click on the Copy button. Your character is now copied to the Clipboard.

6. Click Close.

7. Go to the document that is to receive the special character. Put your cursor at the spot where you want the character to appear.

8. Paste the character into your document (Control + v from the keyboard or Paste from the Edit menu). Your character appears on the document.

Tips & Warnings

• If you do not have the Character Map installed on your computer, you can install it from your system software CD-ROM, or you can download it from the Microsoft Web site or Microsoft Network.
• Some programs, such as Microsoft Word, allow you to insert special characters directly from within the software program. Look for a menu element such as Insert, Special Characters, Symbols, etc.

[Dekahler]

on 10/17/2006 Using Autocorrect- When I use a special character often, I put it in as an AutoCorrect entry. One character I use a lot is the degree symbol, instead of looking it up each time, I set AutoCorrect to replace "(o)" with "°". If you put it into one Microsoft application, it will carry over to others.

on 11/22/2005 The keyboard shortcuts for inserting special characters only work if you use the digits on the numeric keypad, with Numlock on, while holding the Alt key. It will not work at all if you use the digits on the top row of the keyboard.

on 11/22/2005 The easiest way is to hold Alt and press the number of the character you want. Try it. Hold Alt and press 160. TO determine the number, open the Character Map, click on the character, and look in the "Keystroke" box at the bottom right.