You can insert special characters into a Word document either directly from your keyboard, by using the Insert menu, or by using the eXtyles Symbols menu. All methods are described in this section.
The tables in this section list the shortcut keys you can use to insert special characters in a Word text.
The shortcut keys and ISO codes are summarized in two tables: one for commonly used special characters and another for accented letters.
When a comma separates two parts of a command short cut, you must follow two distinct steps to insert the character. First press and then release the keys leading up to the comma, then press the keys following the comma. For example, to type in an e with an acute accent (é):
The following table lists keyboard shortcuts and ISO codes for commonly used special characters, including em and en dashes. "Num" keys refer to keys on the numeric keypad. For example, "Num-" is the minus sign on the numeric keypad.
Ch | Name | Shortcut Keys | ISO Code |
---|---|---|---|
— | Em dash | Alt+Ctrl+Num- | — |
– | En dash | Ctrl+Num- | – |
– | Nonbreaking hyphen | Ctrl+_ | |
¬¬ | Optional hyphen | Ctrl+- | ­ |
Nonbreaking space | Ctrl+Shift+Space | | |
© | Copyright | Alt+Ctrl+c | © |
® | Registered | Alt+Ctrl+r | ® |
™ | Trademark | Alt+Ctrl+t | ™ |
… | Ellipsis | Alt+Ctrl+. | … |
' | Single opening quote | Ctrl+`,` | ‘ |
' | Single closing quote | Ctrl+','' | ’ |
" | Double opening quote | Ctrl+`," | “ |
" | Double closing quote | Ctrl+''," | ” |
The following table lists keyboard shortcuts and ISO codes for inserting accented letters and other special characters. "Num" keys refer to keys on the numeric key pad. For example, "Num-" is the minus sign on the numeric keypad.
Ch | Name | Shortcut Keys | ISO Code |
---|---|---|---|
¡ | Inverted exclamation mark | Alt+Ctrl+! | ¡ |
¢ | Cent sign | Ctrl+/, c | ¢ |
¨ | Umlaut mark | Ctrl+:, Space | ¨ |
« | Left angle quotation mark | Ctrl+`,< | « |
° | Degree | Ctrl+@, Space | ° |
´ | Acute accent | Ctrl+'', Space | ´ |
¸ | Cedilla | Ctrl+,, Space | ¸ |
» | Right angle quotation mark | Ctrl+`, > | » |
¿ | Inverted question mark | Alt+Ctrl+? | ¿ |
À | Capital A, grave | Ctrl+`, A | À |
à | Small a, grave | Ctrl+`, a | à |
Á | Capital A, acute | Ctrl+'', A | Á |
á | Small a, acute | Ctrl+'', a | á |
 | Capital A, circumflex | Ctrl+^, A |  |
â | Small a, circumflex | Ctrl+^, a | â |
à | Capital A, tilde | Ctrl+~, A | à |
ã | Small a, tilde | Ctrl+~, a | ã |
Ä | Capital A, umlaut | Ctrl+:, A | Ä |
ä | Small a, umlaut | Ctrl+:, a | ä |
Å | Capital A, ring | Ctrl+@, A | Å |
å | Small a, ring | Ctrl+@, a | å |
Æ | Capital AE diphthong (ligature) | Ctrl+&, A | Æ |
æ | Small ae diphthong (ligature) | Ctrl+&, a | æ |
Ç | Capital C, cedilla | Ctrl+,, C | Ç |
ç | Small c, cedilla | Ctrl+,, c | ç |
È | Capital E, grave | Ctrl+`, E | È |
è | Small e, grave | Ctrl+`, e | è |
É | Capital E, acute | Ctrl+'', E | É |
é | Small e, acute | Ctrl+'', e | é |
Ê | Capital E, circumflex | Ctrl+^, E | Ê |
ê | Small e, circumflex | Ctrl+^, e | ê |
Ë | Capital E, umlaut | Ctrl+:, E | Ë |
ë | Small e, umlaut | Ctrl+:, e | ë |
Ì | Capital I, grave | Ctrl+`, I | Ì |
ì | Small i, grave | Ctrl+`, i | ì |
Í | Capital I, acute | Ctrl+'', I | Í |
í | Small i, acute | Ctrl+'', i | í |
Î | Capital I, circumflex | Ctrl+^, I | Î |
î | Small i, circumflex | Ctrl+^, i | î |
Ï | Capital I, umlaut | Ctrl+:, I | Ï |
ï | Small i, umlaut | Ctrl+:, i | ï |
Ð | Capital Eth, Icelandic | Ctrl+'', D | Ð |
ð | Small eth, Icelandic | Ctrl+'', d | ð |
Ñ | Capital N, tilde | Ctrl+~, N | Ñ |
ñ | Small n, tilde | Ctrl+~, n | ñ |
Ò | Capital O, grave | Ctrl+`, O | Ò |
ò | Small o, grave | Ctrl+`, o | ò |
Ó | Capital O, acute | Ctrl+'', O | Ó |
ó | Small o, acute | Ctrl+'', o | ó |
Ô | Capital O, circumflex | Ctrl+^, O | Ô |
ô | Small o, circumflex | Ctrl+^, o | ô |
Õ | Capital O, tilde | Ctrl+~, O | Õ |
õ | Small o, tilde | Ctrl+~, o | õ |
Ö | Capital O, umlaut | Ctrl+:, O | Ö |
ö | Small o, umlaut | Ctrl+:, o | ö |
Ø | Capital O, slash | Ctrl+/, O | Ø |
ø | Small o, slash | Ctr+/, o | ø |
Ù | Capital U, grave | Ctrl+`, U | Ù |
ù | Small u, grave | Ctrl+`, u | ù |
Ú | Capital U, acute | Ctrl+'', U | Ú |
ú | Small u, acute | Ctrl+'', u | ú |
Û | Capital U, circumflex | Ctrl+^, U | Û |
û | Small u, circumflex | Ctrl+^, u | û |
Ü | Capital U, umlaut | Ctrl+:, U | Ü |
ü | Small u, umlaut | Ctrl+:, u | ü |
Ý | Capital Y, acute | Ctrl+'', Y | Ý |
ý | Small y, acute | Ctrl+'', y | ý |
ß | German sz ligature | Ctrl+&, s | ß |
Ÿ | Capital Y, umlaut | Ctrl+:, Y | Ÿ |
ÿ | Small y, umlaut | Ctrl+:, y | ÿ |
Œ | Capital OE diphthong, ligature | Ctrl+&, O | &Oelig; |
œ | Small oe diphthong, ligature | Ctrl+&, o | œ |
Š | Capital S, caron | Alt+Ctrl+^, S | Š |
š | Small s, caron | Alt+Ctrl+^, s | š |
^ ˆ | Circumflex accent; small circumflex | Altnum094 or ^; Ctrl+^, Space |
To insert special characters not listed in either of the previous tables:
For some fonts, a Subset drop-down list appears, which lets you select a smaller character set within the font you have selected. The first character in the subset is highlighted in blue. The subsets correspond to Unicode subdivisions. For example, if you want to insert a spacing modifier letter into your text, select the Spacing Modifier Letters subset to find the first of these characters on the palette. Click on the character in blue to highlight it, then use the arrow keys to continue scrolling through the subset until you find the character you are looking for.
If a character with shortcut keys is highlighted on this tab, the shortcut keys appear in the lower right area of the form when the character is highlighted.
To insert a character from the Special Characters tab, highlight the appropriate special character and click Insert.
Insert special characters by selecting the primary menu item and then the appropriate secondary menu item.
This menu can easily be customized to allow easy insertion of additional special characters. For more information about customization of this menu, please contact eXtyles-support@inera.com.
Certain special characters cannot be inserted from the dialog. Use the methods described here to insert them:
−If you start typing immediately after a special character, the text is likely to appear in the font of the special character (for example, Symbol font). If you must enter new text after a special character, reselect the default paragraph font after you insert the cursor and before you begin typing.
You can create a custom key command to quickly insert frequently used special characters. The following procedure describes the steps used to assign the key command "Control-Shift-X" to insert the symbol χ.
eXtyles accurately retains special characters if the characters are correctly retained by Microsoft Word when it opens a document. In general, Word accurately retains this information for documents that were authored either in Word for Windows or Macintosh Word. Word may not always display them correctly, but it generally retains the underlying information to allow the generation of a correct XML file.
You are most likely to encounter special character problems when using nonstandard fonts. eXtyles defines a standard font as one that:
Use the following procedure to enter a special character (for example, the plus/minus symbol: ±) in either the Find or the Replace dialog:
If you want to find the Unicode value or HTML entity of a particular character, we recommend usingunicodelookup.com. |
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