Shortcuts for Special Charactersįor at least a few special characters, your simplest option is to let Microsoft Word do the hard work. The corresponding symbol will then appear at your cursor position. Hold down the Alt key and type the required code.Turn on Num Lock on your keyboard to activate the numeric keypad.Learn or look up the correct ASCII code for the symbol(s) you need.ASCII CodesĪSCII codes each indicate a different symbol, so you can use them to add special characters to a document quickly via the numeric keypad: Microsoft Word will also add the symbol to the quick access menu, saving your time if you need to use it again. The symbol will then appear in your document at your cursor. The full range of available special characters. Click Insert to add the symbol to your document.Scroll through until you find the symbol you want to use.Its OK to use the symbol in references to the key on the keyboard. Example (on Twitter) A quick look at top conversations and Office365 product announcements of the week. Dont use number sign to refer to the hashtag. Click More Symbols… to open a new window In social media, its OK to use the symbol to indicate a hashtag.Go to Insert > Symbols and click Symbol to open the menu.However, you can also access the full range of special characters in Microsoft Word as follows: This will open a quick access menu of 20 frequently used symbols to pick from. To see the Symbol menu in Microsoft Word, go to Insert > Symbols on the ribbon and click the Symbol button (or Insert > Advanced Symbol > Symbols in the menu system in Word for Mac). In the rest of this post, we’ll look at how and when to use each of these approaches in your own writing.

Use Microsoft Word’s special character shortcuts.

Well, in Microsoft Word, you have three main options:

But what if you need symbols or special characters that aren’t on your keyboard? Your average keyboard has enough letters, numbers and punctuation marks for all of your day-to-day typing needs. Symbols and Special Characters in Microsoft Word

Microsoft keyboard symbols