Special characters in Windows

An average Qwerty keyboard has 104 keys and dozens more key combinations. That is more than enough to express yourself in Dutch. But what if words are not enough or you correspond a lot in a foreign language? The Special Characters and On-Screen Keyboard apps give you more expression options to enhance your message. Add emoticons or pictures of, for example, food, drinks or hearts in all kinds of texts. You can also encourage someone with a picture, for example: .

To insert an emoticon using the on-screen keyboard:

• First check whether there is an icon of a keyboard in the lower right corner of the Taskbar. Isn’t this the case? Then do the following:
  • In Windows 10, right-click the Taskbar and click Show On-Screen Keyboard Button.
  • In Windows 11, right-click the Taskbar and click Taskbar Settings.Turn on the slider behind ‘Screen keyboard’.
• Click the ‘On-Screen Keyboard’ icon at the bottom right .
• Enter any text by clicking on the letters on the keyboard.
• In Windows 10, click the smiley to see the emoticons. In Windows 11, click at the top left on the square with the black heart and then on the smiley.
• Click on an emoticon to add a picture to the text you are writing.
• The emoticon appears at the cursor location. Add more images if necessary.
• Various categories of the emoticon keyboard give you access to multiple emoticons, such as means of transport and food.
• Click the cross to close the on-screen keyboard.

You can add an accent via the keyboard. You have provided an e with an acute accent (é) via the quotation mark key. More complicated accent marks are harder to find on the keyboard. Fortunately, these can be entered via the ‘Special Characters’ app. Very easy when writing, for example, a German or Turkish text. Russian, Latin, Greek, Arabic, Hebrew, musical notes, special symbols (♂♀) can also be found here.

• Click the magnifying glass icon in the taskbar. The search function opens.
• Type ‘Special characters’.
• Under ‘Best match’, click Special characters.
• Click on the drop-down menu behind ‘Font’.
• Click on a font, for example Arial.
• Click on a character, for example ©.
• click on Selecting.
• click on To copy.
• Go back to the text and right-click where you want to insert the character.
• click on To stick. In Word, click Paste Options > Keep text only.