All kinds of special characters, such as degrees and plus-minus, are not on the keyboard. How do you type these on a Windows computer?
Special characters?
In addition to letters and numbers, a keyboard also contains a number of punctuation marks and special characters. For example, using the keyboard, you can type the ampersand, greater than, and less than character. Then you can by holding down the Shift key and pressing the key with the character on it. Still, every computer user sometimes wants to use a special character that is not on the keyboard. Think of the symbols for degrees, plus minus or paragraph. These characters can be inserted in several ways: via the Ribbon in programs such as Word and Excel, via the special characters menu or via a key combination.
Insert character in Office programs
In Office programs, such as Word and Excel, people can insert all kinds of characters through the menu. We will go through the steps below for the Word program:
- In a Word document, click the tab Insert.
- click on Symbols.
- Click on Symbol.
- Click on the desired symbol.
- Is the sign not there? Then click on More symbols.
- A window opens. Click on the desired symbol.
- click on Insert.
- click on Close.
Insert character via menu
People can also insert special characters through a menu. Then copy the desired symbol from this and paste it somewhere else.
- click on Start.
- click on accessories > Special characters.
- A window opens with an overview of all kinds of characters. Click on the desired character.
- click on Selecting.
- click on To copy.
- Now paste the character anywhere with the shortcut Ctrl+V. So go to where the character should be, press and hold the Ctrl key and press the letter V.
Insert character via key combination
Finally, the characters can also be created with a combination of a number of keys. You have to hold down the Alt key and then type a number of numbers in succession. This only works on a keyboard with a numeric keypad on the right side.
- Degrees: Alt + 248
- Plus minus: Alt + 241
- Paragraph: Alt + 245