special characters

The name for the symbols that are not shown on the keys of a standard QWERTY keyboard.

Shortcut: To enter a special character, hold down [ALT] key and type 0xxx, where xxx represents digits from the NetLingo Table of Special Character Codes!

Microsoft Word uses the Symbol command from the Insert menu to insert special characters, or you can open the Character Map utility in Windows (found under Start, Programs, and Accessories, or one layer deeper, under System Tools).

On a Mac, use the Key Caps accessory under the Apple menu, select the font you want, and then hold down the Option key to see the various special characters.

As earlier stated, you can enter special characters directly by using the Alt key and the numeric keypad (the Num Lock must be on). To do this, you need to know the Alt-number associated with each character; for example, press and hold down the Alt key, type 0233 on the keypad, and release the Alt key. You will see é. The same is true for Alt 0162, which gives you the cent sign, ¢. Once you learn the combination of keys that produce a character, you can type it directly from the keyboard (for example, type Option then e followed by a vowel to get an acute-accented é or type Option and then the number 4 for the cent sign, ¢.

For the Table of Codes to Create Special Characters, click on "more info" below!