How to type special characters on a Windows PC

 Let's say you are writing a report and suddenly you have to write "Jones Nee Berkowitz" or "anos" in Spanish. How can you add special characters to these letters?

Special characters (also known as diacritical marks) may be more common in certain languages, but there are plenty of circumstances in which English speakers may need to use them. Because they are so rare in English language, native English speakers might not know how to add them to emails, documents, or other writings. It's not difficult to add them to your Windows document, although it's not quite as smooth an operation as on a Mac, where all you have to do is hold the appropriate key down. You would have to search for the symbol characters ...) once upon a while.

You can also check How to Activate Windows 7 without product key (Genuine)

USE THE TOUCH KEYBOARD

Enable the Windows touch keyboard to add diacritical marks in a document. This is the easiest way to do so. This method was first discovered by Ed Bott, ZDNet. If you use a Windows tablet, or a tablet-mode PC, the touch keyboard will automatically appear. You can also use the keyboard icon in the taskbar on the right side, near the date, if you don't have touchscreen. It's not visible? Here's how to get it.

• Right-click the taskbar
• Click on the "Show touch keyboard" button

Click "Show touch keyboard"

If you wish to use a particular character,

• Click on the touch keyboard icon
• You will see the touch keyboard. Press the long press button (or your touchscreen finger) on the letter that you wish to use.
• There are now several keys that will show you how to type the letter with different symbols. You can choose the one that interests you and it will be added to your document.
• Click on the emoji button (to the left of "space bar") to type an emoji.

Choose the special character that you would like to appear in your document.

USE THE EMOJI KEYBOARD

Windows' Emoji keyboard is another keyboard you have access to that allows you to add special characters directly into your text. It's primarily used to add emojis and other characters to your text. It's easy to use.

• Press the Windows key with the Windows symbol (the one that has the period key) and hold it down.
• You will see a range of emojis when the emoji keyboard opens. Click the symbol tab at the top (the third one from the left).

You can also access special characters with the emoji keyboard

• Select the type you want from the menu at the bottom. Scroll down until you find what you are looking for.

USE THE CHARACTER MATERIAL MAP

You can also use the character map to add special characters to Windows. It is a simpler and less elegant version of the touch keyboard, but provides the same service.

You can access it from your Windows 10 computer:

• In the search box, type "character" and select the Character Map app
• A pop-up map will appear showing you a variety of special characters that can be used with a particular font. Click on the drop-down menu at the top to change the font.

You can access a variety of special characters through the character map

• Click on the letter or special characters you wish to use in your document, then click the "Select" button. These characters will appear in the "Characters for copy" field.
• After you have selected the characters that you like, click the "Copy” button. Then paste them into your document.

USE THE US INTERNATIONAL KEYBOARD

The US International Keyboard is a great option for English speakers who use special characters often. It maps your keyboard so that you can add these characters more easily. Thanks to "shiroledat", for the tip.

You first need to add the US International Keyboard (USIK) to Windows.

• Go to Settings > Language & Time > Language
• Click on "Preferred languages", assuming that you are an English speaker in the US, and then click on "Options".
• If you have never been to the "Keyboards section", you will see a single keyboard icon called "US/QWERTY." This is the keyboard map that you are currently using. Just above the keyboard, click on "Add a keyboard."
• Scroll down to QWERTY / United States International in the pop-up menu and click it

Click on "Preferred languages" then click on "English (United States)," and then "Options."

 

Click on "Add a keyboard" and look for "United States-International."

You can choose to use either the standard US keyboard, or the US International Keyboard. The lower-right corner of your taskbar near the date shows which keyboard is currently active. You will see either "ENG/US" or "ENG/INTL." Click on it to switch between them, or hit the Windows key+space bar.

To switch keyboards, click on the icon.

You have two options to give your US International Keyboard a unique character:

• To get the most common combinations, use the Alt key on the right hand and the letter you want. Alt+e will produce: e
• The symbol you wish to use, then the letter that you would like to use it with. If you press the symbol first and then the "n", key, you will get: n

Washington State University has published a useful chart showing all of the symbols you can get using the US International Keyboard.

USE THE UNICODE-VALUE

After you have chosen a letter, special character or letter, look in the lower right corner of the character map and you will see "Keystroke", followed by "Alt", and a four-digit numerical number. This number represents the Unicode value of the symbol, and it's the time-honored standard for adding characters.

It can be quicker to add a special character every now and again using your keyboard. There are many ways to accomplish this, but here are two that are the most straightforward (each with its limitations).

• The four-digit Unicode value can be typed by pressing the Alt key. This will work if you have a separate number pad and enable the NumLock key.
• You can use Microsoft Word, WordPad or Outlook to enter the Unicode value, then press Alt-X.
• You can also use the Control key and a symbol to accent the letter. If you are in a Microsoft application, for example, pressing Ctrl+" and "e", it will produce "e".

Updated March 26th at 10:50 AM ETThis article has been updated with a section about using Unicode values and the Emoji keyboard.

Updated March 30, 2011, 11:15 AM ETUpdated to include another way to add special characters to Microsoft apps.

Updated April 1, 2009, 9:45 AM ETThis page has been updated to include information about the US International Keyboard.

For more information you can also check Techperx