Using Unicode to add special characters to documents

You can create or read documents that contain special characters that aren't found on your default keyboard, such as an ae dipthong (Æ), a pound sign (£), or a plus/minus sign (+/-).

To see special characters in your document, you may need additional Unicode-based fonts installed on your Microsoft® Windows® operating system.

Macintosh users: You can use Unicode, but only using characters from your native character set. English Macintosh systems do not support the use of Unicode.

To add special characters to a document

You can use a compose sequence or an extended compose sequence to add a special character to a document, both of which are strings of keystrokes that produce the special character. A compose sequence string usually uses two characters and an extended compose sequence string uses multiple characters. There are also keyboard shortcuts for the Macintosh that you can use to create some special characters.

  1. Put the document in edit mode.
  2. Click where you want to enter the special character.
  3. Do one of the following using the information available in the tables below:
    • If you are adding a character using a compose sequence, press ALT+F1, then the characters listed in the Compose sequence for Windows column. For example, to enter the +/- character, press ALT+F1, then PLUS SIGN (+)+HYPHEN (-).
    • If you are adding a character using an extended compose sequence, press ALT+F1, ALT+F1, then the characters listed in the Extended compose sequence for Windows and Macintosh column. For example, to enter the +/- character, press ALT+F1, ALT+F1, then 0-241.
    • If you are adding a character using a keyboard shortcut for the Macintosh, press the characters listed in the Keyboard shortcut for the Macintosh column. For example, to enter the +/- character, press OPTION+SHIFT+EQUAL SIGN(=).
Note: If there are key sequences for a character listed in the Compose sequence for Windows and Extended compose sequence for Windows and Macintosh columns, you can use either sequence to add the character.

Special characters listed alphabetically by name of character

Table 1. Special characters by character name

Character

Name of character

Compose sequence for Windows®

Keyboard shortcut for the Macintosh

Extended compose sequence for Windows® and Macintosh

Á

A acute

A+Apostrophe (')

Option+E, then SHIFT+A

0-181

á

a acute

a+Apostrophe (')

Option+E, then A

0-160

Å

A angstrom

A+Asterisk (*)

Option+Shift+A

0-143

å

a angstrom

a+Asterisk (*)

Option+A

0-134

Â

A circumflex

A+Caret (^)

Optioin+Shift+M

0-182

â

a circumflex

a+Caret(^)

Option+I, then A

0-131

À

A grave

A+Accent Grave(`)

Option+Accent Grave (`), then Shift+A

0-183

à

a grave

a+Accent Grave (`)

Option+Accent Grave (`), then A

0-133

Ã

A tilde

A+Tilde (~)

Option+N, then Shift+A

0-199

ã

a tilde

a+Tilde (~)

Option+N, then A

0-198

Ä

A umlaut

A+Quotation Mark (")

Option+U, then Shift+A

0-142

ä

a umlaut

a+Quotation Mark (")

Option+U, then A

0-132

´

Acute

Option+Shift+E

0-239

Æ

AE dipthong

A+E

Option+Shift+Apostrophe (')

0-146

Æ

ae dipthong

a+e

Option+Apostrophe (')

0-145

Box drawings double down and horizontal

0-203

Box drawings double down and left

0-187

Box drawings double down and right

0-201

Box drawings double horizontal

0-205

Box drawings double up and left

0-188

Box drawings double up and right

0-200

Box drawings double vertical

0-186

Box drawings double vertical and horizontal

0-206

Box drawings double vertical and left

0-185

Box drawings double vertical and right

0-204

Box drawings double up and horizontal

0-202

Box drawings light down and horizontal

0-194

Box drawings light down and left

0-191

Box drawings light down and right

0-218

Box drawings light up and horizontal

0-193

Box drawings light up and left

0-217

Box drawings light up and right

0-192

Box drawings light vertical

0-179

Box drawings light vertical and horizontal

0-197

Box drawings light vertical and left

0-180

Box drawings light vertical and right

0-195

Ç

C cedilla

C+Comma (,)

Option+Shift+C

0-128

ç

c cedilla

c+Comma (,)

Option+C

0-135

¸

Cedilla

Comma (,)+Comma (,)

Option+Shift+Z

0-247

¢

cent

c+Pipe (|), or c+Forward Slash (/), or C+Pipe(|), or C+Forward Slash (/)

Option+4

0-189

Center block

0-254

·

Center dot

Caret (^)+Period (.)

Option+Shift+9

0-250

©

Copyright

C+O, or c+o, or C+0, or c+0

Option+G

0-184

Dark shade block

0-178

°

Degree

Caret (^)+0

Option+Shift+8

0-248

÷

Division

Colon(:)+Hyphen(-)

Option+Forward Slash (/)

0-246

Dotless i

Option+Shift+B

0-213

Double underscore

0-242

É

E acute

E+Apostrophe (')

Option+E, then Shift+E

0-144

é

e acute

e+Apostrophe(')

Option+E, then E

0-130

Ê

E circumflex

E+Caret(^)

Option+I, then Shift+E

0-210

ê

e circumflex

e+Caret (^)

Option+I, then E

0-136

È

E grave

E+Accent Grave(`)

Option+Accent Grave (`), then Shift+E

0-212

è

e grave

e+Accent Grave (`)

Option+Accent Grave (`), then E

0-138

Ë

E umlaut

E+Quotation Mark (")

Option+U, then Shift+E

0-211

ë

e umlaut

e+Quotation Mark (")

Option+U, then E

0-137

em dash

0-196

ð

Eth lower

d+Hyphen (-)

0-208

Ð

Eth Upper

D+Hyphen(-)

0-209

€

Euro

=+E

Option+Shift+2

0128

ª

Feminine ord.

a+Underscore (_), or A+Underscore (_)

Option+9

0-166

Full block

0-219

ß

German sharp, lowercase

s+s

Option+S

0-225

µ

Greek mu, lowercase

Forward Slash (/)+u

Option+M

0-230

½

Half

1+2

0-171

­

Hyphen

Hyphen (-)+Equal sign (=)

0-240

Í

I acute

I+Apostrophe (')

Option+Shift+S

0-214

í

i acute

i+Apostrophe (')

Option+E, then I

0-161

Î

I circumflex

I+Caret (^)

ON+Shift+D

0-215

î

i circumflex

i+Caret (^)

Options+I, then I

0-140

Ì

I grave

I+accentuate (`)

Option+Accent Grave( ), then Shift+G

0-222

ì

i grave

i+Accent Grave(`)

Option+Accent Grave (`), then I

0-141

Ï

I umlaut

Option+Shift+F

0-216

ï

i umlaut

i+ (")IQuotation mark

Option +U, then I

0-139

þ

Icelandic Thorn, lowercase

p+Hyphen (-)

0-231

Þ

Icelandic Thorn, uppercase

P+ Hyphen (-)

0-232

¤

Intl. Curr.

X+O, or x+o, or X+0, or x+0

Options+Shift+2

0-207

¡

Inverted exclamation

Exclamation point

Point(!)+Exclamation (!)

Option +1

0-173

¿

Inverted question mark

Question Mark

Option+Shift+question mark

0-168

Latin small letter F with hook

Option+F

0-159

«

Left angle quotes

Less than sign (<)+less than sign (<)

Options+Backslash(\)

0-174

Light shade block

0-176

Lower half block

0-220

º

Masculine ord.

O+Underscore (_), or o+Underscore (_)

Option+0

0-167

Medium shade block

0-177

×

Multiply sign

x+x, or X+X

0-158

Ñ

N tilde

N+Tilde (~)

Option+N, then Shift+N

0-165

ñ

n tilde

n+O+Tilde (~)

Option+N, then N

0-164

Ó

O acute

O+Tilde +Apostrophe (')

Option+Shift+H

0-224

ó

o acute

o+Apostrophe (')

Option+E, then O

0-162

Ô

O circumflex

O+Caret (^)

Option+Shift+J

0-226

ô

o circumflex

o+Caret(^)

Option+I, then O

0-147

Ò

O grave

O+AccentGrave(`)

Option+Shift+L

0-227

ò

o grave

o+Accent Grave (`)

Option+Accent Grave (`), then O

0-149

Ø

O slash

O+Forward Slash (/)

Option+Shift+O

0-157

ø

o slash

o+Forward Slash (/)

Option+O

0-155

Õ

O tilde

O+ Tilde (~)

Option+N, then Shift+O

0-229

õ

o tilde

o+Tilde (~)

Option+N, then O

0-228

Ö

O umlaut

O+Quotation Mark (")

Option+U, then Shift+O

0-153

ö

o umlaut

o+Quotation Mark (")

Option+U, then O

0-148

¯

Overline

Caret (^)+Hyphen (-)

0-238

Paragraph symbol

Exclamation Point (!)+p

Option+7

0-244

+/-

Plus/Minus

Plus sign (+)+Hyphen (-)

Option+Shift+Equal Sign (=)

0-241

£

Pound sign

L+Equal Sign (=), or l+Equal Sign (=), or L+Hyphen (-), or l+Hyphen (-)

Option+3 (in UK, Shift+3)

0-156

¼

Quarter

1+4

0-172

®

Registered

R+O, or R+0, or r+0

Option+R

0-169

»

Right angle quotes

Greater Than Sign (>)+Greater Than Sign (>)

Option+Shift+Backslash (\)

0-175

§

Section symbol

s+o

Option+6

0-245

Space

0-255

¬

Start of line

Hyphtn (-)+Closing Bracket (])

Option+L

0-170

Ú

U acute

U+Apostrophe (')

Option+Shift+Semi-colon (;)

0-233

ú

u acute

u+Apostrophe (')

Option+E, then U

0-163

Û

U circumflex

U+Caret(^)

Option+I, then Shift+U

0-234

û

u circumflex

u+Caret (^)

Option+I, then U

0-150

Ù

U grave

U+Accent Grave (`)

Option+Accent Grave (`), then Shift+U

0-235

ù

u grave

u+Accent Grave (`)

Option+Accent Grave (`), then U

0-151

Ü

U umlaut

U+Quotation Mark (")

Option+U, then Shift+U

0-154

ü

u Umlaut

u+Quotation Mark (")

Option+U, then U

0-129

¨

Umlaut

Option+Shift+U

0-249

Upper half block

0-223

¦

Vertical line, broken

Forward Slash (/)+Spacebar

0-221

Ý

Y acute

Y+Apostrophe (')

0-237

ý

y acute

y+Apsotrophe')

0-236

ÿ

y umlaut

y+Quotation Mark (")

Option+U, then Y

0-152

¥

Yen

Y+Equal Sign(=), or y+Equal sign(=), or Y+Hyphen(-), or y+Hyphen (-)

Option+Y

0-190

¹

1 Superscript

Caret (^)+1

0-251

²

2 Superscript

Caret(^)+2

0-253

³

3 Superscript

Caret (^)+3

0-252

¾

3 quarters

3+4

0-243