Inserting Special Character

Input Methods

Typically we enter or input characters directly from the keyboard. However, sometimes we may not know the modifier-key combination to input a specific character, particularly an obscure one. Also keyboards typically have only 70 to 90 keys, so the keyboards are quite limited in the number of key combinations possible compared to the number of characters we use to expresss ideas. Most systems typically provide a character palett for finding and inserting characters.

Character Palette (Mac OS X): selecting won currency symbol

Character Reference (often encountered)

Inputting commonly encountered special characters from the keyboard, or palette.
		Keyboard Equivalent
symbol	name	Windows	Mac OS	HTML	Unicode
×	multiplication sign		none	×
÷	division sign		option-/	÷
“	left double quotation mark		option-[	“
”	right double quotation mark		shift-option-[
‘	left single quotation mark		option-]
’	right single quotation mark		shift-option-]
ʻ	letter apostrophe		none		02BC
ʼ	reverse letter apostrophe		none		02BD
″	prime		shift-option-e
″	prime		shift-option-g
—	em dash		shift-option-<hyphen>		2014
–	en dash		option-<hyphen>
-	hyphen		<hyphen>		2010
	non-breaking hyphen		?		2011
	soft hypen		option-<space>		00AD
‧	hyphenation point		option-<space>		2027
	non-breaking space		option-<space>
…	ellipses		option-;
¶	paragraph		option-7
§	section		option-6
©	copyright		option-g
™	trademark		option-2
®	registered trademark		option-r
¨ (ä, ë, ï, ö, ü, Ä, Ë, Ï, Ö, Ü)	umalut (diaeresis / dieresis / trema)		option-u (followed by any vowel character)
` (à è ì ò ù, À È Ì Ò Ù)	grave accent / Fr. accent grave		option-` (followed by any vowel character)
´ á é í ó ú, Á É Í Ó Ú)	acute accent / Fr. accent aigu		option-e (any vowel)
ˆ (â ê î ô û, Â Ê Î Ô Û))	circumflex / caret / "hat" / "carat" / ... even "carrot" / Fr. accent circonflex		option-i any vowel
˜ ã, õ, ñ, Ã, Õ, Ñ	tilde / "worm" / "squiggle thing"		option-u (a, o or n)
ç or Ç	cedilla, "tail"		option-c