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Special Characters on Keyboard — Complete Guide to Typing Symbols

Your keyboard hides dozens of special characters that most people never discover. Accented letters, currency symbols, mathematical operators, and punctuation marks are all there — you just need to know the shortcuts. This guide covers every method for typing special characters on Windows, Mac, and mobile devices.

What Are Special Characters?

Special characters are any characters that do not appear on a standard keyboard layout. This includes accented letters (é, ñ, ü), currency symbols (€, ¥, £), mathematical symbols (÷, ±, ≠), and punctuation marks (©, §, †). The Unicode standard defines over 149,000 characters, and most modern devices can display and input thousands of them.

Windows: Alt Codes

The most reliable way to type special characters on Windows is using Alt codes. Hold down the Alt key, type a number on the numeric keypad, then release Alt. Here are the most useful ones:

Important: Alt codes only work with the numeric keypad, not the number row at the top of the keyboard. On laptops without a numeric keypad, you may need to enable the numeric keypad function (usually Fn + a key combination) or use the Windows Emoji Picker instead.

Windows: Emoji Picker and Character Map

Windows 10 and 11 include a built-in emoji and symbol picker. Press Win + . (Windows key + period) to open it. You will see tabs for emojis, GIFs, and special characters. The symbol tab includes arrows, math symbols, currency, and more.

For even more characters, open the Character Map utility. Press Win, type "Character Map," and hit Enter. You can browse all Unicode characters, select the one you need, copy it, and paste it into your document.

Mac: Keyboard Shortcuts

macOS makes special characters surprisingly easy. Here are the essential shortcuts:

For a full character browser, press Ctrl + Cmd + Space to open the Character Viewer. This gives you access to every emoji and symbol available on macOS, organized by category.

Accented Letters Guide

Accented letters are essential for writing in many languages. Here is how to type the most common ones:

Windows

Use the US International keyboard layout (add it in Settings > Time & Language > Language). With this layout active, type the accent first, then the letter. For example, press the apostrophe key (') then "e" to get é. Press the tilde key (~) then "n" to get ñ.

Mac

Hold down any vowel key for about one second — a popup appears with accented versions (á, à, ä, ã, â, å). Click the one you want or press the corresponding number key. This works for most letters.

Mobile (iOS and Android)

Just press and hold any letter on the keyboard. Accented options appear above it. Slide your finger to the one you want and release. This is the same method on both iOS and Android.

Mobile Special Characters

iOS (iPhone and iPad)

Android

Microsoft Word Shortcuts

In Microsoft Word, you can type special characters using Unicode hex codes. Type the four-digit hex code, then press Alt + X. Examples:

Copy and Paste the Most Popular Special Characters

If shortcuts are not your thing, just copy and paste what you need: © ® ™ ° ± ÷ × € £ ¥ ¢ é ñ ü § ¶ † ‡ • … — – « » ¡ ¿ ∞ ✓ ♥