How to add special characters on Windows PC

Here ‘s the situation: you type a report for work, and all of a sudden you have to write the phrase “Jones née Berkowitz.” Or you put a phrase in Spanish and you need the word “años. How do you add the special characters to the letters?

Certain characters (also known as diacritical markers) may be more common in some languages, but there are many situations where English speakers must use them. But because they are so rare in English, native English speakers may not have learned how to apply these marks to documents, emails, or other writings. Adding them to your Windows document is not difficult, although it is not as smooth as working on a Mac, where you only have to hold down the appropriate key. (Of course, once, you had to look at symbol character codes …)

Use the touch keyboard

The easiest way to add diacritical markers to a document is to enable a Windows touch keyboard. (Thanks to Ed Bott from ZDNet for my guidance to this method first.) The touch screen will automatically appear if you are using a Windows tablet or if you are using a PC in tablet mode. If you do not have a touch screen, you can use the keyboard icon that appears in the taskbar, on the right hand side near the date. Can’t you see it? Here’s how to get it:

• Right click on the taskbar.
• Click “Show touch keyboard button.”

Now, when you want to use a particular character:

• Click on the touch keyboard icon.
• The touch keyboard will appear. Long press (with your mouse button or, if touch screen, your finger) on the letter you want to use.
• You will now see several additional keys showing the ways in which you can type that letter with different symbols. Select the one you want, and it will appear on your document.
• If you want to submit an emoji, click on the emoji key (to the left of the spacebar ”).

Use the character map

If you want to try a more old-fashioned way of adding special characters to Windows, you can use the character map, which is a less neat and complex version of the touch keyboard but offers a similar service. ris.

To access it on your Windows 10 system:

• Type “character” in your search field and then select the Character Map app.
• You will get a pop-up map showing a handful of specific characters for a particular font. You can change the font by clicking on the drop-down menu at the top.

• Click on the specific letter (s) or characters you want to use in your document and then click on the “Select” button. They will appear in the “Characters to copy” field.
• Once you have selected the characters you want, click on the “Copy” button and then insert the character (s) into your document.