How To Get Special Characters On Laptop Keyboard

Whenever I think of any special character that is absent on my laptop’s keyboard, I search for it online and copy-paste it. But sometimes searching online for special characters becomes difficult when you don’t know the exact name or want to choose a unique one from a collection. Don’t worry because there are a couple of ways to get special characters on laptop keyboard. Let’s learn together!

How To Get Special Characters On Laptop Keyboard

Special characters look unique, represent currency or other things, and more. You need to add special characters to different kinds of documents or tasks related to your office presentation, university homework, and more. I must say that adding special characters to the screen that are not on your keyboard is no less than a skill.

I’ll share different ways through which you can get special characters on a laptop keyboard easily. Though each method is different and has its own merits and demerits, so make sure to read till the end for better understanding.

1. Windows Touch Keyboard

If you’re using a Windows-based laptop, you can add special characters using a touch keyboard. The touch keyboard is built-in to Windows (by default) and you can enable it from the taskbar easily. Simply, click on the keyboard logo to appear on the taskbar to open the touch keyboard on the screen.

However, if you don’t find the touch keyboard from the taskbar, you can enable it from the system settings too. After opening the touch keyboard, click on the “123” option at the bottom to see the symbols. A collection of symbols will appear on your screen. Click on any symbol to type it in the document, presentation, or wherever you want to.

You can add special characters and symbols to any document, presentation, video, etc., using the touch keyboard on a Windows laptop. This is one of the easiest, quickest, and most approachable ways to add unique characters.

2. Character Map

Character map is the second way to get special characters on the laptop. Well, the character map is not a polished technique, as it is conventional. I found the character map a bit complicated, especially for beginners, but it does offer unique and special characters that are not readily available on the mechanical board.

To access the character map on a laptop, click on the search bar and type “character”. Please choose the character map option from the results and a pop-up screen will appear displaying plenty of special characters and fonts. You can click on the font style or character that you want to choose and select them. After selecting the characters you want to add to your document, simply copy and paste.

Character map is one of the easiest and most traditional ways to get special characters on the laptop. This approach is only applicable to Windows laptops.

3. Windows Emoji Keyboard

The emoji keyboard is another approach to getting special characters on the laptop. I love this technique the most because it is quick, user-friendly, and simple. There is no rocket science behind using the emoji keyboard; you can simply do it in two steps.

To get the special characters on a laptop, press the Windows key and period key together. Now click on the symbols tab and access the variety of symbols that appear on the screen. Don’t get confused as the period key is basically the full stop key on the laptop keyboard. This method is applicable to all Windows laptops.

Emojis are widely used to express emotions in today’s world like on WhatsApp, Instagram, Texting, or even in presentations. It is a quick and easy way to deliver your thoughts and expressions to the other person. You can use the emoji keyboard on the Windows laptop to add emojis and symbols to the text.

4. MS Word

If you use Microsoft Word on a laptop and want to add special characters in the Word file, you can use the special character feature in Word. Click on the point where you want to add the character, tap on the insert tab and go to the symbol option. Click on the “more symbols” option and a table of plenty of special characters will appear on the screen.

Click on any of the characters that you want to add and tap on the insert. You can add multiple characters at a time using the MS Word special character feature. The best part is that you can copy the special character and paste it into other documents as well (other than Word documents).

MS Word is an application that everyone is aware of! You can insert special characters in the Word file easily from within the app. This is one of the quickest and easiest ways to get unique and special characters, symbols, and emojis.

5. Alt Codes

In Windows laptops, you can also add unique and special characters through codes. For this, you need to hold the Alt key on the keyboard and type the code. Alt code is usually in numbers i.e., Alt 1, Alt 2, Alt 3, Alt 4…, Alt 0255.

Don’t get the Alt codes lightly as you can type various characters, emojis, and symbols using the Alt codes. For example alphabets, ASCII symbols, currencies, Chinese characters, and more.

You need to memorize or learn the Alt codes before you apply, which is why it is a bit challenging method for infrequent users. However, once you get used to the Alt codes, you’ll love using them.

6. Searching Online

Before learning any of the methods I shared above, I used the online web to find and add any character, symbol, or emoji. You can use any search engine like Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Safari, Internet Explorer, or more and type the character you want to get. For example, click on the search bar and write “Euro sign” and press enter.

The Euro symbol will appear on the screen—copy it and paste it wherever you want to. The best part of this method is that it is applicable to all laptop users: Windows, Mac, Linux, Ubuntu, etc. There is no rocket science as all you need to do is to search for the character and copy-paste it.

In a nutshell, you can search online for any special characters, emojis, and symbols, and copy and paste them to the document, presentation, email text, or anywhere you want to. It is one of the basic ways to get the special and unique characters that are not there on your laptop’s keyboard.

FAQs

How do I access the Windows touch keyboard?

You can access the touch keyboard by clicking on the keyboard icon that appears on the taskbar of your laptop or computer screen. If the keyboard icon is not visible there, search for touch keyboard from the settings.

What is the Alt code for é?

The Alt code for é is Alt 0233. To get é, you need to hold the Alt key and type the code i.e., 0233. Alt code is one of the easiest ways to add unique symbols, characters, and emojis.

The Bottom Line

Customize your text and add unique symbols, characters, and emojis to it using different ways. The most basic way to get a character that is not there on your laptop’s keyboard is to search online and copy and paste it. But that’s not how you get the collection. In this article, I have shared quick and easy ways to get the characters with or without searching online.