Special Symbols & Characters

How DO they make those symbols and accents?

£40, résumé, 23¢, 350º, 4¾, El Niño…

Let’s learn it!

Want to know how to create special characters like fractions or accented letters?

There are some cool keyboard combinations that produce these and many other symbols. They work in most Windows programs such as Word, Notepad, WordPad and most email programs.

This technique has a couple of rules: you must have your “Num Lock” engaged (so make sure the NumLock light is on) and you must use the numeric keypad on the right side of your keyboard, not the number keys across the top.

For the following combinations, hold down your Alt key while you enter all the numbers. When you release the Alt key, the special symbol will appear.