Before we start inserting Characters, you have to consider the FONT you are using. Some Special Characters will require the installation of a special FONT or the Character will not be displayed. Windows comes with over 100 fonts. To see these fonts in Windows, Click on START - Settings - Personalization - FONTS.
What is a FONT? A font is the design of letters and contains their style details.
Fonts have Names. Example:
The Default Font for Microsoft Word is Calibri and for Open Office it is Times New Roman
Not much difference.
In MS Word you can change the Font and the Font Size from settings on the Ribbon Tool Bar:
To change the default font settings, click the small box with an arrow in the lower right corner of the Font section of the Home tab in the Ribbon.
Special Note: If this step does not work, there may be a special file blocking any changes to NORMAL.DOTM (Words Template). Use Everything Search and search for *.dotm and if you find a file named ~$normal.dotm delete it. In Word, those "tilde" files (starting with ~$ ) are temporary lock files. They are supposed to disappear the moment you close the program. Sometimes they get stuck.
To increase or decrease the font size of text in Microsoft Word, follow these steps:
Highlight the text that you want to make bigger or smaller.
To increase the font size, press Ctrl+]. (Hold the Ctrl key, and press Right Bracket.)
Or, to decrease the font size, press Ctrl+[.
The Tool Bar Settings in Open Office and Libre Office are very similar to Word
To change the default Font Size in Open Office - Click on TOOL - Options - Open Office Writer or Libre Office Writer- Basic Fonts:
There are many web sites that will provide you with a list of Fonts and instructions on how to install them.
Example: If you want to print Egyptian Hieroglyphs -𓀀- you will have to download and install a special font called "Aegyptus". Then you open Word and select that font and you will be able to display all the Hieroglyphs in your Word Document.
A PDF file listing all the Egyptian Hieroglyphs and their Unicode can be found at Hieroglyphs
There are several English Language computer keyboard layouts for Windows. In Australia the U.S. QWERTY Keyboard is used. The UK keyboard has additional keys added for the Pound and Euro currency symbols and some other special symbols are in a different location. So when you are setting up your operating system, select the U.S. Keyboard layout for Australia.
U.S. U.K. keyboard differences
You will find several U.S. Keyboard options in Windows. The one you want to select is US QWERTY. One of the other ones, the United States - International keyboard, will return letters with accent marks when using the Quote sign and other so-called Dead Keys.
U.S. Desktop keyboard
U.S. International Keyboard
It is possible to select different keyboard layouts to use with Windows. You just have to remember the location of the keys.
Open Settings > Time & Language > Language & Region
Under Preferred Languages you will see the Languages set in your computer; Example: English (Australia) -
To the right of English (Australia) - click on the three dots to open a small drop down menu.
In the drop down menu select - Language Options -
Scroll down to - KEYBOARDS - Here you see a list of keyboards installed on your computer below Installed Keyboards.
The keyboard we use in Australia is US QWERTY - If this is not listed click on ADD A KEYBOARD and find US QWERTY on the list and click on it.
To delete any other keyboard just click on the three dots for that keyboard and then Remove.
If you decide to keep more than one keyboard you can select which one to use from the Language icon on the TASK BAR.
Apple Mac has a different keyboard layout shown below in the Apple Section.
The Standard U.S. keyboard has 95 characters that you can type directly into a document. However, there are 159,810 characters, with Unicode 17.0.0, that are available.
The Unicode Standard is the universal character encoding designed to support the worldwide interchange, processing, and display of the written texts of the diverse languages and technical disciplines of the modern world. In addition, it supports classical and historical texts of many written languages.
Fundamentally, computers just deal with numbers. They store letters and other characters by assigning a number for each one.
Every Character is assigned a Hexadecimal number called a UNICODE. We can use these UNICODE numbers to display any character we want.
Unicode Examples: EURO - € - Unicode 20AC . English Pound - £ - Unicode 00A3
What is Hexadecimal? Hexadecimal describes a base-16 number system.
The hexadecimal numbers are 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, A, B, C, D, E, F.
Why do we use Hexadecimal? Hexadecimal is a convenient way to express binary numbers in modern computers.
What are Special Characters? A character that is not an alphabetic or numeric character. $ is a special character. Punctuation marks and other symbols are examples of special characters. There are only 33 special characters that appear on your keyboard (including the Space). The rest require a special method to insert into your document.
1. Copy and Paste from a list that you created.
2. Copy and Paste from your Office Programs Character List.
Microsoft Word: From the Ribbon Tool Bar > select the INSERT Tab then the Symbol tool as shown below. Just select the special character you want and click insert.
Open Office and Libre Office: On the Menu Tool Bar, click on Insert > Special Characters and the Special Characters Windows will open which almost exactly the same as the one in Microsoft Word. Just select your character and click OK.
3. Copy and Paste from the Operating Systems Character Map.
Your Windows Operating System contains chart of Characters and Symbols, called the Character Map. Just click on Search and type Character Map, then click on it when it appears at the top of the search results. (pin it to your Task Bar). This will open Windows Character Map where you can Select the Character or Characters and click on Select. When you are finished click on COPY, then go to your document and Paste.
This Method can be used on any text editor: Word Pad, Notepad or EMAIL.
For a more comprehensive listing of all the Characters, download Character Map UWP from the Microsoft Store (free program). This Program will list all the Fonts you have installed on your computer and all the Characters in that font family.
Characters on both of these Character Maps are in Hex order.
4. Use the Alt Key plus the numeric Value of the Character. This method works on Notepad, Wordpad, Microsoft Office Programs such as Word and Excel, Apache Open Office, Libre Office, Outlook, Thunderbird and Web Mail.
Special Instructions for using the keypad or if you computer does not have a keypad: - How to use Alt Codes to Type Special Characters and Symbols
Use the Keystroke numbers (bottom right) of the Character Map and enter that code from the keyboard number pad.
There is a direct relationship between the value in the lower left corner of the Character Map and the Keystroke Valve in the lower Right Corner. The Value in the lower left corner is the Unicode (Hex) Value and the Keystroke is the Decimal Value. If the Keystroke Number is not listed, just convert the HEX Value to Decimal and add a leading zero. Example. Some of the Latin Letters with marks over them don't have a Keystroke Value. Latin Capital letter G with Circumflex only lists the Hexadecimal value U+011C. Convert this to Decimal and you get 284. Make it 0284 and this will work as the Alt Keystroke value.
Type the Pound Sign £ by holding down the Alt Key and typing 0163 on the Number Pad. Type Euro Sign € by holding down the Alt Key and typing 0128.
5. Use the Unicode value and the Alt X method.
The Unicode (Hex number) is located in the bottom left corner of the Character Map or from an On Line Character Map.
To Insert a Unicode character into Microsoft Word, first type the character code. In this case it is 00BC, then press ALT X.
00BC ALT X will give you 1/4, 00A3 will give you £. 20AC will give you €
You can also see the Unicode value of a character by placing the cursor immediately after the character and pressing Alt-X.
This method only works on some programs: Windows 10 Wordpad, Microsoft Office Programs (such as Word, Excel, Outlook), and Libre Office. Will also work
on Windows 11 Notepad.
It does not work on Windows 10 Notepad, Apache Open Office, Thunderbird or Web Mail.
6. UNICODE On-Line Reference:
For this article I am using a Macbook Air with macOS Big Sur Version 11.2
The macOS does not have a built in Character Map like Windows does. The Character Map it does have is limited.
But it does have a UNICODE INPUT TOOL, which you have to first set up.
The Unicode Hex Input Keyboard:
1. Launch System Preference, Then click KEYBOARD
2. Click the Input Sources TAB
3. Click the + button in the bottom left corner
4. You will see a long list of languages on the left side. Scroll down to the very bottom and click OTHERS. There is only one input source listed - Unicode Hex Input. Click on it, then click ADD.
5. TIC - "SHOW INPUT MENU IN MENU BAR"
6. Now up on the top menu bar over on the right side next to the Battery ICON you will notice a new ICON - Your Country Flag - Click on it and select UNICODE HEX INPUT, the icon will change to U+.
7. To input a special character, look up the Unicode Number for that Character, then Hold the OPTION KEY and type the Unicode number.
This works on Pages, MS Word and Libre Office
Mint & Ubuntu come with Libre Office and inserting special characters works the same way as it does in Windows.
Type Unicode Number and Press ALT X (just like you do in Windows) or use Libre's built in Character Map. Insert > Special Character
This page last updated/reviewed on 15/07/2026