Did you ever wonder how to type a special character? You could memorize special keyboard combinations (hold down ALT and type 0174 on the numeric keypad, for instance to see ®), or you could locate the symbol on the Character Map and copy and paste the character.
These extra characters are called Extended Characters. For any typeface, you can see all of the available extra characters, if you use the Character Map. Note that different fonts have different characters. Some fonts include many Extended Characters, and some include only basic ones.
To find the Character Map: Start>All Programs>Accessories>System Tools>Character Map. I repeat: the Extended Character map is different, depending on the typeface you are using. Some typefaces have more special characters than others. I have a shortcut to the Character Map in my task bar, because it makes using it easier.
There are hundreds of Extended Characters. ♥ ► ė Ö ũ φ ǽ σ ≠ See the illustration above, and you will notice that the selected font is Times New Roman. Use the little triangle at the right to change to any other font you have on your system. Also note that there are more characters than appear on the screen, so you will have to drag down the scroll bar on the right side of Character Map to see them all. The heart, for instance, is way down in the Character Map.
To use the special character, locate it and click on it once, then use the Select and Copy buttons. Go to your document and paste (hold down CTRL and type v to paste).
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