Using Symbols in Documents

Posted by Elizabeth Goodman in Quick Tips Saturday, July 10, 2010

Have you ever tried to enter symbols for the Greek alphabet or foreign currency into your word documents? Symbols include many different characters that you may need from time to time, especially if you are emailing Ren. This is not wing dings; it is way more than that. This includes letters from the alphabets, the E with an accent, the N with the squiggly line (tilde) over it. What about the different currency symbols, mathematical symbols and operators, and much more? They arent on the keyboard, but there has to be a way, right?

Right and it is actually quite simple for some programs, like newer versions of Word, Excel, and Outlook. Just place your cursor at the place in the document where you need to insert the symbol. Then click the Insert tab on the Menu Ribbon. Next, go to the far right side and click on symbols. The symbol you are looking for may show up in the quick symbol box, but if not, the click more symbols. From there, you should find anything you need. Once you find the symbol, simply click on it to select it, and it should appear in your document. If not, click the insert tab.

For older versions, and other programs, it is still possible to insert symbols; it just takes a little more time. Since numbers are the language of computers, there is a key sequence involving ALT and a number sequence for every symbol, number, and letter. These are listed on the ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange) chart. This chart is made up of over 256 total characters. Take a look here to view them all, and get a little history lesson.

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Using Symbols in Documents

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