Apart from common letters, numbers and characters, there are also many “special” characters that are required in different situations. These are not commonly used, but every now and then you need to have access them to write a message.
These special characters include, currency signs (£, ¥), copyright sign (©), registered sign (®) and hundreds of others. These are included on all platforms, but not at obvious locations. You have to dig deep a bit to use them, the process is quite easy on all platforms if you know where to go.
In this tutorial, we are going to address all three major platforms, including Android, iOS and Windows.
Type Special Characters in Android
All Android default keyboards (from different manufacturers) support adding special character feature. The process will be identical with minor changes. Furthermore, android keyboard apps also support this feature, but you might have to enable the feature from the settings.
To type a special character you just need to tap and hold the respective alphabet or character and all the special characters related to it will be displayed above it. For example, to type Ń we need to tap and hold the Alphabet N and choose from the options above.
Note: When you will tap and hold and the options pop up, you need to slide your finger to the desired characters without lifting your finger in order to select it. If you will release your finger, the first selected character will be inserted.
For additional characters, either they will be available in the keyboard or you will have to tap and hold a related character to reveal the option.
On the Samsung keyboard, the special characters are located in the keyboard and you can access them by tapping on the 2nd page in the numbers & character page. On the other hand, in the popular keyboard app SwiftKey you will have to tap and hold a respective character to access additional characters.
Type Special Characters in iOS
The process of typing special character in iOS is same as Android. All you have to do is tap and hold the respective alphabet or character and the options will be available on the top. From there, just slide to the required character and release to insert special characters.
The apps for iOS are mostly same as Android so it should not be a problem using these special characters in iOS apps.
Type Special Characters in Windows
In Windows, these special characters are not commonly located on the keyboard. You need to access them in Windows. However, as compared to Android or iOS the list of special characters is quite extensive and there are different ways to access them easily.
To access the complete list of special characters in Windows you need to type “charmap” in Windows “Search” or “Run” and “Character Map” will open up.
Just press Windows+R and the “Run” dialog will open up (the Windows button is commonly located between Ctrl and Alt key). There you need to type charmap and click on “OK”, you can also type charmap in “Search” from the Start menu to access “Character Map”.
In the Character Map dialog, you will see tons of special characters, you can also change fonts from the top drop down menu to change font and also access more special characters.
The “Arial” font has the most extensive list of special characters and you should be able to find your desired character in it. When you have found your desired character just double click on it to put it in the “character to copy” box below, you can also drag and drop there or click on the character and then click on “Select” next to the box.
If you double-click on it to select the character then it has also been copied as well. You can also put the character in “character to copy” box, then you need to either click on “copy” next to “Select” option or highlight the character and press Ctrl+C to copy it.
Once copied, you can paste it anywhere you require that character (to paste you need to press Ctrl+V in the desired location or right click there and choose “paste” from the context menu).
You can also type the special character code to use the character anywhere you like. This option is quite handy if you use a special character often and don’t want to search and copy it again and again in the “Character Map”.
To get the code for your desired character, click on it and it will be displayed at the bottom right corner of the “Character Map” window.
All codes require you to press and hold “Alt” key and type the code. The code must also be typed with Numeric keypad under the “Num Lock” key (In most cases, located at the right side of the keyboard). Make sure the “Num Lock” key is on by looking at the Num Lock key light, the light should be on. Once you type and release the “Alt” key, the character will be shown automatically.
Now, just memorize the Code of the special character which you use often and type it on the go.
If you are having trouble finding your desired special character in “Character Map” then you can also make it easier to search for it.
Click on checkbox next to “Advanced View” and advanced options will be available. From there, click on drop down menu next to “Group by” and choose “Unicode Subrange” from there.
All of the categories will be displayed by name, just choose the category in which you think your desired character is located and all characters under that category will be displayed.
If you still don’t find your desired character, then you can also type the name of the character or part of the name in the search field below and click on “Search” to find it (make sure the “Group by” option is set to “All” before searching). You should be able to find your desired character by going through these processes.
If there are any questions or you would like to add something, then let us know in the comments below.