How to Key In Special Characters And Symbols on Toshiba Laptops

You don’t need special software to type common symbols – or even some uncommon ones – on your documents. Windows computers like Toshiba laptops offer several ways so you can easily insert those special characters that don’t normally appear on the keyboard, such as © and ä.

One of the simplest ways is to use the Character Map. The Character Map contains just about all the special characters that you’d need when creating a document, including the Greek alphabet, accented letters, mathematical symbols, astrological signs, and more. To open it, click Start and type “Character Map” in the search box; or click Start, go to All Programs, expand Accessories, select System Tools, then click on Character Map. Select the font from the drop-down menu, choose the character that you need, click Select, then click Copy. You can also select multiple characters before copying. You can then go to your document and paste.

If you think you will need the Character Map often, then right-click it in the Start menu and either Pin It or Send to Desktop to create a shortcut.

Now, on the bottom right corner of the Character Map, you will usually find “Keystroke” (or the ASCII code) followed by Alt + 4-digit number. You can use that code to type the special character that you need without having to open Character Map. For instance, by pressing down Alt while keying in the numbers 0169 on your numeric keypad, you can make © appear on your document. You can note down the codes of your commonly-used special characters, or you can refer to lists that you can easily find on the Internet.

In programs like Microsoft Word, you can customise your own keystrokes to make special characters appear. First, click on the Office Button, select Word Options, then Proofing, then Autocorrect Options. In the field that says “Replace”, type the keystrokes that you will use, and in the “With” field, insert the character that will appear (you can simply copy and paste from the Character Map). For example, if it’s specified in your list, you can make ® appear by typing (r).

Another option that you may consider is to add or change an input language. This allows you to switch between keyboard layouts, such as between a US keyboard and a Japanese keyboard. You may need time to learn to use a foreign keyboard if you’re unfamiliar with it, since different characters appear as you type. (For instance, the key for “ on the US keyboard produces @ on a UK keyboard.)

You can try exploring the thousands of characters and symbols available on your toshiba laptops, including the ones in the Wingdings and Webdings font.

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