Special characters consist of characters that are neither alphabetic nor numeric. Examples of special characters are ‘@’, ‘{‘, ‘$’, ‘%’, etc. Special characters have several advantages over alphanumeric characters. They can be used in a specific manner to create patterns and images. Moreover, they can be used to create emoticons.
Why would you need to learn to use special characters on Windows 10?
Mobile devices like smartphones and tablets have digital keyboards with a feature to switch characters and even languages. However, the keyboard of a PC offers a limited number of characters including special characters. You may compensate for this limitation by utilising the digital keyboards that come pre-installed in Windows 10.
Method 1: Using the Touch Keyboard
This is the simplest method to type special characters on Windows 10. To use the Touch Keyboard, follow these steps.
- Right-click the taskbar.
- Click the “Show touch keyboard button” option. The touch keyboard icon will appear at the right portion of the taskbar.
- Click the icon to launch the Touch Keyboard.
- To access the special characters, click the ‘&123’ button and then click the Omega (Ω) button.
- You can also use several emojis by clicking the smiley button.
Method 2: Using the Emoji Keyboard
This is a quick method to use special characters while using other apps on Windows 10. To use the Emoji Keyboard, follow these steps.
- Press and hold the Windows key and press the period key.
- The Emoji Keyboard will appear on the screen. The Keyboard will offer a plethora of emojis and special characters.
- You can navigate through different classes of special characters by pressing the button on the Emoji Keyboard.
Method 3: Using the Character Map
Character Map is a keyboard in Windows containing several special characters in a simplified interface. To use the Character Map on Windows 10, follow these steps.
- Go to the Start Menu and search ‘Character Map’.
- Launch the application.
- A pop-up window will appear with numerous special characters.
- The Character Map allows you to change the font of the special characters within the keyboard.
- Click the character that you wish to use.
- Click the ‘ Select’ button and then click the ‘Copy’ button.
You can simply press the Ctrl+V key combination to use the selected special character.
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