Word Inserting Special Symbols
Special symbols include items such as the currency pound £ sign, the copyright © symbol, the division ÷ sign, accented letters, and many more. This is one area of Word that can be very simple to use, or very advanced, depending on your experience and needs. Practice the following activity to insert a special symbol into a Word document. When you are finished, move to the link at the bottom of this page titled "BACK" to go to the "Word Processor Lessons" web page.
1. Open Word. If you are using Word 2013 hit the Enter or Escape key one time to open a blank document.
2. Hit the Alt key one time.
3. Right arrow to the "Insert" ribbon.
4. Down arrow one time.
5. Left arrow one time and you will be on the "Insert" ribbon "Symbol" item.
6. Hit the Enter key one time and a box of special symbols will appear, with a link at the bottom of the box titled "More Symbols."
7. Use your left, right, up and down arrow keys to explore the four rows of five items, and then move to the link "More Symbols" and hit the Enter key one time.
8. Use your left, right, up and down arrow keys to explore the vast number of rows and items to become familiar with what symbols are there. There are several combo boxes, but do not use these at this time.
9. Find a symbol you want to insert into your Word document.
10. Hit the Enter key one time and that symbol is inserted into your Word document, at the point where the cursor is located.
11. Do the above steps to insert more symbols into your Word document, and then read through the symbols with your arrow keys.
12. Press Alt F4 to close the Word document. Do not keep this document unless you want to practice with it at a later time.
Common Short Cut Keys
Control Alt . makes an ellipsis …
Control Alt c makes a copyright © symbol.
Control Alt r makes a registered ® symbol.
Control Alt t makes a Trade Mark ™ symbol.
Control Alt d inserts a footnote instantly, with the item where the cursor is displayed.
Alt followed by n followed by u brings up the "Symbol" item in the "Insert" ribbon. Move to the preceding activity if you need to review how to use this area.