Thread: Quickly entering unusual special characters with the keyboard

Entering special characters such as '£', '¥' or 'n' for pound sterling, yen or ohm can be a painstaking procedure using the Insert Symbols dialog. Is there any easier and faster way of doing this?

You can save yourself the trouble of scouring through the special symbol tables, where you often need to change the font. Simply create shortcut keys for frequently used symbols.

Start with the 'Insert I Symbol' command and select 'More Symbols'. Now click 'Shortcut Key'. You will have to find a free shortcut key, which allows you to access the special character very easily-for example [A It] + [0] for 'Ohm'. The combination should be such that it is memorable for the character for which it is used. As soon as you press your desired combination, Word shows it in the 'New Shortcut Key' field. 'Currently assigned to' will tell you whether the combination has already been assigned to something else. If this is the case, you will have to decide whether you want to use it for the original purpose or not. If so, you will simply have to tryout other combinations till you get a suitable one. The setting for saving should be 'Normal. dot'. Click 'Assign' and 'Close' the dialog. You can define other shortcut keys in the same way.