Australian PC World - Inserting special characters

Inserting special characters

Tip
What if your spreadsheet needs to display characters that don't appear on the keyboard, such as a copyright symbol or a foreign character like ""?
One solution that works for all Windows spreadsheets is to use Windows' Character Map program (Start--Programs--Accessories. If Character Map is not listed, you will need to install it using the Add/Remove Programs applet in Control Panel). Highlight the character you want from the Character Map, then copy and paste it into any application.

Insert special symbols by copying them from Windows' Character Map

You can also type the symbol directly from the keyboard; the bottom right corner of Character Map shows you the keystrokes. To insert, say, the copyright symbol, hold down the <Alt> key and type the digits 0 1 6 9 on the numeric keypad.
If you use Excel, you can employ its AutoCorrect feature to automatically replace an alphanumeric sequence with a special character or symbol (see Mastering Word's AutoCorrect feature, November 97, p164 for more discussion of AutoCorrect). For example, when you type (c), the sequence is replaced with ©. AutoCorrect has a few common symbols built in, but you can use the Tools--AutoCorrect command to add more. As with Windows' Character Map tool, you'll need to know the four-digit <Alt> sequence for each character.
- John Walkenbach

Category: Spreadsheet
Issue: Jan 1998
Pages: 167