Typing symbols and special characters

Previously published as: Hart, G. 2020. Typing symbols and special characters. https://www.worldts.com/english-writing/eigo-ronbun73/index.html

One of the difficulties of writing scientific manuscripts is the need to type symbols and special characters that are not present on a standard keyboard. (I will assume that you’re writing manuscripts that will be reviewed by an English scientific journal. However, this article applies equally well in other languages, with the necessary changes to account for language differences.) A second challenge relates to the need to ensure that these characters will not change when someone (e.g., a journal reviewer) reads your manuscript on their computer. These changes are increasingly rare because most computers follow the Unicode standard, which was designed to maintain consistency across computers. Any font that follows the Unicode standard should display the same characters on all computers.

Note: A typeface refers to the set of artistic principles that define the appearance of letters or symbols on paper and on the computer screen. A font is the software that describes how a computer should display those letters or symbols.

Unfortunately, the situation isn’t yet perfect. The biggest problem occurs when you use a font that is not installed on the reader’s computer. This happens often for writers who use non-European languages such as Japanese or Chinese, and who therefore have many fonts installed on their computer that are not available to readers who only use European languages. Examples include MS Mincho in Japanese and SimSun in Chinese. These fonts may not exist on an English computer, or they may have been removed to save hard disk space. When a reader receives a document that contains fonts that are not installed on their computer, the computer will temporarily replace those fonts with similar fonts that are present. This generally works well, but some characters may be replaced with small boxes ([]); other times, the correct characters are displayed, but appear sufficiently different that they are difficult to recognize.

To ensure that any characters you type will be clear and correct when you send your manuscript to someone else, use one of the standard fonts that will be present on all computers: Times New Roman (the standard font used by most journals), Verdana, and Symbol; for computers that have Microsoft Word’s equation editor installed, you can use Cambria Math for math symbols. Characters and symbols in those fonts will be easy to read on almost any computer.

How to insert the characters correctly differs somewhat between operating systems. Here, I’ll focus on the Macintosh and Windows computers and on Microsoft Word, as these are most common. Other word processors offer similar features.

Note: For Linux computers, see the Web page “How to quickly type special characters in Linux”.

 

For simple accented characters, Microsoft Word offers convenient shortcuts:

• Windows: Hold down the Control key, and press a key that represents the desired accent: ‘ for letters with the acute accent (é), ` for the grave accent (à), ^ for the circumflex (ê), and : for the umlaut (ü) . Release both keys, then type the letter that should have the accent. For additional shortcuts, see the Word Tips article "Inserting Foreign Characters".

• Macintosh: Hold down the Option key, and press a key that represents the desired accent. Release both keys, then type the letter that should have that accent: Option+E followed by e for é, Option+` followed by a for à, Option+I followed by a for â, and Option+U followed by u for ü.

On my Web site, I provide a list of shortcuts for many commonly used characters. You can download the PDF file for your computer and print the reference sheet. Alternatively, leave it open on your computer screen to remind you of the shortcuts, or so that you can copy symbols and paste them into your manuscript:

• Windows: Windows character codes
• Macintosh: Mac character codes

For more complex characters, position the text cursor where you want the symbol to appear, then use the utility provided by your word processor. In Microsoft Word, select the Ribbon’s Insert tab. Next:

• Windows: Click “Symbol”. In the dialog box, choose “(normal text)” from the Font menu if that is not already selected, and then choose the desired subset (e.g., Currency) from the Subset menu. Double-click the desired symbol or select it and click “Insert”.

• Macintosh: Click “Advanced Symbol”. In the dialog box, choose the desired font (e.g., Times New Roman) from the Font menu. Double-click the desired symbol or select it and click “Insert”.

If you’re not using Microsoft Word, or want more flexibility in selecting symbols (particularly on the Macintosh), use the utility provided by the operating system. In Windows, open the Windows menu, select Search, and then search for “Character Map”; in the search results, click that name to launch the application. On the Macintosh, use the Character Viewer utility.

 

A useful trick is that you can copy symbols from another author’s paper in a PDF file (including the PDF files that I mentioned earlier on my Web site) or that you can see on a Web site. To do this, select the character by dragging your mouse cursor across the character, then press Control+C in Windows or Command+C on the Macintosh. You can then paste the copied character (Control+V in Windows or Command+V on the Macintosh) into a manuscript, select it, and change the font to a standard font such as Times New Roman.

A particularly useful resource is the “Math Unicode Entities” Web page, which includes an extensive list of mathematical symbols, including the Greek characters that are often used as variable names. One useful tip is to create a word processor document with a name such as “Frequently used characters”, and use it to store the characters you use most often. Organize them in whatever order you find most logical. You can then easily find, copy, and paste those characters into new manuscripts. In addition, you don't have to have a connection to the Internet to use that file.

Note: Microsoft Word for Windows (but not for Macintosh) offers a convenient shortcut if you have a good memory. If you copy the “Hex entity” code from the Math Unicode Entities page, you can type the part that follows the letter “x” and that comes before the “;” symbol, then press Alt+X to convert that to the correct symbol. For example, the code for the multiplication symbol is “&‌#x00D7;”. Type 00D7 and then press Alt+X to insert this symbol.

 

Another alternative for characters that you use frequently is the AutoCorrect feature of Microsoft Word. (Most word processors have a similar feature.) With this tool, you can create a shortcut that your word processor will replace with a word, phrase, or symbol when you type the shortcut and press the space bar on your keyboard. For example, you could create the shortcut ]delta and set Word to replace it with the Greek letter δ. I add the ] bracket before all my shortcuts to ensure that I don’t accidently activate a shortcut (e.g., if I want to type the word “delta” rather than the symbol) and to group all my shortcuts together in the AutoCorrect dialog box. To do this, start by selecting the character in a Word file. Next:

• Windows: Open the Word/File menu and select Options. In the Options dialog box, select the Proofing tab, then click “AutoCorrect”. The symbol will be displayed in the Replace With field; type the shortcut you want to use in the Replace field.

• Macintosh: Open the Tools menu, and select AutoCorrect. The symbol will be displayed in the Replace With field; type the shortcut you want to use in the Replace field.