Vertical | straight line - how it works

You can also enter a vertical or straight line on the keyboard: |, However, this only works with a certain key combination. We'll show you how to enter the straight line in Word and any other program.

Vertical line on the keyboard

A straight line ("pipe") |, you can type with any normal computer keyboard without much effort:

• Simultaneously press the [Alt Gr] keys (located to the right of the space bar) and the [> <] key (to the right of the capitalization key).
• On the Mac, the pipe icon is elsewhere: press [Alt] and [7] at the same time.
• If you cannot type a straight line with your keyboard, you can use the line | copy and paste at the desired location.

When is the straight line used?

The vertical line is rarely used, which is why it is so well hidden on the keyboard. We'll tell you when the | is being used:

• In texts, the line is sometimes used as an optical separator between words.
• It is used more often when programming. In many programming languages ​​|| the meaning "or".

With Word, you can insert numerous other special characters and copy them anywhere.