Insert special characters and symbols in Word

You have to insert some special characters manually in Word because the keyboard does not have space for all symbols. Here you will learn how to create the sum symbol ∑ or the infinity symbol ∞ in Word, for example.

To enter special characters using the Symbol menu in Word:

1. Open Word.
2. Click on "Insert" in the menu bar.
3. Then select the word "symbol" and then click on "More symbols".
4. In Microsoft Word 2010, the corresponding block on the far right of the ribbon is illustrated by an Ω.
5. Here you can now choose between "symbols" and "special characters" in the upper tab.
6. To insert a special character, click on the respective symbol and then confirm your selection with "Insert".
7. If you click on "Insert" in the menu bar again, then on "Symbol" and "More symbols", you will see the key combinations of the respective symbols here.
8. If you now switch to "special characters", you will already see the respective key combinations here.
9. To assign a new keyboard shortcut to a special character, click on "Key combination" in the window.
10. There you can define new shortcuts for frequently used symbols.

Insert special characters in Word with keyboard shortcut:

• If you want to insert all possible symbols using a key combination, the ASCII code table will help you.
• There you can look up the ASCII abbreviations for Greek letters, arrow and branch symbols or even phonetic phonetic letters.

Our next CHIP practical tip will tell you how to enter the special character "X quer" in Word.