Special Characters In Microsoft Word For Mac

Back in 2006, Apple introduced the iWork suite of apps, including Pages, Keynote, and Numbers. Over the years, the company made many changes to it and included more features. Now, apps like Apple Pages and Keynote are solid alternatives to Microsoft Office apps and Google Docs. The Apple Pages shines at basic editing and word-processing capabilities. The software even comes with the ability to add math equations, charts, special characters, and much more.

Apple has added the ability to add emojis and special characters such as copyright symbols, math symbols, Latin words, currency symbols, and more.

Jun 10, 2018 How to Make Custom Special Characters in Word. Field codes in a word processor are an extremely powerful tool, often used completely in the background to:.set auto numbering.create bulleted lists.insert the date and time or page number. Mar 02, 2020 Apple Pages is full of tips and tricks. One of them is the ability to add special characters and symbols in the document. Read the post to see how to insert that and other hacks of the Pages app. Feb 03, 2020 How to get special characters using Alt key codes or the Word Symbols library Hundreds of special characters, from accent marks to tiny icons, are a few clicks away.

In this post, we are going to talk about how to add them in Apple Pages. We will also mention a few tricks to customize the software, the ability to do voice typing, auto-correcting words to symbols, and more. Let’s jump in.

1. Add Emojis and Special Characters

While editing a document, you may come across a situation when you need to add a copyright symbol, Celsius character, different currency, or a simple math symbol.

Excel 2016 for Mac Outlook 2016 for Mac PowerPoint 2016 for Mac Word 2016 for Mac. Insert special characters. On the Insert menu. Insert a symbol.

You can simply go to Edit > Emojis & Symbols and choose a relevant symbol or emoji from the long list. Alternatively, you can tap on the character viewer for a streamlined menu. It’s categorized by Arrows, Latin words, Pictographs, Punctuation, and more. It’s easier to find a symbol form this menu.

This functionality is built right into the macOS. So, it works across all the apps, including Apple Pages, Microsoft Word, Apple Notes, and more. Memorize the keyboard shortcut Control + Command + Space to access the menu quickly.

2. Long-Press on Single Words for Suggestions

This one is also a part of the default macOS package. During writing, when you want to add a special character, you can long-press on keyboard words to open relevant symbol suggestions.

For example, you can long-press on ‘C’ word to see symbol options. Similarly, a long-press on ‘A’ word will showcase a long list of suggestions. If you want to add them in the document, then use the number shortcuts under the character.

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3. Set Auto-Replacement

If there are certain symbols or special characters that you use frequently, then you should consider setting up an auto-replacement for those symbols. Let me show you how to set them up in Apple Pages.

Go to Pages > Preferences (Command + ,) > Auto-Correction. Here you will see a replacement section with two menus.

For example, if you usually need the copyright symbol, then type (C), and it will replace it with a copyright symbol. I frequently need to use the Euro currency symbol, so I have set it to (e) shortcut. Surprisingly, the newly added shortcuts worked across all apps including Word and OneNote.

4. Add Math Equation

As I said earlier, Apple Pages is a perfect word-processing document for those living in the Apple ecosystem. It’s popular in the education sector too.

Apple has added the ability to insert math equations in the Pages app. You can go to Insert > Equation (Keyboard shortcut > Option + Command + E) and open the dialog box to add formulas. Now type the formula, and it will convert it to a math-friendly version of it. Select Insert, and it will add the equation in the document.

5. Insert Charts

Apple Pages is as powerful as Microsoft Word when it comes to displaying stats and numbers via graphs.

Go to Insert > Chart and choose from the long list of 2D, 3D, and interactive charts. My only problem is, it doesn’t showcase a preview of a chart before inserting in the document.

Special Characters Mac Word

6. Customize Toolbar

Apple Pages comes with a standard toolbar for editing and customizing a document. However, you can change them to your preference.

Special Characters In Microsoft Word For Mac

From Apple Pages, go to View > Customize Toolbar and use drag and drop function to your liking. One can also set the software to showcase text and icon.

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7. Add a Signature from iPhone

We have always talked about how Apple integrated its hardware offerings with software tweaks. The same holds true for a MacBook and iPhone.

iPhone users can add a signature or any sketch from the phone to Apple Pages directly. I use it to sign a document. Here is how to do it.

Open the document in Apple Pages, tap on the Picture icon in the toolbar, and select add sketch. It will trigger the iPhone to open a drawing board. You can draw a sketch or create a sign to add that in the
document.

You can also insert an image from the iPhone and scan a document using a phone camera in the Apple Pages.

8. Enable Voice to Text

Do you know one can type entire sentences in Apple Pages using the built-in voice detection function?

Go to Apple Pages, open a document, and select Edit > Start Dictation. The software will ask for permission and accept it to start typing via voice. In my experience, it worked quite well with the English language.

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9. Save a Document Style as Template

This one is useful for professionals. You may want to design a letter pad with company symbol, address, email, website, and more in Apple Pages.

Now, you can save that default document as a template in Apple Pages. So, you don’t have to create it from scratch every time.

After making necessary changes, go to File > Save a Template and give it a relevant name.

Use Apple Pages Like a Pro

Apple Pages is a viable competitor to its rivals. And it's full of nifty tips and tricks. Combine that with the iPhone integration, and you have got yourself a more than capable word-processing software. And hey, it’s free too.

Next up:Microsoft Word also comes with the ability to add special characters and symbols. Read the post below to see how to do that in Microsoft Word and other tips.

Read NextHow to Add Special Characters in Microsoft Word and Other TricksAlso See#productivity #apple

Did You Know

In December 2009, the Apple version of WhatsApp was updated to include photo sharing features.

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Word 2013 lets you type all 26 letters of the alphabet. With other special characters — plus, numbers 1 through 9 and 0, a smattering of symbols, and punctuation thingies, that’s a lot to type.

Some authors spend their entire lives weaving those characters into a tapestry of text heretofore unseen in literary history. As if that weren’t enough, you can sprinkle even more characters into your document, spicing it up like garlic in a salad.

Nonbreaking spaces and hyphens

Two unique characters in a document are the space and the hyphen. These characters are special because Word uses either of them to wrap a line of text: The space splits a line between two words, and the hyphen (using hyphenation) splits a line between a word’s syllables.

Sometimes, however, you don’t want a line to be split by a space or a hyphen. For example, splitting a phone number is bad — you want the phone number to stay intact. And you may desire to have two words that are separated by a space to be stuck together like glue. For those times, you need unbreakable characters.

  • To prevent the hyphen character from breaking a line, press Ctrl+Shift+- (hyphen).

  • To prevent the space character from breaking a line, press Ctrl+Shift+spacebar.

In either case, a nonbreaking character is inserted into the text. Word doesn’t break a line of text when you use one of these special characters.

Special Characters In Microsoft Word For Mac Download

The only way to discern whether your document has a nonbreaking space or hyphen is to use the Show/Hide command on the Home tab. (It’s the ¶ symbol button.) The code for a nonbreaking hyphen is a box with a tiny question mark in it. The code for a nonbreaking space is the degree symbol.

Type characters such as Ü, Ç, and Ñ

You can be boring and type deja vu or be all fancy and type déjà vu or café or résumé. Your readers will think that you know your stuff, but what you really know is how to use Word’s diacritical prefix keys.

Diacritical symbols appear over certain letters in foreign languages and in foreign words borrowed (stolen, really) into English. To create a diacritical in Word, you press a special Control-key combination. The key combination you press somewhat represents the diacritical you need, such as Ctrl+’ to produce the ’ diacritical. The Ctrl-key combination is followed by the character that needs the new “hat.”

Special Characters In Microsoft Word For Mac Computers

Prefix KeyCharacters Produced
Ctrl+’á é í ó ú
Ctrl+`à è ì ò ù
Ctrl+,ç
Ctrl+@å
Ctrl+:ä ë ï ö ü
Ctrl+^â ê î ô û
Ctrl+~ã õ ñ
Ctrl+/ø

For example, to insert an é into your document, press Ctrl+’ and then type the letter E. Uppercase E gives you É, and lowercase e gives you é. It makes sense because the ’ (apostrophe) is essentially the character you’re adding to the vowel.

Special Characters In Microsoft Word For Mac Free

Be sure to note the difference between the apostrophe (or tick) and back tick, or accent grave. The apostrophe (’) is next to your keyboard’s Enter key. The back tick (`) is below the Esc key.

For the Ctrl+@, Ctrl+:, Ctrl+^, and Ctrl+~ key combinations, you also need to press the Shift key, which is required anyway to produce the @, :, ^, or ~ symbols that are on your keyboard. Therefore, Ctrl+~ is really Ctrl+Shift+`. Keep that in mind.

Word’s AutoCorrect feature has been trained to know some special characters. For example, when you’re typing café, Word automatically sticks that whoopty-doop over the e.

How to insert special characters and symbols

The Symbol menu is nestled in the Symbols group on the Insert tab. Clicking the Symbol command button lists some popular or recently used symbols. Choosing a symbol from the menu inserts the special symbol directly into your text.

Special Characters In Microsoft Word For Mac 2017

Choosing More Symbols from the Symbol menu displays the Symbol dialog box. Choose a decorative font, such as Wingdings, from the Font menu to see strange and unusual characters. To see the gamut of what’s possible with normal text, choose (normal text) from the Font drop-down list. Use the Subset drop-down list to see even more symbols and such.

To stick a character into your document from the Symbol dialog box, select the symbol and click the Insert button.

You need to click the Cancel button when you’re done using the Symbol dialog box.

  • Click the Insert button once for each symbol you want to insert. When you’re putting three Σ (sigma) symbols into your document, you must locate that symbol on the grid and then click the Insert button three times.

  • Some symbols have shortcut keys. They appear at the bottom of the Symbol dialog box. For example, the shortcut for the degree symbol (°) is Ctrl+@, spacebar — press Ctrl+@ (actually, Ctrl+Shift+2) and then type a space. Doing so gives you the degree symbol.

  • You can insert symbols by typing the symbol’s character code and then pressing the Alt+X key combination. For example, the character code for Σ (sigma) is 2211: Type 2211 in your document and then press Alt+X. The number 2211 is magically transformed into the Σ character.