by Ryan Johnson, technology training coordinator

Ever been typing an e-mail or creating a document and you need to make a character that isn’t on the keyboard? Maybe you want to make the copyright sign, or a subscript 1 on a footnote. Windows Character Map is a good way to create them. To open it up, go to your Start menu and search for charmap or character map.

Once it’s open, scroll through it, change to many other fonts even. Then just copy and paste. Or look at the bottom of the window for the Alt code.

Each character has its own little code. Hold down your ALT key, type the plus sign on your number pad and then the code for the character. When you release the Alt key, your special character will appear. This works in most Windows-based programs.