Using Special Characters: ¿ ½ ¾ £ ¥ Ñ © ® ? ° ² (¿Dónde está el baño, señor?)

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Sonny Stires asked about creating special symbols, such as the "cents" sign (¢). I hear the same question from a lot of chefs who ask how to type the "degrees" symbol (°) in their recipes. Well, there are a couple of ways — using your ALT key and numeric keypad or inserting them from a "character map."

You can make a ¢ sign by holding down ALT and typing 0162. ALT+0176 will make the ° (degrees) symbol.

A character map of all special symbols, including foreign language characters, can be displayed by going to Start>Run, typing charmap, and clicking OK. Choose the font corresponding to the one you're using and click on a character. Then click Select>Copy and use Edit>Paste (Ctrl+V) to insert it into your document.

If you plan on using a special character multiple times (such as the ° symbol in several recipes) it's easier to copy and paste one you've already created using one of the above procedures. For MSOffice users, it's even easier to use "AutoCorrect" for this purpose.

Click on Tools>AutoCorrect Options. Here you will find a collection of commonly misspelled words in the "Replace" list followed by the correct spelling in the "With" list. You will also see that certain symbols, such as the © (Copyright) will replace the typing of (c). Beyond all this, you can create your own "corrections."

Using the "degrees" symbol as an example, copy and paste your previously made symbol into the "With" box. Then type a simple code into the "Replace" box, such as, say, dg. Finally, click the Add button. Henceforth, typing dg, followed by pressing Enter or the space bar, will generate the ° symbol wherever you want it.

If you prefer using the ALT+(numeric code) it's important to know that you must use the digits on your numeric keypad. The numerals along the top of your keyboard will not work.

A list of the most often used "ALT+" symbols are on my site, www.pcdon.com, along with a lot of additional special character information.