How to Enter Special Symbols on Laptop

Enter the ALT symbol on a computer without a numeric keypad

See the small numbers on some keys. These numbers are often different colors and are not placed with the main symbol key sequence on the keyboard. You can see them on the m, j, k, l, u, i, o, 7, 8 and 9 keys.

Turn on the numeric keypad function. Some keyboards do not have a numeric keypad, but have a numeric lock key labeled 'NumLk'. If you don't see this key, look for another key with the same color as the hidden number keys, usually the 'FN' key. Press the FN key and press the scroll lock key, or just press the FN key depending on the computer to enable the numeric keypad function.

Press the ALT key and enter the code. You need to press the FN and ALT keys at the same time to enter the code. See full encoding at http://fsymbols.com/keyboard/windows/alt-codes/list/. The icon is immediately displayed when you release your hand from the ALT key.

Create icons using the numeric keypad. If your keyboard has a numeric keypad, the operation will be simpler. Make sure Num Lock is on, then hold down the ALT key, enter the code on the numeric keypad, and get the icon. You can do this on any keyboard with a numeric keypad, whether it's a laptop or a desktop computer.

For example, some familiar symbols such as ☺ entered with the combination ALT + 1, or ♀ appear after you press ALT + 12. The system can also generate accented letters like ALT + 0193 which will give you the text. Asia, or foreign language characters like ß show up when you press ALT + 0223. Besides, you can enter math symbols like ALT + 0177 which will be ±, and make some fractions like enter ALT + 0190 to have ¾.

Use keyboard shortcuts to type symbols on a Mac laptop

Press the Option key or Option and Shift. The Mac series is more standardized than the Windows model, so this works for all Mac keyboards.

Select the icon you want. Note, you won't have as many icons to choose from as you would on a Windows computer, and each symbol is entered by pressing and holding the Option key at the same time as one or more other keys, instead of entering a specific code. You can see a list of keyboard symbols at sites like http://fsymbols.com/keyboard/mac/.

An accented symbol is created by holding down the Option key, then pressing an accent key, and then the letter you want to add accents to. If it's a capital letter, you need to press the Shift key. Accented letters such as Á are entered by pressing the Option and Shift keys, then pressing the E and A keys in the correct order, and releasing the hands from the keys.

Besides accented letters, many other symbols are created by pressing the Option key and another key, but instead of capitalizing letters, the Shift key changes the symbol. For example, pressing the Option key and the = sign produces the ≠ symbol, but pressing the Shift key gives you the ± symbol.

Press the key to create the icon you want.