How To Type Common Symbols With Keyboard Shortcuts

Have you ever gone to type the degree symbol (i.e. – °) only to realise it’s not actually on your keyboard? How about the up arrow, division sign or British pound?

It turns out all of these symbols are just a quick keyboard shortcut away. Here are 23 to commit to memory – plus letters with accents!

During my everyday job, I spend a few seconds Googling the em dash to copy and paste into my articles when needed. It takes only a few seconds but it’s incredibly menial to repeat numerous times throughout the day. Looking for a solution to end my frustration, I stumbled upon a list of ways to get my em dash sans a quick search, copy and paste and stumbled upon shortcut codes — my new favourite hack.

Shortcut codes on PC help you put in symbols that aren’t commonly found on keyboards. In Word, for example, you’d usually have to insert a symbol manually from navigation menu. Now, rather than searching on Google for the Euro sign or the division symbol, you can just pop in a short code and the symbol appears like magic, sorta. The major limitation with these codes is that it only seems to apply to the number pad so those using standard laptop keyboards won’t be able to do it.

Remembering short numeric codes isn’t for everyone but if you slot the ones you use the most into your memory or write them out on a sticky note, it can save you a bit of time.

Best keyboard shortcut codes for PC users

Hold alt and then type these digits to get the symbol.

• 24: ↑ up arrow
• 25: ↓ down arrow
• 26: → right arrow
• 27: ← left arrow
• 29: ↔ right/left arrow
• 155: ¢ cent
• 156: £ pound
• 157: ¥ yen
• 159: ƒ frank
• 248: ° degree
• 0128: € Euro
• 0150: – en dash
• 0151: — em dash
• 0161: ¡ upside down exclamation mark
• 0178: ² squared
• 0179: ³ cubed
• 0185: ¹ to the power of 1
• 0188: ¼ a quarter
• 0189: ½ a half
• 0190: ¾ three quarters
• 0191: ¿ upside down question mark
• 0247: ÷ division
• 2368: ∞ infinity

Letters with accents:

• 0192: À
• 0193: Á
• 0194: Â
• 0195: Ã
• 0196: Ä
• 0224: à
• 0225: á
• 0226: â
• 0227: ã
• 0228: ä
• 0199: Ç
• 0231: ç
• 0200: È
• 0201: É
• 0202: Ê
• 0203: Ë
• 0232: è
• 0233: é
• 0234: ê
• 0235: ë
• 0204: Ì
• 0205: Í
• 0206: Î
• 0207: Ï
• 0236: ì
• 0237: í
• 0238: î
• 0239: ï
• 165: Ñ
• 164: ñ
• 0210: Ò
• 0211: Ó
• 0212: Ô
• 0213: Õ
• 0214: Ö
• 0242: ò
• 0243: ó
• 0244: ô
• 0245: õ
• 0246: ö
• 0138: Š
• 0154: š
• 0218: Ú
• 0219: Û
• 0220: Ü
• 0217: Ù
• 0249: ù
• 0250: ú
• 0251: û
• 0252: ü
• 0221: Ý
• 0159: Ÿ
• 0253: ý
• 0255: ÿ
• 0142: Ž
• 0158: ž

As one Lifehacker commenter, death_au, pointed out, if Windows 10 users press the Windows key and a full stop at the same time, a pop-up menu appears including emoji, kaomoji and a number of these symbols.

[referenced url=”https://www.lifehacker.com.au/2020/01/keyboard-shortcuts-ranked/” thumb=”https://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/t_ku-large/bvemiv25shxkyafgv7dd.jpg” title=”The Best Keyboard Shortcuts, Ranked” excerpt=”Doing stuff with your mouse is cool. Doing stuff with your keyboard is cooler. These are the most important keyboard shortcuts, ranked from best to worst. (Unless noted, we’ve listed the Windows shortcuts; Mac users substitute Cmd for Ctrl.) With one exception, despite any flaws, all the shortcuts below are fundamentally good.”]