Looking for ways to type special characters on Windows 11? The QWERTY keyboard has plenty of punctuation keys but just a few unique characters. What happens when you wish to type something more specific, such as a character from another language or an emoji? These unique characters will be difficult to locate on a normal keyboard.
Fortunately, if you know where to search, you may discover such characters in Windows 11. Here’s how to use Windows 11’s special characters. To be able to type special characters on Windows 11, or even emojis, you need to first enable the touch keyboard.
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How to Enable the Touch Keyboard
On Windows 11, you can use the touch keyboard to enter various special characters. It’s one of the simplest ways to add special characters.
To activate the touch keyboard for special characters in Windows 11, follow these steps:
- Select Settings from the Start menu.
- From Settings, navigate to Personalization and click the Taskbar section.
- Under the Taskbar corner icons, toggle on Touch Keyboard to always show the Touch Keyboard icon.
- Now, you can always access the touch keyboard option from the lower-right corner of the taskbar.
How to Type Special Characters on Windows 11
You can use the touch keyboard to enter and type special characters on Windows 11 into your text.
To accomplish this, take these steps:
- Place the blinking cursor where you wish to place your unique character on your page.
- Click the Touch Keyboard icon in the lower-right corner of the taskbar to make the on-screen keyboard appear.
- Press and hold a key on the touch keyboard. It will display extra symbols that you can use instead.
- Select the special key you want to use from the touch keyboard, and it will appear in your document.
- Emoji and GIF icons can also be added. Select the emoji button (the heart icon in the upper-left corner of the keyboard).
How to Insert Emojis on Windows 11
Alternatively, you can use emojis straight from your document if you don’t want to use the touch keyboard to input special characters.
To insert emojis in Windows 11, use the Windows key + period (dot) key to bring up the emoji keyboard. When you pick an emoji, it will be added to your document.
While this pop-up menu is most helpful for emojis, it may also be used to access GIFs or input a smaller set of special characters, such as currency symbols.
How to Use the Character Map on Windows 11
You may also copy special characters to your keyboard using the older Character Map tool.
To utilize the Character Map tool in Windows 11, follow these steps:
- Go to the Start menu and search for Character Map.
- Choose “Character Map” as the first result.
- When the Character Map box appears, you’ll see a variety of characters that you may use with various typefaces. Simply select a different font from the dropdown options.
- Click the Select button after selecting the special characters you want to use.
- Click the Copy button and paste the special characters into the document when ready.
The procedures outlined above should assist you as you discover and type special characters on Windows 11, whether they be symbols or emojis.