I've known for a long time, that you can type special characters in Microsoft Word by holding down the ALT key and typing the ASCII code. For example, ALT+0233 types an accented letter e, like this: é.
However, since the advent of Unicode, there are a lot more special characters, and now we have emojis in common use. These all have Unicode codes, if you can find them. The Symbol dialog in Word will display the ASCII or Unicode code for the symbol you select. Or you can get it from a third-party app or a website like the emoji list from Unicode.org. The code for the older man emoji,👴, is 1F474.
To insert this in Word, type the code and press ALT+X. Your cursor should be at the end of the code. If the code directly follows text without a preceding space, highlight it, then press ALT+X.
Note that the appearance of the character depends on the font you've selected. If all you get is a blank rectangle, it means that your font doesn't support that character, so you will need to use a different font.
Update: As was gently pointed out by one of my readers, this post was inspired by a message thread on the word-pc mailing list. I've been a member of that list since the Dark Ages and have found it an invaluable resource.
2 comments:
This wouldn't have been inspired by a thread on the Word-Pc ;ist would it? ;-)
Yes, I should have given the attribution. I'll update the post.
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