Insert Special Characters in Writer
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Foreword
The video "Schriftarten - Sonderzeichen einfügen in Writer" links to this page here, which contains further information.
The basis of this description is the online help.
Link to the Video
Link to the Video (in German [DE]):
Schriftarten - Sonderzeichen einfügen in Writer - LibreOffice
Insert Special Characters
Position the cursor at the point where the Special character is to be inserted.
To insert a Special Character, choose the ▸ menu.
It appears the "Special Characters" dialog.
Here the "Font" can be selected with "Character Block".
You select a Font to display the Special Characters available for it.
In the lower right corner the character code is displayed in Hexadecimal and Decimal numbers.
You can click on a Character or Special Characters from the Font table.
The corresponding Character is entered in the lower line "Favourite Characters:" and displayed enlarged on the right.
You can also click on several Characters.
With the button the Character(s) at the cursor position are taken over.
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"Special characters" dialog - Enlarge view
The dialog can be enlarged.
Position the cursor at the bottom right corner until a diagonal double arrow appears.
Click on the corner of the dialog and drag it to the bottom right.
As a result, no more characters are displayed, but the previously displayed characters are shown larger.
This makes the selection a little easier.
Create Special Characters via keyboard
Enter the HEX code ( example: u+221A = SQUARE ROOT ) and directly -
depending on the default setting - press Alt + C or Alt + X depending on the operating system or version.
See also: unicode.org
Character table.ods
Since the "Special Characters" dialog only presents a limited number of characters at the same time, it is often tedious to search for a specific character.
Here the Calc table "Zeichentabelle.ods"
(kindly provided by, source: Regina H. / Thanks a lot.) a little remedy.
In the Calc table a much larger number of Characters is displayed at the same time and it is easier to scroll and change fonts.
Instructions for the "Zeichentabelle.ods" ( "Character table.ods" )
The table is divided into lines of 100 characters each.
The data area "myZeichen" can be used to mark the inside of the table.
To do this select the menu ▸ and in the "Select database range" dialog (the "mySign" range is already marked there) and click .
Now open the "Styles" sidebar with F11 or via ▸ .
The current Format Style/Cell Styles is called "Zeichensatz" ( "Character Set" ).
You can adjust them here according to your own wishes (e.g. a different Font).
Right-click on the Cell Style "Character Set" and select .
In the Cell Style the DefaultFont is Cambria, Regular, 20 pt.
Simply select a different Font and click .
The selected Font is immediately displayed in the inner table and with it the Characters and Special Characters contained in it.
Alternatively, you can also derive one or more Cell Styles from the Cell Style "Character set", give them a memorable name and enter the desired Font there.
Font Character Set
The Font Character Set corresponds to all Characters and Special Characters contained in this Font.
In the early days of the computer, the so-called ASCII character set was designed.
This was based on a 7-bit representation of Characters.
With 7-bit one had 128 possibilities (0-127) of coding.
Of these, the first 32 possibilities are occupied by non-printable Characters.
So there was just enough space for the small and large alphabet, the numbers 0-9 and some special characters.
The origin and the extent to this was the typewriter.
In the course of time, the demands on the extent of a Character Set became higher and higher and character sets with higher and variable coding possibilities followed.
This allows a wide range of Characters and Special Characters.
Often not all possibilities are used, so that coded places (character places) remain unused.
At this point the Glyph
then only a white area or a Square or Rectangle.
If a Character that represents only a white area is inserted into the text, nothing will be seen there of course.
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Font of the special kind
With many fonts, the main purpose is to make the Font look special.
But our topic here are the Special Characters.
The Standard Fonts, like Arial, Times New Roman, Courier New, etc., usually already contain Special Characters.
Examples: Standard Fonts
Arial: → ®, ֍, ₤
Courier New: → ☺, ♥, ♫
Times New Roman: → ©, ⁂, ℉
Special Fonts
Special fonts have even more to offer here, e.g. cutouts:
For mathematical operators
- Deja Vu Math TeX Gyre
- Deja Vu Sans
Example: U+2259, Dez.8793, ESTIMATES = ≙
Character table in Windows
A Character table can also be called up in Windows.
This can be clicked on via ▸ ▸ ▸ ( Win10 ) /
▸ ▸ ▸ ( Win11 ).
The "Character Table" dialog appears.
A Font can also be selected right at the top.
The adjacent button leads to a Microsoft website (general help page).
With "Character selection" it is possible to select a Character from the table with .
With the button, the selected Character is copied to the clipboard and can now be pasted at any position.
In the line "Character Set" you can choose between "Unicode", "DOS+language" and "Windows+language".
In the Unicode field, the value for a known Unicode can be entered.
For example "0072" stands for the lower case letter "r".
The "r" Character is then displayed in the table at the top left.
If this Character is no longer needed, the table can be reset to its original state by pressing the button.
With "Grouping by:" it is still possible to group the displayed character set.
In the "Search for:" line, for example, you can search for known terms, e.g. "bracket", "degree" or "plus".
Simply enter the term and click the button.
After selecting a character, the table is reset to its original state with the button.
The coding and a description of the character is displayed at the bottom left.
For some characters, the key combination associated with the Alt key and the numeric keypad is shown at the bottom right "Alt + 0161" (U+00A1) to "Alt + 0255" (U+00FF).
Special characters for teamwork – Workaround with graphics
Unfortunately, it is not possible to use special characters directly in the team if
- different operating systems are used
- fonts are not available on all systems
Apart from character editors that can be used to edit fonts, a workaround is presented here that highlights the good capabilities of LibreOffice.
A team working with LibreOffice can make do otherwise, provided that the use of special characters does not take place on a large scale.
Using special characters as graphic characters
Create graphic characters - Requirements
You are the one who has the fonts with the desired special characters available on your system.
You have installed LibreOffice.
Create graphic characters in Draw
To create special characters in graphic format, open Draw.
If you want to create special characters from several fonts, you should create a separate Draw document for each font.
As a text box is used to create each individual character, the "Standard" drawing template should be edited for the font (this is used for text boxes when inserting).
To do this, go to the sidebar ( Ctrl + F5 ).
Select ▸ .
Right-click on the "Default Drawing Style" Drawing Style and select .
Click on the "Font" tab and select the font (e.g. "Windings 3" on Windows) that contains the desired special characters.
Under "Size" enter 150 pt.
Click on .
Pull up the Text Box
Now you can insert a Text Box with the menu ▸
The cursor changes its shape to a small cross 
.
Now draw a text box, approx. 6 x 6 cm.
Insert special characters in the Text Box
You can now insert a special character into your text box.
For example, write "u+F096", but don't be alarmed because the characters are displayed from the Windings 3 character set.
Depending on the operating system and version, press Alt + X or Alt + C.
A "right arrow" 
should now be visible in the text box.
Copy the Text Box
Select the text box and paste it again, so you always have a text box ready for copying and can insert a new character directly.
Convert the character in the Text Box
Now select the copied character and right-click on it.
Select ▸ from the context menu.
Converting to curve has the advantage that an object fits exactly to the character.
Export/save drawing object or insert into the gallery
The object can now be exported or dragged directly into the gallery.
Alternatively, PNG without transparency, PNG with transparency and SVG can be selected for export.
If the characters are not to be very large later, exporting as a PNG file is usually sufficient.
Select the curve object and choose ▸ from the menu.
In the "Export" dialog, select the folder in which you want to save your graphics.
Enter a "Name", e.g. "Arrow right - Windings3 F096 wT",. and select the "File type", e.g. "PNG".
And check the "Selection" box in the dialog so that only this object is exported.
Click on .
In the "PNG Options" dialog, check the "Save transparency" box and click .
If you want to save the same object without transparency, leave the check mark unchecked.
Write the file name at the end with "woT" for "without transparency" instead of "wT" for "with transparency".
Further Objects
Now copy the first object again to export further characters from the "Windings 3" font.
Insert a small graphic or symbol into a sentence in Writer
Inserting a small symbol or graphic into a sentence
Further Informations
Work files
This drawing table was provided by Regina Henschel.
Special character
List_of_Unicode_characters#Latin_script
ASCII-Code
Unicode
Documentation / Manuals
Here you will find the Documentation / Manuals:
Any questions?
For questions on this topic go to:
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