Insert Special Characters in Writer

    From The Document Foundation Wiki
    Other languages:

    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 Insert ▸ Special Character… 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 Insert button the Character(s) at the cursor position are taken over.

    "Special characters" dialog
    Note pin.svg

    Note:
    Possibly not all Fonts are installed on your computer. Fonts that are stored on the computer can be installed later.

    Note pin.svg

    Note:
    Support for Type 1 fonts has been removed (Release 5.3)

    "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 Data ▸ Select Range… and in the "Select database range" dialog (the "mySign" range is already marked there) and click OK.

    Now open the "Styles" sidebar with F11 or via View ▸ Styles.

    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 Modify….

    In the Cell Style the DefaultFont is Cambria, Regular, 20 pt.

    Simply select a different Font and click OK.

    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 GlyphWikipedia logo v3.svg 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.

    Note pin.svg

    Note:
    Some Fonts offer less possibilities.

    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

    Examples: Standard fonts

    Arial: → ®, ֍, ₤

    Courier New: → ☺, ♥, ♫

    Times New Roman: → ©, ⁂, ℉

    Special Fonts

    Special fonts have even more to offer here, e.g. cutouts:

    OpenSymbol

    Webdings

    Windings

    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 Start ▸ All Apps ▸ Windows Accessories ▸ Character Map ( Win10 ) /
    Start ▸ All Apps ▸ Windows Tools ▸ Character Map ( Win11 ).

    The "Character Table" dialog appears.

    A Font can also be selected right at the top.

    The adjacent Help button leads to a Microsoft website (general help page).

    With "Character selection" it is possible to select a Character from the table with Select.

    With the Copy 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 Reset 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 Search button.

    After selecting a character, the table is reset to its original state with the Reset 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 Styles ▸ Drawing Styles.

    Right-click on the "Default Drawing Style" Drawing Style and select Edit Style….

    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 OK.

    Pull up the Text Box

    Now you can insert a Text Box with the menu Insert ▸ Text Box

    The cursor changes its shape to a small cross 202201 DE03 Visierkreuz.png.

    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.

    Examples from Windings 3 font with Hex-Code.

    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" Pfeil rechts - Windings3 F096 T.png 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 Convert ▸ To Curve 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 File ▸ Export… 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 Save.

    In the "PNG Options" dialog, check the "Save transparency" box and click OK.

    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

    Zeichentabelle.ods

    This drawing table was provided by Regina Henschel.

    Special character

    List_of_Unicode_characters#Latin_scriptWikipedia logo v3.svg

    ASCII-Code

    ASCIIWikipedia logo v3.svg

    Unicode

    Documentation / Manuals

    Here you will find the Documentation / Manuals:

    Documentation / Manuals

    Any questions?

    For questions on this topic go to:

    Ask.LibreOffice

    Get Involved

    Join us today and help us to make it even better!

    Get Involved

    LibreOffice is Free Software and is made available free of charge.

    Your donation, which is purely optional, supports our worldwide community.

    If you like the software, please consider a Donation.