Tech Guide Headline
10+ keyboard shortcuts for entering special characters in a Word document
In 10 Word annoyances (and how to turn them off), we looked at how to shut down a number of Word’s automatic changes.
Turning off certain options relieves you of some of the unexpected and often unwelcome replacements and insertions that Word is likely to impose on you. But even though you may not want Word to, say, always convert a pair of hyphens into an em dash, you might sometimes want to insert an em dash yourself.
Here are 15 useful shortcuts that let you quickly insert special characters in a document--on your terms.
The shortcuts
Turning off certain options relieves you of some of the unexpected and often unwelcome replacements and insertions that Word is likely to impose on you. But even though you may not want Word to, say, always convert a pair of hyphens into an em dash, you might sometimes want to insert an em dash yourself.
Here are 15 useful shortcuts that let you quickly insert special characters in a document--on your terms.
The shortcuts
| Character | Shortcut |
| A line break | Shift+Enter |
| A page break | Ctrl+Enter |
| A column break | Ctrl+Shift+Enter |
| An optional hyphen | Ctrl+- (hyphen) |
| A nonbreaking hyphen | Ctrl+Shift+- (hyphen) |
| A nonbreaking space | Ctrl+Shift+Spacebar |
| A copyright symbol | Alt+Ctrl+C |
| A registered trademark symbol | Alt+Ctrl+R |
| A trademark symbol | Alt+Ctrl+T |
| An ellipsis | Alt+Ctrl+. (period) |
| An em dash | Ctrl+Shift+\ |
| An en dash | Ctrl+- (on numeric keypad) |
| The page number | Alt+Shift+P |
| The current date | Alt+Shift+D |
| The current time | Alt+Shift+T |
