How Do You Type Symbols Using the Alt Key

If you look at your keyboard, you'll find the alphabet keys and the number keys in the row just above the alphabets. If you carefully observe these number keys, you'll find that each of them has a symbol above the number. To use these symbols, you need to press the 'Shift' key and then press a number key. A few other symbols such as the single quote ('), double quote ("), greater than (>), less than (<), etc, can also be seen, next to the alphabet keys, in each row. While these few symbols are the basic symbols required for everyday writing, there are many many more symbols that we might sometimes require to use. So, how do we go about it? If you have a profile on a social networking site such as Facebook or Orkut, you must have seen some people adding strange characters to their profile names to make them stand out. How do they do that? It's a simple keyboard trick done using the magical key on the keyboard, the 'Alt' key, along with a few codes!

How to Make Symbols Using the Alt Key

The symbols that you see on your keyboard are easy to use as they are visible. However, when it comes to the "hidden" symbols, there are three ways to make them: using the Insert option in word processors, using the Windows Character Map, and using the Alt key. Here we shall learn how to type these symbols using the Alt key and their respective ASCII or Unicode codes. Just follow the steps given below.

• Look for the symbol in the list of ASCII or Unicode codes.
• Once you find it, note its code.
• Set the Number Lock on the Keyboard to "ON"
• Now, press and hold the Alt key, and enter the code on the numeric keypad (on the right hand side of your keyboard).
• Release the Alt key.

Simple isn't it? If you're using a laptop computer, then look for numbers 0-9 on/below the keys M, J, K, L, U, I, O, 7, 8, and 9 and use the function key (fn) to access these digits.

Types of Symbols

There are around 255 symbols in all and they are an assorted bunch which can be sorted into the following five main categories. Here we'll have a look at each of these categories of symbols. You can try out the codes in the box given below. So, are you ready to create some magic with the 'Alt' key?

	1.Bullet Symbols

	2.Mathematical Symbols

	3.Letters with Accent

	4.Greek Letters

	5.Miscellaneous Symbols

Test Your Alt Codes:

1. Check if the Number Lock on the Keyboard is "ON", and go to the text box below.
2. Keeping the alt key "Pressed", type a Number from 1 to 255 (or any code from the lists below) on the numpad (numeric keypad).
3. When you release the keys, you'll find that for each number you get a unique ALT Code Symbol against the text box.

Bullet Symbols

Symbol	Code	Symbol	Code	Symbol	Code
☺	1	♂	11	§	21
☻	2	♀	12	▬	22
♥	3	♪	13	↨	23
♦	4	♫	14	↑	24
♣	5	☼	15	↓	25
♠	6	►	16	→	26
•	7	◄	17	←	27
◘	8	↕	18	∟	28
○	9	‼	19	↔	29
◙	10	¶	20	▲	30

Mathematical Symbols

Symbol	Code	Meaning of Symbol	Symbol	Code	Meaning of Symbol	Symbol	Code	Meaning of Symbol
0-9	48-57	Digits 0-9	<	60	Less than sign	¼	0188	Quarter
%	37	Percentage sign	>	62	Greater than sign	½	0189	Half
‰	0137	Per mille (per thousand) sign	=	61	Equal sign	¾	0139	Three quarters
(	40	Open bracket	.	46	Decimal point	½	171	Half
)	41	Closed bracket	#	35	Number	¼	172	Quarter
+	43	Addition sign	^	94	Exponential sign	π	227	Pi
-	45	Subtraction sign	{	123	Curly bracket open	Σ	228	Sum
×	0215	Multiplication sign	}	125	Curly bracket close	µ	230	Micro
÷	0247	Division sign	²	0178	Squared	∞	236	Infinity
~	126	Congruency sign	³	0179	Cubed	≡	240	Identical
/	47	Fraction separator	¹	0185	To the power of 1	[	91	Square bracket open
≈	247	Approximately equal	º	0186	To the power of 0	]	93	Square bracket closed
±	241	Plus or minus	ⁿ	252	To the power of n	⌠	244	Top half
≥	242	Greater than or equal to	√	251	Square root	⌡	245	Bottom half
≤	243	Less than or equal to	°	248	Degree sign	·	0183	Middle dot

Letters with Accent

Letter	Code	Letter	Code	Letter	Code	Letter	Code
À	0192	Ñ	165	à	0224	ñ	164
Á	0193	Ò	0210	á	0225	ò	0242
Â	0194	Ó	0211	â	0226	ó	0243
Ã	0195	Ô	0212	ã	0227	ô	0244
Ä	0196	Õ	0213	ä	0228	õ	0245
Ç	0199	Ö	0214	ç	0231	ö	0246
È	0200	Š	0138	è	0232	š	0154
É	0201	Ù	0217	é	0233	ù	0249
Ê	0202	Ú	0218	ê	0234	ú	0250
Ë	0203	Û	0219	ë	0235	û	0251
Ì	0204	Ü	0220	ì	0236	ü	0252
Í	0205	Ý	0221	í	0237	ý	0253
Î	0206	Ÿ	0159	î	0238	ÿ	0255
Ï	0207	Ž	0142	ï	0239	ž	0158

Greek Letters

Letter	What it Looks Like	Code	Letter	What it Looks Like	Code
Alpha (lower case)	α	224	Mu (lower case)	µ	230
Beta (lower case)	ß	225	Sigma (upper case)	Σ	228
Gamma (lower case)	Γ	226	Sigma (lower case)	σ	229
Delta (lower case)	δ	235	TAU (lower case)	τ	231
Epsilon (lower case)	ε	238	Phi (upper case)	Φ	232
Theta (upper case)	Θ	233	Phi (lower case)	φ	237
Pi (upper case)	π	227	Omega (upper case)	Ω	234

Miscellaneous Symbols

Symbol	Code	Meaning	Symbol	Code	Meaning
$	36	Dollar symbol	@	64	At symbol
£	156	British Pound symbol	&	38	Ampersand symbol
€	0128	Euro currency symbol	©	0169	Copyright symbol
?	63	Question Mark	®	0174	Registered symbol
¿	168	Upside Down Question Mark	™	0153	Trademark symbol

In addition to the symbols and letters given above, you also have codes to create punctuation marks and letters of the English alphabet using the 'Alt' key. However, you hardly ever need to use the codes for these as these can be easily typed using the keys on a standard keyboard. Already thought of a unique profile name that you can create using these "new" symbols? Have fun!