Applies to all editions of Windows Vista.

Using special characters (Character Map): frequently asked questions

Here are answers to some of the most common questions about using special characters and Character Map.

What is a special character?

A special character is a character that cannot be found on your keyboard. You can insert special characters by using Character Map or by pressing a combination of keys on your keyboard.

Character Map enables you to view the characters that are available in a selected font. Using Character Map, you can copy individual characters or a group of characters to the Clipboard and paste them into any program that can display them.

How do I open Character Map?

Open Character Map by clicking the Start button , clicking All Programs, clicking Accessories, clicking System Tools, and then clicking Character Map.

How do I insert a special character into a document?

In Character Map, click the Font list, and then click the font you want to use.
Click the special character you want to insert into the document.
Click Select, and then click Copy.
Open your document and click the location in the document where you want the special character to appear.
Click the Edit menu, and then click Paste.

Tip

Many programs allow you to drag special characters into documents. To do this, click the character you want to copy. When the character appears enlarged, drag it into the open document.

What is a private character?

A private character is a unique letter or logo character created using Private Character Editor.

How do I create a private character?

To learn how to create private characters, go to Private Character Editor overview on the Microsoft website.

How do I insert a private character into a document?

In Character Map, click the Font list, and then click the font you have linked your private characters to.
Click the private character you want to insert into the document.
Click Select, and then click Copy.
Open the document and click the location in the document where you want the private character to appear.
Click the Edit menu, and then click Paste.

Notes

If you do not delete previously copied characters in the Characters to copy box, they are copied along with any new characters you select.
If a private character does not appear correctly in a document, select the character in the document and change its font so that it matches the font you linked it to in Character Map.

How do I search for a character by name?

In Character Map, click the Font list, and then click the font you want to search in.
Select the Advanced view check box.
Click the Character set list, and then click the character set you want to search in.

If the character set you want is not available, choose a different font in the Font list.
In the Search for box, type all or part of the name of the character you are searching for. For example, to search for any Greek letter, type Greek, or to find all types of the Cyrillic character Zhe, type Zhe.
Click Search.

Character Map displays the characters that match your search.
To start another search, click Reset.

Tip

To view the name of a particular character and its associated hexadecimal code, point to the character. When you click on the character, this information is also displayed on the status bar at the bottom of the Character Map window, and it can serve as an example of search terms you can use for additional searches.

How do I search for a character by Unicode category?

Unicode categories are used to group similar types of characters available in a font. For example, the Currency Unicode category groups all of the currency symbols available for a font.

In Character Map, click the Font list, and then click the font you want to search in.
Select the Advanced view check box.
Click the Group by list, and then click Unicode Subrange to open the Group By box.
In the Group by box, in the Unicode Subrange list, click the category of character you want to view.

When you click a category, Character Map displays the characters that belong to that category.
Once you find the character you are looking for, click Select, and then click Copy.

How do I search for a character by Unicode value?

In Character Map, click the Font list, and then click the font you want to search in.
Select the Advanced view check box.
Click the Character set list, and then click Unicode.
Click the Group by list, and then click All.
In the Go to Unicode box, type the four-character Unicode value of the character you are looking for.

The character is automatically highlighted in the grid of characters.

Tip

In Character Map, all the characters in a specific font are displayed in the order of their Unicode value. If you do not know the Unicode value of the character you are looking for, you can also scroll through the characters in the font to find it.

How do I search for a Chinese, Japanese, or Korean character by the way it sounds?

You can search for a character by the way it sounds in the following character sets: Japanese Kanji by Hiragana, Korean Hanja by Hangul, Simplified Chinese by PinYin, and Traditional Chinese by Bopomofo. To do so, the character sets must be installed on your computer. For more information, see Add an input language.

In Character Map, select the Advanced view check box.
Click the Group by list, and then click one of the following character groupings to open the Group By box:
- Japanese Kanji by Hiragana
- Korean Hanja by Hangul
- Simplified Chinese by PinYin
- Traditional Chinese by Bopomofo
In the Group By box, click the character that corresponds to the sound you want to search for.

Character Map displays the characters that start with the sound you selected.

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