I could do it some time ago, but after the interface change I'm not able.
Is it possible to insert the special characters by some keyboard shortcuts?
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Sign up to join this communityI could do it some time ago, but after the interface change I'm not able.
Is it possible to insert the special characters by some keyboard shortcuts?
Unfortunately if you were able to do this before, there is no way to do it now. Here is a link to the updated Help Article on all shortcuts in Docs: https://support.google.com/docs/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=179738
The best way to do it now is Alt+I to access the menu options and C
++Edit (thanks to anon for pointing out easier way to access menus now++
Made an edit to keyboard inputs above to go directly to the Insert menu, and updated the keyboard shortcut for special chars which was changed.
You can set up your own auto-substitution. Under Tools | Preferences
check the box for "Automatic substitution". Then you can add whatever character combination in the "Replace" column with what it will automatically be replaced with in the "With" column.
So, for instance, you might have (c)
automatically replace ©
in your document.
(Mine used to be filled with all kinds of shortcuts—as you can see here—but now is blank. I suppose too many people kept asking why their text kept getting replaced.)
This doesn't work for all symbols, but when I work on Google Docs with terms needing Greek or Latin symbols I will open Microsoft Word and insert the symbols to the page. Then on the Google doc I will double-click the footer or header and paste the symbols there. Google Docs will treat them like characters and not require them as part of an equation. That way I have a quick way to copy the symbol I need and paste where I need it.
A lot of different accents and symbols can be put in google docs by selecting option + a letter, but you will have to experiment to find which symbol you need. For example, I have found that on a mac a degrees symbol (˚) is option + k.
There are ways to insert special characters by pressing alt and a number code. For example alt 0151 will give you a dash, like so —