Creating professional-looking text in your yearbook often requires more than just letters and numbers—special characters like smart quotes, em dashes, or accented letters (like ü or é) can make your writing look polished and intentional.
Alt symbols (also known as special characters or glyphs) are characters not found on a standard keyboard, such as:
Smart quotes (“ ” instead of " ")
Em dashes (—)
Accented letters (é, ñ, ü)
Trademark (™) or copyright (©) symbols
These characters can be inserted using specific keyboard shortcuts or character maps, especially on Windows systems using the Alt key and a numeric code (e.g., Alt + 0151 for an em dash).
There are several ways to insert these characters depending on your operating system and the software you're using:
Hold the Alt key, then type the numeric code using your numeric keypad.
Example: Alt + 0148 = “ (left smart quote)
Use the Character Map app to find and copy special characters.
Use Option key shortcuts.
Example: Option + Shift + Hyphen = — (em dash)
Option + u, then u = ü (umlaut)
Go to Type > Glyphs to browse and insert any available character in the current font.
Many layout programs have a glyphs panel for easy access to font-specific characters.
Not all fonts support every special character. Widely-used fonts like Arial, Times New Roman, and Helvetica typically include a full set of symbols. However, more decorative or custom fonts may have limited glyph support.
Tip: Always preview your proof before printing to ensure all special characters appear correctly. Missing glyphs might show up as empty boxes or incorrect symbols.
Clean typography and consistent use of punctuation enhance readability and add professionalism to your yearbook content. Misused or missing special characters can make your text look unpolished or rushed.
For a complete list of PC commands, click here: http://www.alt-codes.net/
For a complete list of Mac commands, click here: http://etc.rmnl.net/macshortcuts/