Writing sometimes calls for the use of some nontraditional marks. For example, when writing in Spanish, French, or German, a student often needs to add special marks (called diacriticals) to some letters, such as an accent mark or tilde. Spanish often uses a tilde above the “n,” making it ñ. Likewise, French and Spanish often put accents above the “e,” making it é. German also uses umlauts over various vowels. In this case an “o” turns into ö. Some languages, however, use a different alphabet. Take Greek, for example. Spelling Sigma Tau Delta simply becomes ΣТΔ. Other unique and sometimes needed features are the symbols such as the trademark symbol, ™, or the copyright symbol, ©.
Here’s how to insert letters with diacriticals, such as é, ñ, ö:
- Click on Insert in the Microsoft Word menus
- Select Symbol
- Find the letter or mark you need
You can also use keystrokes only. For instance, to put a tilde over an n (ñ), hold Control and Shift, push the tilde key, release all three, then type an n. To make Spanish accents (í,é,á,ó,ú), hold Control and push the quotation mark/apostrophe key, release both, then type a vowel.
To use a language with a different alphabet, such as Σ, Т, Δ:
- Click on Insert in the Microsoft Word menus
- Select Symbol
- Select the language that you need from the Subset list
- Find the symbol or accent you need
To make symbols using only keyboard commands:
- Click on Insert
- Select Symbol
- Select the Special Characters tab
- Use the commands as they appear
Made by Mariah Walters
