Type Special Characters with a Chromebook (Accents, Symbols, Em Dashes)
Typing special characters with a Chromebook can be done using unicode. Here’s a handy reference to show you how.
I work part-time as an editor, which means I spend a lot of my time replacing hyphens with em dashes. So, when I bought my Chromebook, my life became a little different.
The normal way I’ve always typed em dashes is to press Alt and type 0151 on the numerical keypad. Only thing is that Chromebooks don’t have numerical keypads. In fact, most laptops don’t anymore.
In a pinch, you can google the special character and copy and paste the special characters in. But no one’s got time for that.
In Word, you can use special characters from the Insert ribbon.
But Chromebooks don’t have Word.
You get the idea. For those of you who’ve skimmed all this and are just looking for the solution, here it is:
How to Type Special Characters with a Chromebook: Unicode Input
On a Chromebook, when you press CTRL+SHIFT+U in an input field, you’ll get a little underlined “u” on your screen. Look:
Now, type in the unicode entry for the special character you want. An em dash is “2014.”
Hit enter and voila, em dash: —
2014 for an em dash is easy to remember because 2014 is the year that St. Vincent released her self-titled album St. Vincent. But for all other Unicode characters, you should check out this handy reference:
Wikipedia also has a good break down of all the Unicode characters.
That table is massive, of course. So here’s a handy reference for the ones you’d most frequently use on your Chromebook.
Typing Subscript and Superscript in Unicode
The Unicode entries for subscript are U+208X, where X is the number you want in subscript. For example, H₂0 uses CTRL+SHIFT+U and then 2082.
The Unicode entries for superscript are CTRL+SHIFT+U and then 207x, where X is the number you want in superscript. For example, 10⁷ uses CTRL+SHIFT+U and then 2077.
That is, except for 1, 2, and 3, which are CTRL+SHIFT+U and then 00B9, CTRL+SHIFT+U and then 00B2 and CTRL+SHIFT+U and then 00B3 respectively.
Typing Punctuation in Unicode
Use the handy table below for your dashes and other esoteric punctuation.
| CTRL + SHIFT + U and … | Character | Name |
| 2013 | – | En dash |
| 2014 | — | Em dash |
| 2015 | ― | Horizontal bar |
| 2017 | ‗ | Double low line |
| 2018 | ‘ | Left single quotation mark |
| 2019 | ’ | Right single quotation mark |
| 201A | ‚ | Single low-9 quotation mark |
| 201B | ‛ | Single high-reversed-9 quotation mark |
| 201C | “ | Left double quotation mark |
| 201D | ” | Right double quotation mark |
| 201E | „ | Double low-9 quotation mark |
| 2020 | † | Dagger |
| 2021 | ‡ | Double dagger |
| 2022 | • | Bullet |
| 2026 | … | Horizontal ellipsis |
| 2030 | ‰ | Per mille sign |
| 2032 | ′ | Prime |
| 2033 | ″ | Double prime |
| 2039 | ‹ | Single left-pointing angle quotation mark |
| 203A | › | Single right-pointing angle quotation mark |
| 203C | ‼ | Double exclamation mark |
| 203E | ‾ | Overline |
| 2044 | ⁄ | Fraction slash |
| 204A | ⁊ | Tironian et sign |
Typing Symbols in Unicode
| CTRL + SHIFT + U and … | Character | Name |
| 00A0 | Non-breaking space | |
| 00A1 | ¡ | Inverted Exclamation Mark |
| 00A2 | ¢ | Cent sign |
| 00A3 | £ | Pound sign |
| 00A4 | ¤ | Currency sign |
| 00A5 | ¥ | Yen sign |
| 00A6 | ¦ | Broken bar |
| 00A7 | § | Section sign |
| 00A8 | ¨ | Diaeresis (Umlaut) |
| 00A9 | © | Copyright sign |
| 00AB | « | Left-pointing double angle quotation mark |
| 00AC | ¬ | Not sign |
| 00AD | Soft hyphen | |
| 00AE | ® | Registered sign |
| 00AF | ¯ | Macron |
| 00B0 | ° | Degree symbol |
| 00B1 | ± | Plus-minus sign |
| 00B2 | ² | Superscript two |
| 00B3 | ³ | Superscript three |
| 00B4 | ´ | Acute accent |
| 00B5 | µ | Micro sign |
| 00B6 | ¶ | Pilcrow sign |
| 00B7 | · | Middle dot |
| 00B8 | ¸ | Cedilla |
| 00B9 | ¹ | Superscript one |
| 00BA | º | Masculine ordinal indicator |
| 00BB | » | Right-pointing double angle quotation mark |
| 00BC | ¼ | Vulgar fraction one quarter |
| 00BD | ½ | Vulgar fraction one half |
| 00D7 | × | Multiplication sign |
| 00F7 | ÷ | Division sign |
| 00BA | º | Masculine ordinal indicator |
| 00BB | » | Right-pointing double angle quotation mark |
| 00BC | ¼ | Vulgar fraction one quarter |
| 00BD | ½ | Vulgar fraction one half |
| 00BE | ¾ | Vulgar fraction three quarters |
| 00BF | ¿ | Inverted Question Mark |
Typing Accents in Unicode
| CTRL + SHIFT + U and… | Character | Name |
| 00C0 | À | Latin Capital Letter A with grave |
| 00C1 | Á | Latin Capital letter A with acute |
| 00C2 | Â | Latin Capital letter A with circumflex |
| 00C3 | Ã | Latin Capital letter A with tilde |
| 00C4 | Ä | Latin Capital letter A with diaeresis |
| 00C5 | Å | Latin Capital letter A with ring above |
| 00C6 | Æ | Latin Capital letter Æ |
| 00C7 | Ç | Latin Capital letter C with cedilla |
| 00C8 | È | Latin Capital letter E with grave |
| 00C9 | É | Latin Capital letter E with acute |
| 00CA | Ê | Latin Capital letter E with circumflex |
| 00CB | Ë | Latin Capital letter E with diaeresis |
| 00CC | Ì | Latin Capital letter I with grave |
| 00CD | Í | Latin Capital letter I with acute |
| 00CE | Î | Latin Capital letter I with circumflex |
| 00CF | Ï | Latin Capital letter I with diaeresis |
| 00D0 | Ð | Latin Capital letter Eth |
| 00D1 | Ñ | Latin Capital letter N with tilde |
| 00D2 | Ò | Latin Capital letter O with grave |
| 00D3 | Ó | Latin Capital letter O with acute |
| 00D4 | Ô | Latin Capital letter O with circumflex |
| 00D5 | Õ | Latin Capital letter O with tilde |
| 00D6 | Ö | Latin Capital letter O with diaeresis |
| 00D8 | Ø | Latin Capital letter O with stroke |
| 00D9 | Ù | Latin Capital letter U with grave |
| 00DA | Ú | Latin Capital letter U with acute |
| 00DB | Û | Latin Capital Letter U with circumflex |
| 00DC | Ü | Latin Capital Letter U with diaeresis |
| 00DD | Ý | Latin Capital Letter Y with acute |
| 00DE | Þ | Latin Capital Letter Thorn |
| 00DF | ß | Latin Small Letter sharp S |
| 00E0 | à | Latin Small Letter A with grave |
| 00E1 | á | Latin Small Letter A with acute |
| 00E2 | â | Latin Small Letter A with circumflex |
| 00E3 | ã | Latin Small Letter A with tilde |
| 00E4 | ä | Latin Small Letter A with diaeresis |
| 00E5 | å | Latin Small Letter A with ring above |
| 00E6 | æ | Latin Small Letter Æ |
| 00E7 | ç | Latin Small Letter C with cedilla |
| 00E8 | è | Latin Small Letter E with grave |
| 00E9 | é | Latin Small Letter E with acute |
| 00EA | ê | Latin Small Letter E with circumflex |
| 00EB | ë | Latin Small Letter E with diaeresis |
| 00EC | ì | Latin Small Letter I with grave |
| 00ED | í | Latin Small Letter I with acute |
| 00EE | î | Latin Small Letter I with circumflex |
| 00EF | ï | Latin Small Letter I with diaeresis |
| 00F0 | ð | Latin Small Letter Eth |
| 00F1 | ñ | Latin Small Letter N with tilde |
| 00F2 | ò | Latin Small Letter O with grave |
| 00F3 | ó | Latin Small Letter O with acute |
| 00F4 | ô | Latin Small Letter O with circumflex |
| 00F5 | õ | Latin Small Letter O with tilde |
| 00F6 | ö | Latin Small Letter O with diaeresis |
| 00F8 | ø | Latin Small Letter O with stroke |
| 00F9 | ù | Latin Small Letter U with grave |
| 00FA | ú | Latin Small Letter U with acute |
| 00FB | û | Latin Small Letter U with circumflex |
| 00FC | ü | Latin Small Letter U with diaeresis |
| 00FD | ý | Latin Small Letter Y with acute |
| 00FE | þ | Latin Small Letter Thorn |
| 00FF | ÿ | Latin Small Letter Y with diaeresis |
24 Comments
Leave a Reply
Denis de Castro
Thanks Jack, that’s useful. Also—what’s that editor you’re using in the screenshot?
Best
ፍልይyoGEyðø¬
CTRL+SHIFT+ U+2020=
Laimonas
How would you type + or – in Sub/Superscript. Other than that, you mate, have solved me sooo many problems so thank you.
Troll
You can do ub0 space and then you get the degree symbol.
NBK2006
there is chinese in unicode, too. this is CTRL+SHIFT+U (8888)= 袈
Hector M Lugo
Wow! Why are computer makers still making this so difficult? The world is getting smaller, more people speak multiple languages than don’t in the world, yet computer makers like to pretend no one speaks anything but Enlgish. SMH
woodles
Does anyone know the code for a checkbox (tick) trying to fill out an online form is driving me crazy.
Thank you.
Jack Brualfnslkf
yeet
Andra
How do you make an ¨a¨ with an over line; the long A symbol????
Denis de Castro
@Andra Try control-shift-U and 0100 or 0101 (Wikipedia—macron (diacritic)). Cheers
Yashmyn Jackson
Jack Busch,
Thank you very much for this. You’ve just been bookmarked.
Yashmyn Jackson
Jack, unfortunately, I don’t know how to get rid of that particular photo that’s appearing with my post. I literally don’t know where that photo is stored (can’t find it on Facebook or Google), so I can’t delete it and replace it with my regular Google profile photo. Any way you could delete it and replace it with some generic image or something? Thank you for any help you can provide in ridding the Internet of that photo. :-|
john frankenfurt
omg this is awesome look at this ²
Some Guy
You know you can just go to insert then special characters and type the name
Phoebe Tran
how do you make the oppsite arrow way of » ?
YAM
Try control + shift + u00AB
Jeff Frane
New to chromebook and have used character map for ages. This was driving me nuts. Thank you!
Johan
A solution that works better for me is this: change your keyboard to US International Keyboard (Settings/Device/Keyboard/Change language and input settings/Input method). When you´ve done that, to get, for example, an á, you type an apostrophe followed by a; ò is the grave accent (top left) followed by o; ñ is the tilde (top left) folowed by n; Ü is double quotes followed by Shift+u, and so on. Experiment on your own; it´s quite easy to get used to. If you need the accent symbol on it´s own (as in the word it´s), simply type it twice.
This system doesn´t give access to all diacritical signs used in European languages like Polish, Czech, etc., or the German ß, but at least it´s quicker than having to look up the Unicode value.
jacob j hendrickson
English: OMG Thanks you
Chinese: 哦，谢谢
Katy
Very helpful! Awesome!!
YaBoiiFlare
If you do unicode 230 you will end out with this: Ȱ It’s like an omega symbol, but upside down!
David Riley
Mr. Busch. Thanks for that. As an editor, you might be able to amend the article for its online appearance. Consider the following:
“Now, type in the unicode entry for the special character you want. An em dash is “2014.”
[Instructions]
unicode chromebook special characters
Hit enter and voila, em dash: —”
The last line should read – Release the control+shift+U, then hit enter and….
Dariusz
Yet no way to insert the Euro symbol – very annoying
Barbara A Hallowell
THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU! After nothing but PC’s in my life, I just made the switch to a Chromebook laptop, which I love. I have lots of friends in Ireland with fadas in their names, and I could not figure out how to alt+ keycode on this thing, then I found you :)