In genealogy, we record names, places and sources reflecting worldwide cultures. Sometimes this requires special characters we do not find on our standard keyboards. But hidden on your PC is a way to include them. And it’s free!
Mac users, while this post describes the Windows solution, Mac offers similar tools.
We wouldn’t want a keyboard that had every character variation, because it would be thousands of keys. But when you need them, Windows has most characters available. You will find them in a built-in tool called “Character Map.” Your desired character can be inserted into most software text fields. It works in Ancestry.com, Family Tree Maker, RootsMagic, all of the products in the Microsoft Office suite, and my favorite note-taking software, Zotero. (Legacy is not able to receive these characters, but does offer six of the most-used special characters.)
Opening the Character Map
Bring up the Character Map by going to the Search box beside your Start menu at the bottom-left corner of your screen. Key in “Character Map,” and the Character Map desktop app option will appear. (If you will be consulting this frequently, right-click and choose to “Pin to Start” or “Pin to taskbar” to have it readily available.)
Character Map often opens with the Symbol font selected at the top of the screen and many symbols appearing in the tool window. The scroll bar on the right will reveal even more options for the sort of symbols you might want to use in a document. This allows you to include in your text characters like these:
To see the options available for letters, change the font at the top. For this exercise, choose the “Times New Roman” font, which comes standard with the Windows operating system. Scroll down, and you will see more than 3,400 characters — Latin, Greek, Cyrillic, American, Hebrew, Arabic, and Roman. You will find the currency symbols of many countries and all sorts of symbols and drawing characters. If you choose a less common font—let’s say “Goudy Old Style”—the array of characters will likely be much fewer than this, often exclusively Latin characters.
Copying a character
To copy a character from the Character Map to another software tool on your computer, find and click on the character you want. Below the character set, click “Select,” which will place the character into the “Characters to copy” field. If you want to get more than one character before moving it to your document, repeat this process. When you have what you want to copy, click the “Copy” button. Then go to the place you want to use it and paste it—using your paste method of choice. If the software you are using can handle the special characters, they will paste in properly.
A shortcut for frequently used characters
You may find that you are going to be using a particular character often. Perhaps you are working a line in your family tree with the surname Rodríguez. Or perhaps you, like me, use LOTS of em dashes (—). You don’t want to have to open Character Map every time. Character Map offers you a way to call up any of its characters from within other compatible software.
The first time you are selecting your character in the Character Map tool, notice a Keystroke combination in the bottom right corner of the screen. (In the image above, the keystroke is Alt+0231.) Learn the number, and you will not have to open Character Map again.
Go to the place you want to use the character. Make sure your Num Lock is on, if you are using your numeric keypad. Hold down your keyboard’s <Alt> key and type the four numbers, then release the <Alt> key. The character should appear.
A word about searching
It is important to remember that special characters are not equivalent to the characters to which they might look similar. The letter “é” and the letter “e” are not the same character. While some search engines are sophisticated enough to treat them as the same letter, many are not. Let’s say you are searching for the name “Rodríguez,” but type in “Rodriguez.” Your search engine might only bring up records that spelled the name as you did in the search criteria. It is advisable to search for terms containing special characters with both variations.
* * *
Enjoy this free tool, expanding your ability to capture names, places, and sources with greater accuracy. I use it almost every day and consider it essential to my skillset.
Wow – thanks so much for this hint. I’ve always wanted to know how to readily find the correct character for my names and places. I did as you suggested and pinned mine to my task bar! Such a time safer! Thanks again!
I’m so glad it helped, Kristy!
I tried to right-click on the character map after it was open. That did not work. Then I thought of trying to right-click on it as it was typed in the search box and that worked. So now it is in the start menu. I sometimes use umlauts for German names and place names and various marks for the same in French.
I was probably unclear about the right-clicking and should reword. You right-click in from the menu, rather than after you’ve opened it. Thanks so much for clarifying, Marian!
I should have added that I have been the characters by clicking insert and choosing symbols. I think knowing about the character may will be easier.
I should have added that I have been using the characters by clicking insert and choosing symbols. I think knowing about the character map will be easier.
I hope it will, Marian. And it will be especially helpful when you’re in programs like Family Tree Maker or Ancestry.com, where you don’t have the Insert Symbol feature. Thanks!
Do punctuation marks like () and ” ” have special meaning, such as segregating maiden names or nicknames – or do they just help us visually?
Hi, David. People might have their own reasons for inserting names between parentheses and quotation marks. Generally, both are telling the reader that the offset text was not officially or legally the person’s name–or not any more. It’s a nickname or maiden name. I don’t know of a situation when these characters were a true part of a legal name. But if anyone knows of a different reading on them, please chime in.