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An alphabetically arranged chart of non-keyboard characters, including accented letters and currency symbols. Shows keyboard Alt numbers as well as numbers and entities for HTML code. Special Characters in Standard Fonts.
The symbol or picture fonts that come with various programs can be great for adding small pictures to graphics and to word processing pages. Finding which keystroke makes which symbol or picture is frustrating and time-consuming, though, so we often give up on the whole idea.
Years ago I solved this for myself by making a chart in Word—version 2! Now I can just use search and replace to get it to show me all of the characters from whichever font I’m interested in. It takes about a minute. I print it out and prop it by the computer and can easily find the symbols I want to use. The charts in this section were all made using the same file, fontchartsdoc.zip. If that one won't work for you, I've also remade it in rtf format and zipped it up together with a text file (readmefirst.txt) that explains how to use it. It's important to read the text file, because your first step is to change your page orientation (usually under the paper size tab).You can download fontchart.zip here. Please virus check the downloaded file before you unzip it, as you do with all downloaded things. If you are using Word 2007 and still have some trouble, I've found links to sites with clear answers to Word 2007 questions.
A decent word processor that costs nothing is included in Softmaker Office 2008. It's under 70MB, as against Open Office, also free and very good, but 130MB last time I looked.
Useful in graphics and word processors, etc. Can be unreliable on the web.
Monotype Sorts Monotype Sorts extended characters Webdings keyboard characters Webdings extended characters Wingdings keyboard characters Wingdings extended characters Wingdings2 keyboard characters Wingdings2 extended characters Wingdings3 keyboard characters Wingdings3 extended characters Zapf Dingbats keyboard characters Zapf Dingbats extended characters
Arial extended characters Most regular fonts use the same extended character set as Arial. This set includes accented letters for European languages.
Heaps of fonts are available on CDs and on the Internet, but choose carefully. The more fonts you have running the less resources you’ll have available.
It’s a good idea, too, to keep any extra fonts in a separate folder. Windows will still find them, and you’ll know that none of the fonts in that folder is essential; you can disable or delete them without causing a catastrophe. More than one person has removed a strange-looking font, thinking it pretty useless, only to find all the crosses, arrows and other symbols used throughout Windows have mysteriously disappeared.
If you have a font manager you can uninstall fonts without deleting them. This is the ideal arrangement.
Do be careful searching the Internet for free fonts. Many links lead to sites where fonts are offered for sale and finding the couple of free ones is difficult. More important, though, is the fact that some free fonts bring adware or spyware into your computer. Always run SUPERAntiSpyware or Malwarebytes after visiting free font sites. Again, some free fonts may not really be the property of the person offering them.
Remember that fonts are like programs; they belong to someone. Make sure that a font is labelled Freeware before you decide to send it to all of your friends. When you look at a font by clicking Start > Settings > Control Panel > Fonts and then double click the font in which you’re interested, you’ll be able to read the details of its origin and ownership.
Questions or comments? I’d love to hear from you. My email address is here.
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