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I would like sometimes to enter Unicode characters such as a right arrow (→).

Currently, the only way I know is to use the Unicode Input application, but it's about as cumbersome as the Windows Character Map utility.

How can I type Unicode characters directly through the keyboard instead?

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6 Answers 6

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By the way if using Linux, one can use Ctrl+Shift+U then enter the unicode character code. See Wikipedia Alt code. It Also Works On Chrome os

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The Alt + method (e.g., Alt + 2192) is a bit more comfortable, but it may well require a change to Windows registry.

If you frequently need to enter some special characters like arrows, you could use MSKLC to set up a keyboard layout where they can be typed directly and just switch to that layout (perhaps with a simple Ctrl 2 or something like that) when needed. Unfortunately, the most natural choice, the arrow keys, cannot be used there, but you can assign any meanings (in terms of Unicode characters) to normal keys.

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You can use Alt codes - hold down the Alt key and type in a number on the numpad (assuming your keyboard has one). For instance, to get the → symbol, you'd hold down Alt and type 26.

For more information and a list of all possible codes, see here: http://alt-codes.org/

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    Thanks for the tip. It's weird that I can get → by typing ALT+26, although Character Map says it's U+2192. 26 would mean it's part of ANSI/ASCII, although this sign/glyph isn't supposed to be part of it : www.table-ascii.com Apr 18, 2012 at 13:53
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    @OverTheRainbow: Altcodes aren't Unicode codepoints, but rather positions in so-called "ANSI" and "OEM" charsets. Their actual meanings vary depending on the OS locale, but "OEM" often means cp437, from the MS-DOS days. When put directly into a video card's text mode buffer, bytes 0..31 are interpreted as graphics from the "OEM" charset. Apr 18, 2012 at 14:05
  • Thanks. ALT+26 works in Notepad and Chrome, but does nothing in Wordpad and displays "?" in UltraEdit. Apr 19, 2012 at 10:16
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FreeCompose adds the Compose key functionality to Windows.

You can configure it to insert on pressing Compose >, for example.

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  • (I haven't actually tried it; I've got in the habit of just typing out → or – when writing answers.) Apr 18, 2012 at 12:59
  • Thanks for the link on FreeCompose. I'll give it a try. That would give me a reason to put the CAPSLOCK key back on ;-) Apr 18, 2012 at 13:54
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    you don't need a 3rd party solution, Windows is able to insert any Unicode characters if EnableHexNumpad is enabled
    – phuclv
    Sep 15, 2018 at 14:12
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You can use Ctrl+Shift+u then enter character code as sorcerer86pt already answered. But in some applications in Opera for example you have to hold Ctrl+Shift+u during typing this code. Also you have to be in English layout to activate "code typing" mode if you have multiple languages on your system so "hold to temporary change layout" feature in KDE would be helpful

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If that's Chrome on Windows 10, then the short answer is: You need a Chrome extension, otherwise you can't.

There is no universal way, because chrome maps Alt + d, e and f to do things which stops you entering a hexadecimal unicode in with the 'universal' windows Alt+ num pad trick (which may itself require a registry key to work).

Worse, you may find (as I did) that using the alt-numpad code with a leading 0 for a unicode decimal entry also doesn't work (because it is input language specific).

The most universal way is to google for the name of the character you want, plus 'utf-8', and copy/paste it when you see it. Unsatisfying? Yes.

Else you can enter the code you know into another application, and copy/paste it into chrome. Wordpad is good - type the code in, and then hit alt-x.

If you want to avoid copy/pasting, then you need a chrome extension.

The most trivial is the 'Unicode Input' extension, which makes the insert key work like alt-x does in wordpad. There are many others also.

Another is the 'wasavi' chrome extension, which allows you to quickly drop into what behaves like a 'vim' in any text entry field on a web page.

Then, you can (in vim's insert mode) type ctrl-v, then u to put it into unicode entry mode, then you can finally type your unicode hex code in however you like.

Either of these mean you can enter unicode into chrome, like you want to, without having to install another windows application or mess with the registry.

Even if you cannot install software (don't have admin rights), you will be able to add the extension to your chrome account, and use it wherever you log in, on any platform. (This should also work in edge, but with your Microsoft account).

If you can touch-type, you should seriously consider learning how to drive vim. Given that you want to insert utf-8 characters by hex codes, you probably are a good match for it, and will find it useful.

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