, for example. All this will do is allow you to use the & character shortcuts that HTML does have in it. If you don’t know what those are, [Check this out](http://www.w3.org/MarkUp/html3/latin1.html). It lists a ton of them.
So, in order to get the ë character, do the following:
[list=1]
[li]Type your response. When you need the ë character, type “&\*\*euml”. (without the quotes, of course)[/li][li]hit the “Preview Reply” button on the reply page.[/li][li]Inside the “message” textarea you will see that your &\*\*euml has turned into an ë (if you hit “preview reply” again you’ll even see it in the previewed response— it is there forever more)[/li][/list=1]
Yay!
**carl** , no problem. Stupid character maps, after all that time hand-coding HTML! Nevermore!!! 🙂
What is interesting about this is that the “;” at the end are optional… both &\*\*euml and &\*\*euml; will produce an ë.
---
**Author:**  [@Sea\_Sorbust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sea_Sorbust)\
**Post date:** [September 29, 2001, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-helpful-note-about-special-characters-html-characters/84498/7 "2001-09-29T20:59:03Z")
Very nice, **erislover**. Thanks for the link. 😃
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**Author:**  [@annalamerino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/annalamerino)\
**Post date:** [September 29, 2001, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-helpful-note-about-special-characters-html-characters/84498/8 "2001-09-29T21:09:10Z")
\*\*Why don’t you just use the Character Map accessory that’s on your system? \*\*
Nothing at all to remember or store. ®¶½¿ etc. are a click away.
Seems to me those old code sequences are just old DOS die-hard hints, and make it harder for people to use accents, not easier.
---
**Author:**  [@RedFury](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RedFury)\
**Post date:** [September 29, 2001, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-helpful-note-about-special-characters-html-characters/84498/9 "2001-09-29T21:19:32Z")
Gracias, **erislover**!
Much appreciated, methinks I now understand what you were saying in your initial post. However, for foreign characters and symbols, I find that the “alt+ number” combinations do the trick well.
Never hurts to learn something new though.
Thanks again.
---
**Author:**  [@RedFury](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RedFury)\
**Post date:** [September 29, 2001, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-helpful-note-about-special-characters-html-characters/84498/10 "2001-09-29T21:21:16Z")
Ooops! X-posted.
Yeah…what **annalamerino** said 🙂
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**Author:**  [@erislover](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/erislover)\
**Post date:** [September 29, 2001, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-helpful-note-about-special-characters-html-characters/84498/11 "2001-09-29T21:39:47Z")
hey, be my guest with the character map-- mine isn’t installed, and apart from that, I already _know_ the &codes from coding HTML, as do many here. This does really make it helpful, and many of them are very intuitively named, which makes them much easier than memorizing number codes.
Hey, use what you want, if you already have something memorized then why learn more?
---
**Author:**  [@waterj2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/waterj2)\
**Post date:** [September 29, 2001, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-helpful-note-about-special-characters-html-characters/84498/12 "2001-09-29T21:41:40Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by annalamerino \*
> \*\*\*\*Why don’t you just use the Character Map accessory that’s on your system? \*\*
>
> Nothing at all to remember or store. ®¶½¿ etc. are a click away.
> Seems to me those old code sequences are just old DOS die-hard hints, and make it harder for people to use accents, not easier. \*\*
Personally, I think it’s easier to type something like naïve, rather than open up Character Map and find the correct character to insert for just that one word. Likewise other characters I use infrequently, but that do come up. Also easier to remember the html sequences than the ALT codes, as they actually follow a pattern.
---
**Author:**  [@RedFury](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RedFury)\
**Post date:** [September 29, 2001, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-helpful-note-about-special-characters-html-characters/84498/13 "2001-09-29T21:59:30Z")
Like you said, guys. Whatever works for you. Personally, I find it very easy to open the character map – no need to memorize anything. Which at my age is certainly an advantage.
Matter of fact, I have this free proggie [**extended character map**](http://aritechdev.hypermart.net/ecm.htm) that includes more combinations than I’ll ever need…
---
**Author:**  [@erislover](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/erislover)\
**Post date:** [September 29, 2001, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-helpful-note-about-special-characters-html-characters/84498/14 "2001-09-29T22:06:49Z")
I dunno, if I can type something and avoid using the mouse I will do that. I abhor using the mouse… I only like programs that allow me to do everything with the keyboard. I Alt+Tab through windows, I Ctrl+Tab through documents in windows, I Tab through Tab-stops _in_ windows… escape sequences or shortcuts are absolutely necessary for this task 😉
to this end, putting an umlat on a letter is 1000 times easier using &_x_uml; than opening up a character map, finding the stupid character, then putting it in… ugh.
Maybe its the old-schooler in me, but I don’t like using the mouse. 😉
---
**Author:**  [@RedFury](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RedFury)\
**Post date:** [September 29, 2001, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-helpful-note-about-special-characters-html-characters/84498/15 "2001-09-29T22:13:10Z")
> [@](#):
>
> "Maybe its the old-schooler in me, but I don’t like using the mouse
It’s people like you that are going to drive _Logitech®_ out of business. And I have stock there! 🙂
---
**Author:**  [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\
**Post date:** [September 29, 2001, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-helpful-note-about-special-characters-html-characters/84498/16 "2001-09-29T22:15:13Z")
áâãäåæçèé
---
**Author:**  [@erislover](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/erislover)\
**Post date:** [September 29, 2001, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-helpful-note-about-special-characters-html-characters/84498/17 "2001-09-29T23:38:09Z")
Which I don’t 😛
Here are all the escape shortcuts I can find, with the exception of the ever-elusive (to me) [sup]TM[/sup] symbol. Enjoy, everyone!
```auto
Syntax Description
[/quote]
[ul] **Letters, lowercase omitted for brevity** [/ul]
Á **Á** Capital A, acute accent
À **À** Capital A, grave accent
 **Â** Capital A, circumflex accent
à **Ã** Capital A, tilde
Å **Å** Capital A, ring
Ä **Ä** Capital A, dieresis or umlaut mark
Æ **Æ** Capital AE dipthong (ligature)
Ç **Ç** Capital C, cedilla
É **É** Capital E, acute accent
È **È** Capital E, grave accent
Ê **Ê** Capital E, circumflex accent
Ë **Ë** Capital E, dieresis or umlaut mark
Í **Í** Capital I, acute accent
Ì **Ì** Capital I, grave accent
Î **Î** Capital I, circumflex accent
Ï **Ï** Capital I, dieresis or umlaut mark
Ð **Ð** Capital Eth, Icelandic
Ñ **Ñ** Capital N, tilde
Ó **Ó** Capital O, acute accent
Ò **Ò** Capital O, grave accent
Ô **Ô** Capital O, circumflex accent
Õ **Õ** Capital O, tilde
Ö **Ö** Capital O, dieresis or umlaut mark
Ø **Ø** Capital O, slash
Œ **Œ** Capital OE ligature
Ú **Ú** Capital U, acute accent
Ù **Ù** Capital U, grave accent
Û **Û** Capital U, circumflex accent
Ü **Ü** Capital U, dieresis or umlaut mark
Ý **Ý** Capital Y, acute accent
Þ **Þ** Capital THORN, Icelandic
þ **þ** Lower case thorn
ß **ß** Small sharp s, German (sz ligature)
[/quote]
[ul] **Symbols** [/ul]
"e; **"** Quote
& **&** Ampersand
< **<** Less than
> **>** Greater than
¡ **¡** Upside down exclamation point
? **¿** Upside down question mark
¢ **¢** Cent sign
£ **£** Pound currency
¥ **¥** Yen
¤ **¤** Pointed circle
¦ **¦** Broken bar
§ **§** Section sign
¶ **¶** Paragraph
¨ **¨** Umlat
´ **´** Acute
¸ **¸** Cedilla
© **©** Copyright
® **®** Registered trademark
ª **ª** Superscript 'a'
º **º** Superscript 'o'
« **«** German open quote
» **»** German close quote
¬ **¬** Logical 'not' operator
¯ **¯** Superscript dash
° **°** Degree
± **±** Plus/minus
¹ **¹** Superscript 1
² **²** Squared
³ **³** Cubed
μ **μ** Greek Mu
· **·** Middle dot, variable multiply symbol
¼ **¼** One-quarter
½ **½** One-half
¾ **¾** Three-quarters
× **×** Multiplication
÷ **÷** Division
```
---
**Author:**  [@erislover](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/erislover)\
**Post date:** [September 29, 2001, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-helpful-note-about-special-characters-html-characters/84498/18 "2001-09-29T23:39:33Z")
Greek mu should be &\*\*micro; for µ
---
**Author:**  [@erislover](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/erislover)\
**Post date:** [September 29, 2001, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-helpful-note-about-special-characters-html-characters/84498/19 "2001-09-29T23:57:18Z")
Which reminds me, I also couldn’t find the long dash. In MS Word you can hit Ctrl+Alt+num- to get a long dash… is this available as an ampersand character… or even an alt sequence? I use dashes all the time, very much a part of my writing style, and it is a pain to use ‘–’ instead.
Thanks if anyone finds it.
---
**Author:**  [@RedFury](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RedFury)\
**Post date:** [September 30, 2001, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-helpful-note-about-special-characters-html-characters/84498/20 "2001-09-30T00:13:51Z")
**erislover**
Not sure if this is what you need, but the “alt + 0151” combo should give you this dash = **—** which is longer than the regular one produced by regular keyboarding or “alt + 0150” = **–**.
Hope that helps.
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