# The one symbol not on the QWERTY keyboard that ought to be **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Tags:** computer-hardware\ **Created:** [February 13, 2024, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-one-symbol-not-on-the-qwerty-keyboard-that-ought-to-be/997496 "2024-02-13T00:26:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2024, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-one-symbol-not-on-the-qwerty-keyboard-that-ought-to-be/997496/41 "2024-02-13T03:17:17Z")
> [@ColdBrew50](#): > > I’d just use it as a dead key/compose key and try really hard to not be some nerd who uses the numeric keypad for anything other than entering numbers. The really nerdy/geeky nerds use a Dvořák layout or a chorded keyboard… ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2024, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-one-symbol-not-on-the-qwerty-keyboard-that-ought-to-be/997496/42 "2024-02-13T03:33:02Z")
Why not just discard e? I hardly put it in anything that I do. ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2024, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-one-symbol-not-on-the-qwerty-keyboard-that-ought-to-be/997496/43 "2024-02-13T03:52:56Z")
> [@Dr.Strangelove](#): > > ° As someone involved with communications concerning navigation, this. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2024, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-one-symbol-not-on-the-qwerty-keyboard-that-ought-to-be/997496/44 "2024-02-13T04:09:58Z")
> [@don\_t\_ask](#): > > Why not just discard e? I hardly put it in anything that I do Are you perchance related to Ernest Vincent Wright? ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2024, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-one-symbol-not-on-the-qwerty-keyboard-that-ought-to-be/997496/45 "2024-02-13T04:28:13Z")
[Something like this, but without the green arrow](https://www.bing.com/images/search?view=detailV2&ccid=rBSxvcQO&id=C995FA35D02EEC23F3154594ED2D625E0D24FDE3&thid=OIP.rBSxvcQOxM1J7JD-8X3qRwHaHf&mediaurl=https%3a%2f%2fi.imgflip.com%2f44187l.jpg&cdnurl=https%3a%2f%2fth.bing.com%2fth%2fid%2fR.ac14b1bdc40ec4cd49ec90fef17dea47%3frik%3d4%252f0kDV5iLe2URQ%26pid%3dImgRaw%26r%3d0&exph=506&expw=500&q=Middle+Finger+Guy+Meme&simid=608001940511981945&FORM=IRPRST&ck=BEE85C563B3DF69871A570E7E9811B15&selectedIndex=9&itb=0&ajaxhist=0&ajaxserp=0) ---
**Author:** ![dirtball](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dirtball/32/18772_2.png) [@dirtball](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dirtball)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2024, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-one-symbol-not-on-the-qwerty-keyboard-that-ought-to-be/997496/46 "2024-02-13T04:32:04Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > I concur. Bumps off the ^. No! If you’re a heavy MS Word user, you’re going to need the ^ for text searches. ---
**Author:** ![chappachula](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d2c977/32.png) [@chappachula](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chappachula)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2024, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-one-symbol-not-on-the-qwerty-keyboard-that-ought-to-be/997496/47 "2024-02-13T04:59:50Z")
> [@Zyada](#): > > don’t have a use for square brackets How do you post here? I use square brackets for bold, italics, quote, etc. Is there another way? Or did I just admit that I am being [wooshed] ? ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2024, 5:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-one-symbol-not-on-the-qwerty-keyboard-that-ought-to-be/997496/48 "2024-02-13T05:13:07Z")
> [@chappachula](#): > > How do you post here? I use square brackets for bold, italics, quote, etc. Is there another way? For italics, use an asterisk before and after the word(s). For bold, use 2 asterisks. For bold italics, use 3 asterisks. Also, there’s a menu at the top of the reply box with all this, plus quote and link. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2024, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-one-symbol-not-on-the-qwerty-keyboard-that-ought-to-be/997496/49 "2024-02-13T05:21:09Z")
I’d like a ⎕ (quad). ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2024, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-one-symbol-not-on-the-qwerty-keyboard-that-ought-to-be/997496/50 "2024-02-13T05:26:51Z")
This is the correct answer. It can replace the caret. ---
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2024, 5:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-one-symbol-not-on-the-qwerty-keyboard-that-ought-to-be/997496/51 "2024-02-13T05:52:53Z")
Send caps lock into orbit, somewhere it won’t cause trouble. Replace it with another modifier key (like shift or alt or ctrl), so it doesn’t matter if it’s hit accidentally. Call in over for overstrike. Use it to permit accents or carrots over any previous character. Also question marks over explanation points and explanation points over question marks. In combination with other keys it could turn on or off bolding, italics or -wait for it- capitalization. But you would need to hold down 2 (3?) keys simultaneously for that, and listen to the 1812 overture. ETA: Or maybe switch the caps lock with one of the Alt keys, and replacing the 2nd Alt key with an overstrike key. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2024, 5:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-one-symbol-not-on-the-qwerty-keyboard-that-ought-to-be/997496/52 "2024-02-13T05:52:59Z")
Nothing comes to mind that hasn’t already been mentioned but, looking at the suggestions, I feel like the ° would probably be the most generally useful. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2024, 6:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-one-symbol-not-on-the-qwerty-keyboard-that-ought-to-be/997496/53 "2024-02-13T06:03:30Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > So I’d get rid of the Windows key and replace it with a key that had the degree symbol º in the lower case position and é in the upper case. I think é is the character I most often copy/paste from into various documents. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2024, 6:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-one-symbol-not-on-the-qwerty-keyboard-that-ought-to-be/997496/54 "2024-02-13T06:14:03Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > This is the correct answer. It can replace the caret. ° or º ? The first one is Option-Shift-8 on a Mac; the second is Option-0. > [@wolfpup](#): > > degree symbol º Not the “degree” symbol 😃 My dirty dirty secret is, sometimes I copy and paste from the character picker. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2024, 6:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-one-symbol-not-on-the-qwerty-keyboard-that-ought-to-be/997496/55 "2024-02-13T06:42:57Z")
I just keep a printed copy of [this table of Windows codes](https://www.pgdp.net/c/faq/charwin.pdf) handy, for the occasions when I need one. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2024, 6:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-one-symbol-not-on-the-qwerty-keyboard-that-ought-to-be/997496/56 "2024-02-13T06:59:30Z")
> [@DPRK](#): > > ° or º ? Reminds me of [this little dustup](https://lwn.net/Articles/947941/) in the Linux community recently. Basically, there is a difference between the ASCII Hyphen-Minus and the Unicode Hyphen. They’re rendered identically, or close to it, but coded differently. One of the tools they use to generate man (help) pages changed the handling so that they used hyphens by default. Unfortunately, most OSes are configured so that the dash button produces a Hyphen-Minus. So if you searched for, say “--help” in the page, it wouldn’t find it, despite the text clearly being there. It’s just that your search text had a Hyphen-Minus and what you were looking for contained a Hyphen. It was a mistake to ever give typographers access to computers. They’ve caused an incredible amount of damage over the years. Unicode itself is basically unforgivable. ---
**Author:** ![Guapo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ed655f/32.png) [@Guapo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guapo)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2024, 7:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-one-symbol-not-on-the-qwerty-keyboard-that-ought-to-be/997496/57 "2024-02-13T07:44:26Z")
I needed an umlaut on my typewriter so I just filed off the bottom of the “X”. My friends said I was crazy, but I told them you can’t make an umlaut without breaking an X. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2024, 9:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-one-symbol-not-on-the-qwerty-keyboard-that-ought-to-be/997496/58 "2024-02-13T09:24:56Z")
> [@DPRK](#): > > ° or º ? The first one is Option-Shift-8 on a Mac; the second is Option-0. ° not º, I primarily write English and occasionally Afrikaans, I have no need for that particular ordinal indicator. I find myself using ° a lot, though. For both temperatures and angles. And that’s nice, that _you_ have options (heh), but neither exists on my Dell. > [@Dr.Strangelove](#): > > It was a mistake to ever give typographers access to computers. Hear, hear. > [@Guapo](#): > > I needed an umlaut on my typewriter so I just filed off the bottom of the “X”. My friends said I was crazy, but I told them you can’t make an umlaut without breaking an X. Bravö. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2024, 9:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-one-symbol-not-on-the-qwerty-keyboard-that-ought-to-be/997496/59 "2024-02-13T09:38:28Z")
> [@DPRK](#): > > > [@wolfpup](#): > > > > degree symbol º > > Not the “degree” symbol 😃 Yes, I get the degree symbol and the ordinal indicator confused, but so what – they look practically the same! 😉 ---
**Author:** ![scudsucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scudsucker/32/14101_2.png) [@scudsucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scudsucker)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2024, 10:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-one-symbol-not-on-the-qwerty-keyboard-that-ought-to-be/997496/60 "2024-02-13T10:25:20Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > Bravö Yes! Genius. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-one-symbol-not-on-the-qwerty-keyboard-that-ought-to-be/997496.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-one-symbol-not-on-the-qwerty-keyboard-that-ought-to-be/997496.md?page=4)