What?
This is a simple article to demonstrate how to type special characters not found on your keyboard or on a Qwerty UK/US keyboard layout.

Why?
Being able to type international characters from other alphabets is necessary when dealing with languages other than English. Preserving files in unicode or utf-8 encoding will help but there will be times when you have lost the formatting and get weird question mark characters instead such as: .

How?
Ensure you are using the numbers on your numeric keypad and NOT the numbers at the top of your keyboard for the following steps. Also check that you have "Num Lock" on/enabled. Typing a special character is 3 easy steps:

1. Hold down the ALT key (preferably the one on the left of the spacebar and not the Alt Gr often found on the right of the spacebar)
2. then press the numbers in the numeric pad (while still holding down the ALT key),
3. then let go of the ALT key.

Remember: This will not work with the numbers at the top of your keyboard unless you are on a laptop and can apply a function lock (fn) and the numbers on the right of your keyboard are enabled.

Which numbers you might ask? Well every character is built of a collection of digits that are to be entered in their specific order. Search for "Alt Codes" or "Symbol Codes" in a search engine for a full list. Meanwhile, here's some that you may need frequently:

Currency

¢	Cent sign	0162
£	British Pound	0163
€	Euro currency	0128
¥	Japanese Yen	0165
ƒ	Dutch Florin	0131
¤	Generic currency symbol	0164

Mathematics

÷	Division sign	0247
°	Degree symbol	0176
¬	Not symbol	0172
±	Plus/minus	0177
µ	Micro	0181
‰	Per Mille (1/1000th)	0137

Website

©	Copyright symbol	0169
®	Registered symbol	0174
™	Trademark	0153
•	List Dot	0149
§	Section Symbol	0167
†	Dagger	0134
‡	Double Dagger	0135
–	en-dash	0150
—	em-dash	0151
¶	Paragraph Symbol (Pilcrow)	0182

Western Languages

À	Uppercase A grave	0192
Ã	Uppercase A tilde	0195
Ä	Uppercase A umlaut	0196
Å	Uppercase A ring	0197
Æ	Uppercase Ash	0198
Ç	Uppercase C Cedille	0199
È	Uppercase E grave	0200
É	Uppercase E acute	0201
Ê	Uppercase E circumflex	0202
Ë	Uppercase E umlaut	0203
Í	Uppercase I acute	0205
Î	Uppercase I circumflex	0206
Ï	Uppercase I umlaut	0207
Ñ	Uppercase N tilde	165
Ð	Uppercase Edh/Eth	0208
Ò	Uppercase O grave	0210
Ó	Uppercase O acute	0211
Õ	Uppercase O tilde	0213
Ö	Uppercase O umlaut	0214
Ø	Uppercase O slash	0216
Œ	Uppercase Ethel	0140
Ù	Uppercase U grave	0217
Ú	Uppercase U acute	0218
Û	Uppercase U circumflex	0219
Ü	Uppercase U umlaut	0220
Š	Uppercase S caron	0138
Þ	Uppercase Thorn	0222
Ý	Uppercase Y acute	0221
Ÿ	Uppercase Y umlaut	0159
Ž	Uppercase Z caron	0142
ß	Eszett	0223
à	Lowercase A grave	0224
ã	Lowercase A tilde	0227
ä	Lowercase A umlaut	0228
å	Lowercase A ring	0229
æ	Lowercase Ash	0230
ç	Lowercase C Cedille	0231
è	Lowercase E grave	0232
é	Lowercase E acute	0233
ê	Lowercase E circumflex	0234
ë	Lowercase E umlaut	0235
í	Lowercase I acute	0237
î	Lowercase I circumflex	0238
ï	Lowercase I umlaut	0239
ñ	Lowercase N tilde	164
ð	Lowercase Edh/Eth	0240
ò	Lowercase O grave	0242
ó	Lowercase O acute	0243
õ	Lowercase O tilde	0245
ö	Lowercase O umlaut	0246
ø	Lowercase O slash	0248
œ	Lowercase Ethel	0156
š	Lowercase S caron	0154
ù	Lowercase U grave	0249
ú	Lowercase U acute	0250
û	Lowercase U circumflex	0251
ü	Lowercase U umlaut	0252
ý	Lowercase Y acute	0253
þ	Lowercase Thorn	0254
ÿ	Lowercase Y umlaut	0255
ž	Lowercase Z caron	0158
¡	Upside-down Exclamation	0161
¿	Upside-down Question	0191
ª	Feminine Ordinal	0170
º	Masculine Ordinal	0186
«	Left angle quote	0171
»	Right angle quote	0187

Additional
"Alt Codes" can also be used in HTML. For example the British Pound sign (£) can be typed by holding the ALT key and entering 0163. In HTML, the numeric entity that will display a British Pound sign is £