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<helpdocument version="1.0">
<meta>
<topic id="textsharedguideinsert_specialcharxml" indexer="include" status="PUBLISH">
<title id="tit">Inserting Special Characters</title>
<filename>/text/shared/guide/insert_specialchar.xhp</filename>
</topic>
</meta>
<body>
<bookmark branch="index" id="bm_id3154927"><bookmark_value>characters; special</bookmark_value>
<bookmark_value>inserting; special characters</bookmark_value>
<bookmark_value>special characters</bookmark_value>
<bookmark_value>text; inserting special characters</bookmark_value>
<bookmark_value>accents</bookmark_value>
<bookmark_value>compose key to insert special characters</bookmark_value>
</bookmark>
<h1 id="hd_id3154927"><variable id="insert_specialchar"><link href="text/shared/guide/insert_specialchar.xhp">Inserting Special Characters</link>
</variable></h1>
<paragraph role="paragraph" id="par_id3147576">This function allows you to insert special characters, such as check marks, boxes, and telephone symbols, into your text.</paragraph>
<list type="unordered">
<listitem>
<paragraph role="listitem" id="par_id3155535">To view a repertoire of all characters, choose <menuitem>Insert - Special Character</menuitem>.</paragraph>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<paragraph role="listitem" id="par_id3147275">In the large selection field double-click on the desired character, which is inserted in the current document.</paragraph>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<paragraph role="listitem" id="par_id3153031">In any text input field (such as the input fields in the <emph>Find &amp; Replace</emph> dialog) you can press Shift+<switchinline select="sys"><caseinline select="MAC">Command</caseinline><defaultinline>Ctrl</defaultinline></switchinline>+S to open the <emph>Special Characters</emph> dialog.</paragraph>
</listitem>
</list>
<paragraph role="paragraph" id="par_id3155620"><switchinline select="sys"><caseinline select="WIN">On <emph>Windows:</emph> To insert a character using its numeric code, press and hold down Alt while typing the numbers on the numeric keypad. Code starting with 0 is interpreted as Unicode character; otherwise, below 256 is interpreted in Windows codepage.
</caseinline></switchinline></paragraph>
<paragraph role="paragraph" id="par_id3155630"><switchinline select="sys"><caseinline select="UNIX">At present on Unix systems, there are three ways of entering letters with accents directly from the keyboard.
</caseinline></switchinline></paragraph>
<paragraph role="paragraph" id="par_id3154897"><switchinline select="sys"><caseinline select="UNIX"><emph>Solaris:</emph> Using a Sun keyboard. First press the Compose key to the right of the space bar, then enter the first and second modifiers.
</caseinline></switchinline></paragraph>
<paragraph role="paragraph" id="par_id3145315"><switchinline select="sys"><caseinline select="UNIX"><emph>Linux / NetBSD:</emph> Using the dead-keys. In an xterm window first press the (´) or (`) key. The character should not appear on the screen. Now press a letter, such as "e". The e is given an accent, é or è. If not, then check in the XF86Config file if a "nodeadkeys" XkbdVariant has been loaded there and replace it. You may also have set the environment variable SAL_NO_DEADKEYS, which deactivates the dead-keys.
</caseinline></switchinline></paragraph>
<paragraph role="paragraph" id="par_id3148943"><switchinline select="sys"><caseinline select="UNIX"><emph>All Unix systems:</emph> (Alt Graph) as additional compose key. The (Alt Graph) key can work in $[officename] like the Compose key, if you set the environment variable SAL_ALTGR_COMPOSE. The (Alt Graph) key must trigger a mode_switch, so, for example, xmodmap -e "keysym Alt_R = Mode_switch" must be set. First press (Alt Graph), then the first modifier, then the second modifier. The characters are combined as described on a Solaris system in the file /usr/openwin/include/X11/Suncompose.h.
</caseinline></switchinline></paragraph>

<section id="relatedtopics">
	<paragraph role="paragraph" id="par_id3149047"><link href="text/shared/01/04100000.xhp">Special Characters</link></paragraph>
	<paragraph role="paragraph" id="par_id3149088"><link href="text/shared/04/01010000.xhp#unicode_shortcut">Entering Unicode Characters</link></paragraph>
	<paragraph role="paragraph" id="par_id3153896"><link href="text/shared/01/06040200.xhp">AutoCorrect</link></paragraph>
</section>
</body>
</helpdocument>
