45 min read

Symbols & Special Characters

Symbol dialog, Unicode, dashes, and special spaces.

Why Ribbon Symbols Beat Copy-Paste

Handbooks need © on the cover, °C in PE weather guidance, and tidy maths notation — not improvised keyboard hacks. A symbol is a character not on the standard keyboard — ©, ®, °, \to — inserted from Word's Symbol gallery. The science team asked Dr. Helen Marsh to add E = mc² and 20 °C to the handbook appendix. The cover footer needs © 2026 Northgate Academy . Pasting maths from a website rarely matches the rest of NorthgateHandbook.docx — font and spacing drift. Use Ribbon commands only.

Insert a Symbol

1 Click where the symbol should go — e.g. the cover footer before the school name. 2 Insert tab \to Symbols group \to Symbol \to More Symbols . 3 Font: (normal text) . Subset: Copyright, Trademark, Ordinals for ©. 4 Click © \to Insert \to Close . 5 Type a space and Northgate Academy . Recent symbols appear on Insert \to Symbol for quick reuse. The handbook footer shows © Northgate Academy using the copyright symbol from Insert \to Symbol.

Special Characters Tab

The same dialog has a Special Characters tab for em dashes, section marks, and non-breaking spaces. 1 Insert tab \to Symbol \to More Symbols . 2 Click the Special Characters tab. 3 Select Em Dash \to Insert — use it between times: 10:00—14:00 . 4 Select Nonbreaking Space when two words must stay on one line — ${SCHOOL} must not split across lines. A non-breaking space looks like a normal space but prevents an awkward line break. Using letter O or zero for the degree sign produces 20 OC — unprofessional and confusing for screen readers.

Insert an Equation

For E = mc² on the science page: 1 Click an empty line in the appendix. 2 Insert tab \to Symbols group \to Equation . 3 If Insert New Equation appears, click it — the Equation tools tab opens. 4 Design tab \to Fraction or type directly in the equation box. 5 Use Script for superscripts: select c, Script \to Superscript, type 2 . 6 Click outside the box to return to normal text. Built-in equation tools keep maths aligned and scalable — better than raised manual letters. After Insert \to Equation, the Design tab offers Professional vs Linear layout.

Built-in Equation Gallery

Example: for PE weather guidance, type Indoor sports if below, then Insert \to Symbol \to More Symbols \to Latin-1 Supplement \to °, type C — 20 °C . Insert \to Equation drop-down lists common formulas (area of circle, quadratic formula). Click a preset, then replace variables with handbook values. Use presets when the handbook quotes a standard formula parents know from GCSE science. Prefer Ribbon symbols over web copy-paste for consistent handbook typography.

Hands-on steps

Goal

$Insert em dash, degree symbol, and registered trademark correctly.$

$James Okonkwo adds this to NorthgateHandbook.docx as part of one polished student handbook, policy pack, and open-day collateral before families arrive.$

Em dash

Where

InsertSymbol

Do this

In policy sentence \to Insert \to Symbol \to More Symbols \to Em dash — or type Ctrl+Alt+- (Windows).

You should see

$— not double hyphen.$

Verification

Check your work

You are correct if all of these are true:

$Em dash used — not two hyphens (--) in formal policy text.$
$Degree symbol in lab safety line.$
$® appears on first trademark mention only.$

More lessons in Microsoft Word · Next: Screen Capture & Embedded Content · Previous: Equations & Mathematical Content