How to Type Symbols on a Chromebook

If you’ve ever found yourself puzzled over typing various symbols on your Chromebook, you’re not alone. Today, I’m getting deep into the world of Chromebook keyboard shortcuts, symbol inputs, and a few personal tricks I’ve learned along the way. Whether you need to insert special characters, mathematical symbols, or currency signs, knowing how to type these symbols can be incredibly useful. So, let’s get started!

Understanding the Chromebook keyboard

First off, it’s essential to recognize that the Chromebook keyboard might look a tad different from what you’re used to on other laptops. One of the first things I had to adjust to was the absence of some traditional keys and the addition of some ChromeOS-specific ones. Don’t worry, though; once you get the hang of it, you might just find yourself loving the simplicity and efficiency it offers.

A Typical Chromebook Keyboard

Key differences

• No dedicated number pad: Most Chromebooks do not come with a dedicated number pad on the right side of the keyboard. This was a bit of a bummer for me initially, as I was used to quickly typing in numbers without looking.
• Unique keys: You’ll notice a search key and a row of keys at the top that control everything from volume to screen brightness, which are quite handy.

Typing symbols on a Chromebook

Typing symbols might seem daunting at first, but with a few tips, you’ll be typing like a pro in no time.

Option #1. Use the Shift key

A Chromebook’s keyboard works similar to other desktop PCs for the most part. This means that you’re able to do almost everything on a Chromebook as you would on a keyboard of a Windows PC. Now that we know this information, it’s time to implement the age-old method of typing symbols on ChromeOS.

To type symbols on a Chromebook, press and hold “Shift” and press the relevant key representing the symbol that you need to input. For instance, the number row on your keyboard represents a diversity of different symbols, starting with the exclamation mark and ending with the plus sign right before the “backspace” key.

Chromebook Shift Key Usage

To type the $ sign symbol, hold “Shift” and press the “4” key. That should do it quickly. Now, what you should do here is take a close, hard look at your Chromebook’s keyboard and acknowledge what keys can be used for typing symbols. As we iterated earlier, the number row is all about symbols, but the right side of the keyboard is also filled with special characters that you can type.

The following is a round-up of some of the most famous symbols that people usually type and how you can implement them on your Chromebook.

• Shift + `: ~
• Shift + 1: !
• Shift + 2: @
• Shift + 3: #
• Shift + 4: $
• Shift + 5: %
• Shift + 6: ^
• Shift + 7: &
• Shift + 8: *
• Shift + 9: (
• Shift + 0: )
• Shift + -: _
• Shift +=: +

Lastly, you can combine Shift with characters like underscore, plus, and the different types of parentheses on your Chromebook’s keyboard to get the relevant symbols.

This is all about the first option for typing symbols on a Chromebook easily. It’s recommended to use these special characters this way, but if you want to know another option, look at the following section.

Option #2. Unicode for Symbol Input

Unicode has become a standard for modern-day keyboard inputs and represents a broad spectrum of characters. For every character, Unicode comprises a set of digits. All inputs have been predetermined, and the system Unicode proposes is unequivocally adopted by everyone across the globe.

Using this method, you can start typing symbols, emojis, and other special characters comfortably on your Chromebook’s keyboard. We’ll explain how in the next subtitle.

How to use Unicode on Chromebook

Fortunately, Unicode comprises zero complexity. All you have to do is follow the steps listed below to start getting the hang of it. We recommend this method if your Chromebook’s keyboard does not work and you’d like a temporary replacement with the help of your mouse.

1) Press and hold “CTRL + Shift,” followed by a prompt press of the “U” key on your keyboard. This will make a certain “u” appear but with a distinct underline.

2) Right after that, you will type in a set of digits and letters representing a character. Let’s take the example of the character “Division sign” for now. To input this symbol, type in “00f7” beside the Unicode “u.” When you’re done, press the “Enter” key.

3) If you’ve followed the steps correctly, this division”÷” symbol should appear on your screen.

Unicode is probably the most effective method of typing symbols on Chromebooks or any desktop device, for that matter. To make it even more productive and useful for users, its website has drafted an entire table that consists of all the special characters one could incorporate more or less. Check this table out by clicking on this link. Also, Wikipedia has done the same thing in its fashion.

To give you a brief overview of Unicode’s website, if you see a character that catches your attention and you’d like to use it somewhere, hover over it and give it a click. The character would enlarge and give you an option to copy its Unicode number with just a tap.

Unicode Symbols Table

In the illustrative screenshot above, we highlighted the symbol of the British currency, “Pound.” As you can see, the Unicode number is visible and can be entered manually. All it would take is to follow the steps that we wrote above, which would lead to successful symbol inputs, just like this – £.

A point to ponder, each symbol has a different and unique Unicode number. Therefore, it might take you a few inputs to memorize the Unicode numbers of your desired symbols. Rest assured, the process is easy, and you can even copy and paste, too, if you like.

Option #3: Special characters and accents

While there’s no dedicated character map in Chromebook, the below method offer easy access to a wide range of special characters on your Chromebook.

You can press the Alt key and the letter you wish to accent, for example, to type é, á, or ü, but with US International Keyboard enabled. Let me show how:

Step 1: Enabling English (US International) keyboard:

Adding US English International Keyboard

• Go to “Settings” (the gear icon in the bottom right corner).
• Select “Advanced” (if needed, scroll down to see it).
• Select “Languages and input.”
• Under “Input methods”, click “Add languages.”
• Choose English (US International) and click “Add.”

Step 2: Switch keyboard from the status bar:

Selecting International Keyboard from ChromeOS Status Bar

Step 3: Use the keyboard shortcuts:

Chromebook Right Alt Key Usage

Many accents can be typed with the right Alt key (located next to the spacebar) combined with the desired letter.
For example, AltGr + e gives you “é” and AltGr + a gives you “á”.

Other accents use the ` key (the key with the tilde ~ symbol) or the ‘ key (apostrophe) followed by the letter.
For example, + e** (or **’ + e**) gives you “è” and **Shift + + n gives you “Ñ”.

Conclusion

While it may seem a bit challenging at first, especially if you’re transitioning from a different operating system, the learning curve is well worth it. I’ve grown to appreciate the efficiency and simplicity of the Chromebook keyboard, and with a bit of practice, I’m confident you will too.