Keyboard symbols
I bet you've seen tons of text symbols on Facebook, Myspace and YouTube. Special characters are really popular among social network users. Most signs aren't really used in books and references, but they look so cool! That's the main reason why people have been texting computer symbols since decades ago and that's the reason why we use it so much across the web. We want to look sharp and original. (✿◠‿◠) And did you know you can type symbols right from your keyboard? And that it's really easy? I'm going to show you how. Pick here a reference for your operating system. I wrote about non-keyboard methods of making symbols aswell (with CharMaps). Just in case. ≧◔◡◔≦
Make symbols
What's your operating system?
Windows
Alt codes
If you're running Windows on your Desktop PC, or Laptop (not Macbook, though) then you can use Alt codes. I'm not sure about Netbooks, but I'd recommend you read and try. Alt codes are keyboard combinations (shortcuts) to type additional symbols not available on standard keyboard layout. You can type practically all frequently used symbols with this shortcut series. Read my reference for more details.
Alt Codes Use Alt codes to make text symbols and special characters from your keyboard, or laptop. Guide for PC and laptop + full list of Alt codes. Windows alt codes and keyboard symbols on Mac and Linux. Pimp your MySpace and Facebook profiles, or create some useful text symbols like umlauts, copyright, trademark, registered sign, euro, pound, etc. right from your keyboard. Shift states
This is fastest and easiest to use. You can type any possible character, symbol, or sign from Unicode encoding. Just like you use Shift key to type capital (UPCASE) letters and special sign, you can assign more symbols to Alt and Ctrl keys.
The only problem is that it takes about 5-15 minutes to make and setup a custom layout with your desired symbols. But it's not a big problem, is it?..
Shift states for Windows symbols Just like with Shift key, on Windows your computer can type any wanted text symbol when you hold Ctrl, or Alt key and press some other key. Find out how to make and setup custom keyboard layouts. It's the easiest and fastest way of typing symbols. Character map
There is a standard built-in program on Windows called "Character Map", or simply "CharMap". Using it, you can enter any possible symbol installed on your computer. That's a hell lot larger range than you can get with alt codes. Read the reference below to find out how to use it.
MS Windows Character mapType special characters and text symbols with the use of built-in CharMap program on MS Windows. ☯ 웃 ♥ 유 ♫ ♬ ✄ ✂ ✆ ✉ Mac
Keyboard viewer
You can make more characters on Mac using [Option] key. I've got lists of shortcuts for diacritical (accent) letters and other signs like "√ ∑ π ∞ ∆ ™ © æ £ ¢". You can also use Keyboard Viewer for some help with those.
It's very easy to use and can be helpful for some people, so read my guide to Mac keyboard symbol shortcuts.
Mac keyboard symbol shortcuts Read what shortcuts you can use to type symbols and special characters from your keyboard on Apple Mac computers. Character palette
If you want to insert any possible text symbol into your writings, such as a flat note sign ♭, or heart ♥ in the middle of a sentence, you can use the Mac OS X Character Palette. This utility that lets you select symbols and special characters visually from all the text symbols installed on your computer. It's a really amazing tool, so don't miss your chance and find out how to use it on Apple Mac OS Character Palette.
Apple Mac OS Character Palette Find out how you can use Mac's built-in Character Palette to insert special text symbols, characters from other languages, etc. ☀ ☃ ♡ ℃ ℬℯ ℋℰℛℰ Linux
Keyboard codes
If we're talking about non-handy Linux device (not Android mobile), there are 3 great ways to type Unicode symbols. You can code any possible Unicode character with Unicode hex codes, type lots of symbols in the most easy way with Third and fourth level choosers, and easily compose useful signs with Compose key sequences. To find out how, read references that I made.
Linux keyboard shortcuts for text symbols Find out about keyboard shortcuts that you can use on Linux OS to type text symbols and Unicode special characters. Somewhat like Alt codes. ♪ ✌ ☠ 웃 ♋ Character map
Character map is a program that displays all possible text symbols. You can choose some, and copy them to where you want them to be. It can even help you with the keyboard codes I just wrote about, as you can also look up Unicode symbol codes with it.
Because, Linux has different interfaces, like KDE and GNOME, there are different charmap programs. And you can also download a java CharMap that works everywhere where Java RE is installed. Read about all of them.
Linux OS Character mapsType special symbols and text characters with the use of character map for Linux and Unix OS. ❡✽ ➦ ❥ ✪ GNOME's Gucharmap, KDE's KCharSelect Character Selector and Java character map. You can also:
Copy-Paste symbols
In practically any situation you can just copy-paste symbols, just like any other text. I've got tons of cool symbols on this and other websites. You might like them, so check them out!
All text symbols for Facebook ϡ Collection of cool computer text symbols. All facebook symbols. ❤ ♥ ❥ My large hand-made list of more than a hundred cool characters. Truly amazing! ヅ ツ ッ 
Foreign language LettersGreek, French, Spanish, German letters and punctuation signs. List of foreign language text letters, symbols and characters and their Alt codes. Umlauts, diacritics, acute accents, breve, circumflex letters, upside-down question/exclamation and other. Small capital letters. Put on Websites
If you want to put these symbols on your Facebook, Myspace, YouTube, or some other website - just copy-paste those symbols. But if you want to put them into HTML code of your own website - you might want to use these codes. Just copy, or type in symbol's HTML entity, either hex (&#xHEX_CODE;), or decimal (&#DECIMAL_CODE;), onto your website's source code.
Most common HTML symbol entities
HTML entity codes of Special Text charactersSpecial characters in HTML. A list of special text characters and their HTML entity codes. Encoded HTML chars and their symbol codes. Convert symbols to HTML entities
Enty tool - Escape special HTML / JavaScript character entitiesJavascript tool to convert your text with symbols into HTML, or Javascript character entities. You can insert the whole text and it will just escape special characters, leaving other characters alone. You can leave tags and ampersands unconverted.
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