University at Buffalo (UB)
Transforming UB’s digital communications.
Here's how you can add special characters in the UBCMS
Updated March 18, 2015 This content is archived.
Some of your Web pages may call for content that requires the use of special characters, such as subscript, the copyright symbol or diacritical marks (umlaut, anyone?).
Special Characters
Text components allow special characters such as accented letters, non-English fonts, and symbols. These can be created in another program like MS Word, copied from a website reference, or even created using keyboard shortcuts.
When copying and pasting into a text component—Body Text, for example—the UBCMS filters out any formatting that is not compatible with that component. This removes colored text, other fonts and background colors. But some characters will transfer in from an existing Word document (©, for example) that are impossible to recreate using the normal Rich Text Editor tools provided by the UBCMS. All sorts of special characters can still be added to your UBCMS pages, such as fractions (¼), the degree symbol (°), mathematical symbols (≥), letters with accents (ö), or the symbols for copyright (©), trademark (™) and registered (®) as well as emojis (☺).
Special characters can be fairly easily created in other programs such as Word or copied in from from a master reference of HTML entity or Unicode 'Alt Codes' (see references linked elsewhere on this page).
Simply highlight the character you want to use, then use Control-C to copy and Control-V to paste it into the component you are using on your UBCMS page.
Please be careful with these - we cannot guarantee they will always be displayed correctly in all browsers, and they may not all work cleanly in the Title component when it is displayed in site navigation or lists. Also, some symbols like emojis have quite different meanings depending on your audience.
As with any UBCMS workarounds, double check the final published page and be specially careful with any of the more unusual characters.
Special characters can also be entered directly into the UBCMS text components, by using Windows 'Alt' and MAC 'Option' code combinations.
For Keyboards with a Number Pad
Use Windows 'Alt' or MAC 'Option' code combinations (such as Alt-0169 or Option-G, for copyright) directly within the UBCMS text component. For Windows users, you must hold down the Alt key while typing the numbers ON THE NUMBER KEYPAD. MAC users, simply hold down the Option key while typing the characters. Examples include:
- alt + 0234 for ê (e with circumflex)
- alt + 0214 for Ö (capital O with umlaut)
- alt + 0128 € (Euro symbol)
For Keyboards With No Number Pad
Many laptop keyboards are too small to have a separate number keypad. As a workaround, it may be possible to turn on a number keypad feature by pressing the Num Lck key, or simultaneously pressing the FN and Scr Lk keys.
Number substitution key locations.
Using this number keypad feature, the substitute keys are as follows:
M = 0
J = 1
K = 2
L = 3
U = 4
I = 5
O = 6
7 = 7
8 = 8
9 = 9
(And if the Num Lck workaround is not possible, try pressing the FN button down and the Alt key, then enter the desired numbers.)