Keyboard Shortcuts for Punctuation Marks

There are some things I do all the time that make the “mechanics” of writing much easier. I wondered if other people do these too.

Maybe it’s just shortcuts I learned that others don’t know?

With that thought in mind, I thought I’d share some keystroke shortcuts to common punctuation marks. These shortcuts can be used in any word processing software or online typing in forms or social media.

If this is something you already know, just drop a comment and tell me you don’t want any more posts about this subject.

¢

CENT SYMBOL

This is easily made. Press the ALT key, hold it down, and type 0162 and you get ¢ like magic.

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EM DASH

An em dash is a grammatical element used for several reasons, i.e., insert parenthetical thought between elements in a sentence. Properly constructed there is no space between a word, the em dash, and the next word. Here’s an example:

I want to tell you—no, I must tell you—the proper way to use an em dash.

It’s made simply by pressing the ALT key, holding it down, and typing 0151 to get — quick and easy.

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“  ”

OPEN AND CLOSED QUOTATION MARKS

When a character in a book is speaking and is interrupted by another character, an em dash ends what the character was saying, followed by a closed quotation mark. Here’s an example:

“I was rewriting chapter seven when—”

Jack sighed. “Are you still working on that?”

In Word or Word Perfect, if you put a closed quote mark without having end punctuation like a period or question mark in place, the quote mark will be typed as OPEN rather than CLOSED. This makes several people a bit crazy as they try to get a closed quote mark in place.

The keystroke shortcut is fast and easy. Press and hold the ALT key and type 0147 to make an OPEN quote mark, “ and it’s there.

To make a CLOSED quote mark, press and hold the ALT key and type 0148 and you get ” closed.

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©

COPYRIGHT SYMBOL

This is another one writers use quite often.

Rather than click to insert a symbol in Word, simply press and hold the ALT key and type 0169 and like magic the © symbol appears.

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TAKEAWAY TRUTH

I hope these help you. If they do, please leave a comment.

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Joan Reeves aka SlingWords: The Word Slinging Adventures of Joan Reeves