Dingbats and Wingdings: Part 3 of Fun Things You Never Knew You Could Do With Your Computer

Today I'm sharing 3 different posts, each highlighting some "Fun Thing You Can Do With Your Computer."  Instead of putting them all together in one post, I've posted each one separately so if you wish to refer back to any of these later, you won't have to scroll through lots of info to get to what you need.

This is Part 3.  (You'll find Part 1 HERE and Part 2 HERE.)

I'm adding each one of these posts to a category called Blogging Tips and Tutorials.  You'll find all the Blogging posts (as well as past tutorials) linked at the bottom of the BNOTP home page.  You'll also find them under the category heading "Renovations/Tuts" at the top of this blog.

Have fun!

Character Maps:  Dingbats and Wingdings:  

Have you ever heard of Dingbats and Wingdings.  They are little symbols, shapes, and fonts you may wish to use occasionally in your writing.  You can read more about what they are  HERE and HERE.  

Windows has a FAQ about character maps HERE.  It explains all about how to use them and how to search for particular characters.  I think these may only be available on computers with the Windows operating system.  Not positive about that.

Here's the definition of what a character and character map is from the Windows site:

What is a special character?

A special character is a character that cannot be found on your keyboard. You can insert special characters by using Character Map or by pressing a combination of keys on your keyboard.

What is Character Map?

Character Map enables you to view the characters that are available in a selected font. Using Character Map, you can copy individual characters or a group of characters to the Clipboard and paste them into any program that can display them.

If you have a computer with a Windows operating system, character maps are already available on your computer.  

Here's a tiny example of just some of the fun dingbat/wingding symbols you'll find.  There are zillions!

To find the Character Map on your windows computer so you can see what's available, do the following:

Click on the start Menu
Go to:  All Programs
Click on the Accessories (folder)
Click on System Tools (folder)
Click on Character Map

Be sure to click on the drop down menu at the top to see the hundreds of different character maps and characters available.  The number of available choices is mind-boggling!

To actually access/use one of the little character images in a document, you can use your arrow keys to scroll through all the images.  Once you find an image you wish to use:

Click on the character you wish to use.
Click "Select" which selects the character
Click on "Copy"
Click on your document where you wish to insert the character
Right Click and select "Paste"  and your character should appear

You can resize the image as you see fit for your document.

NOTE: If you wish to access the Character Map easily again you may wish to "pin" it to your Start Menu. To do that, just right click on Character Map and select "Pin to Start Menu."


Have fun playing with all these fun options!


Pssst: If you've found this tutorial helpful, would appreciate so much if you give it a +1 in Google. You'll find the +1 button at the end of the post. Thanks so much in advance!