Special Characters

Special Characters need to be coded properly or you'll get this � instead of displaying the true character.

I've provided a small table of the most problematic special characters often seen online using special characters for displaying symbols such as these ©, ", «, —, etc.. Importing text from a Word file into an HTML page does not always recognize the special characters. The best way to avoid this problem is to code the character properly. You can use the "Character Map" located in your IBM platform computer under "programs/accessories/system tools/character map". It uses the true code for the Special Characters for both print and the web.

Common Special Characters	Symbol	Code
Copyright Symbol	©	©
Apostrophe	'	'
Em Dash	—	—
En Dash	–	–
Quote Mark	"	"
Left Quote Mark	“	“
Right Quote Mark	”	”
Registration Mark	®	®

Non-breaking Space

A non-breaking space is a code entered to keep words together. To add a non-breaking space, simply press "control+shift+space bar created the code " ". This is often applied to the last two words of a paragraph to avoid an "orphan". Another common non-breaking space would be for dates. E.g. February 3, 2009 (actual code "  February 3, 2009" instead of "February 3, 2009") This code can be used in all your other programs too! It applies for print items created in Word, InDesign, Quark etc...it's not just for the web.

Soft Return

This is a key function to add a "paragraph break without adding a space between the same paragraph". This is used to correct any bad word hyphenation or window and orphans. If I remember correctly, a widow is a single word that appears as the beginning of a paragraph on a new page. Meaning the word is separate for the paragraph. An orphan is a single word at the end of the paragraph. In print, a paragraph should never end with just one word. A two word minimum is the rule. The code to create a soft return is "shift+return". The most common use is to correct bad word hyphenations or fix odd looking paragraphs.