Entering approximate characters via keyboard: The Best Life Hacks

Entering the approximate character by keyboard is not that difficult. This way you can not only look professional, but you will also work much more efficiently. With these useful keyboard shortcuts, you can save yourself from long searches in the symbol list of your word processing program, such as Word.

How it works: enter approximate characters by keyboard

1. To enter the approximate character by keyboard, first open your typing program. Do not confuse the tilde (~) symbol shown on the keyboard with the approximate sign. In mathematics, the tilde is the sign for proportionality.
2. For the approximate sign "≈", first hold down the [alt] key. On the numeric keypad, then press the digits 8776 in succession. Release the [alt] key so that ˜ appears.
3. If you need the character only once in your document and the key combination should not work for you, simply copy the symbol via Copy & Paste into your document. In Windows 10, you can find the character codes by entering "character table" in the search bar. The code of the approximate sign is "U+2248".

How to find rare symbols in Word

1. In Microsoft Word, you can find the approximate sign and other, even rarer characters by selecting the option "Insert" in the menu bar at the top.
2. In the menu bar, now click on "Symbol" in the right area. Here you will normally find all the required symbols and special characters. In addition, you will see the corresponding keyboard shortcut in the list.
3. If you want to switch between different languages on the keyboard, you can also make this language setting simply by keyboard shortcut or you install additional languages.