On Windows 11, you have two easy ways to insert symbols when writing a document, email, text message, or social media post, and in this guide, we’ll show you how. If you ever wrote anything on your computer, you probably had to use the “ALT” key plus code or search online to insert a symbol (for example, em dash, more than and less than, arrows, and many others), which is very inconvenient.

However, Windows 11 (line on Windows 10) comes with the emoji panel that lets you quickly insert symbols and kaomoji (face characters) in addition to emojis, so you don’t have to remember any “ALT” codes or use extra steps. Windows even comes with “Character Map,” which is a legacy application that includes all the symbols you will ever need. 

In this guide, you will learn the easy steps to insert symbols and kaomoji in documents, text files, emails, and social media posts on Windows 11.

  • Insert symbols using emoji panel
  • Insert symbols using Character Map

Insert symbols using emoji panel

To insert symbols or kaomoji on Windows 11, use these steps:

  • Open an app.
  • Use the Windows key + . (period) or Windows key + ; (semicolon) keyboard shortcut to open the emoji panel.
  • Click the Symbols tab. (Or the character face button to access the available kaomoji.)
  • Select the symbols you want to insert.
  • Quick tip: If you can’t find the symbol, you can switch between the different tabs to look into the available symbols on Windows 11, including punctuation, currency, geometric, math, Latin, and language.

Once you complete the steps, the symbol will appear in the document, and you use them, the most frequently used will appear in the “most recently used” tab to make it even easier to select them the next time. 

Open an app.

Use the Windows key + . (period) or Windows key + ; (semicolon) keyboard shortcut to open the emoji panel.

Click the Symbols tab. (Or the character face button to access the available kaomoji.)

Select the symbols you want to insert.

Insert symbols using Character Map

You can still use the legacy Character Map app to insert symbols on Windows 11 using these steps:

  • Open Start.
  • Search for Character Map and click the top result to open the app.
  • Select the symbol you want to use.
  • Click the Copy button.

After you complete the steps, you can insert the symbol by right-clicking and selecting the Paste option (or using the Ctrl + V keyboard shortcut).

Open Start.

Search for Character Map and click the top result to open the app.

Select the symbol you want to use.

Click the Copy button.