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  • Compose Key Sequences for Useful Unicode Characters

    If you activate a Compose key on your keyboard:

    Compose key selection
    Compose key selection

    Then you can insert Unicode characters without memorizing their hex values. Of course, you must memorize the Compose key sequences. Fortunately, they’re more-or-less mnemonic for the ones I occasionally use, which are hereby cherrypicked from that list.

    Press-and-release the Compose key (right-Win), then type the characters as shown to get the symbol in quotes:

    • o c “©” copyright # COPYRIGHT SIGN
    • o o “°” degree # DEGREE SIGN
    • o r “®” registered # REGISTERED SIGN
    • t m “™” U2122 # TRADE MARK SIGN
    • s m “℠” U2120 # SERVICE MARK
    • . . “…” ellipsis # HORIZONTAL ELLIPSIS
    • . – “·” periodcentered # MIDDLE DOT
    • . = “•” enfilledcircbullet # BULLET
    • + – “±” plusminus # PLUS-MINUS SIGN (∓ MINUS-PLUS is U2213)
    • x x “×” multiply # MULTIPLICATION SIGN
    • < < “«” guillemotleft # LEFT-POINTING DOUBLE ANGLE QUOTATION MARK
    • > > “»” guillemotright # RIGHT-POINTING DOUBLE ANGLE QUOTATION MARK
    • c / “¢” cent # CENT SIGN
    • – – . “–” U2013 # EN DASH
    • – – – “—” U2014 # EM DASH
    • < – “←” U2190 # LEFTWARDS ARROW
    • | ^ “↑” U2191 # UPWARDS ARROW
    • – > “→” U2192 # RIGHTWARDS ARROW
    • | v “↓” U2193 # DOWNWARDS ARROW
    • = > “⇒” U21D2 # RIGHTWARDS DOUBLE ARROW
    • ? ! “‽” U203D # INTERROBANG
    • p o o “💩” U1F4A9 # PILE OF POO
    • m u “µ” mu # MICRO SIGN
    • d i “⌀” U2300 # DIAMETER SIGN
    • 1 4 “¼” onequarter # VULGAR FRACTION ONE QUARTER
    • 1 2 “½” onehalf # VULGAR FRACTION ONE HALF
    • 3 4 “¾” threequarters # VULGAR FRACTION THREE QUARTERS
    • 1 1 0 “⅒” U2152 # VULGAR FRACTION ONE TENTH (and similar)
    • ^ 1 “¹” onesuperior # SUPERSCRIPT ONE (also 0 2 3 + -…)
    • _ 1 “₁” U2081 # SUBSCRIPT ONE (also 0 2 3 + -…)
    • e ‘ “é” eacute # LATIN SMALL LETTER E WITH ACUTE
    • e ` “è” egrave # LATIN SMALL LETTER E WITH GRAVE

    Producing Greek letters requires a “dead_greek” key, so it’s easier to start with bare hex Unicode values at U0391 (Α) and U03b1 (α) and work upward until you find what you need:

    • U03A3 Σ uppercase sigma
    • U03a9 Ω uppercase omega
    • U03C3 σ lowercase sigma
    • U03c9 ω lowercase omega
    • U03c4 τ lowercase tau
    • U03c0 π lowercase pi
    • U0394 Δ uppercase delta
    • U03F4 ϴ uppercase theta
    • U03B8 θ lowercase theta
    • U03D5 ϕ phi math symbol
    • U03A6 Φ uppercase phi
    • U03C6 φ lowercase phi

    Odds and ends:

    • U00a0 | | non-breaking space
    • U2007 | | figure space (invisible digit space)
    • U202F | | narrow space
    • U2011 ‑ non-breaking hyphen
    • U2030 ′ prime (not quote)
    • U2033 ″ double-prime (not double-quote)
    • U2018 ‘ left single quote
    • U2019 ’ right single quote
    • U201C “ left double quote
    • U201D ” right double quote
    • U2245 ≅ approximately equal
    • U2264 ≤ less-than or equal
    • U2265 ≥ greater-than or equal
    • U221A √ square root
    • U221B ∛ cube root
    • U221C ∜ fourth root (yeah, right)
    • U221D ∝ proportional to
    • U2300 ⌀ diameter
    • U25CA ◊ lozenge
    • U2E3A ⸺ 2-em dash
    • U2E3B ⸻ 3-em dash

    If you set the keyboard layout to US International With Dead Keys, maybe you (definitely not I) could remember all the dead keys.