Forget the 1,280-glyph pickers for a moment. Office life runs on about a dozen symbols — here they are, each with its one shortcut and a copy button. Memorize the five you meet weekly; bookmark the rest.
Currency and legal
Euro (Alt+0128) · Pound (Alt+0163) · Copyright (Alt+0169) · Registered (Alt+0174) · Trademark (Alt+0153).
Punctuation that Word fights you on
Em dash (Alt+0151) · Bullet (Alt+0149) · Degree (Alt+0176). Mac users: Option+Shift+- for —, Option+8 for •, Option+Shift+8 for °.
Accents for names
E-acute (Alt+0233) · Eñe (Alt+0241) · U-umlaut (Alt+0252) · C-cedilla (Alt+0231). On phones, hold the base letter — no codes needed. Start with all accented letters.