How do I type a copyright symbol? And how do I stop it appearing when I type (c)?

When you’re writing the lyrics to the biggest hit since Hey Jude, you want to make sure you slap a copyright symbol on them to prevent Milli Vanilli stealing your masterpiece (he’s a tinker is Milli). But how do you type a copyright symbol?

And on the flip side, how do you prevent the sodding thing appearing every time you’re bashing out a list, and reach point (c)?

Copyright symbol: the clue’s in the question

Yes, if you’ve not already worked out how to type a copyright symbol, you need to sit down and have a quiet word with yourself. 

In Microsoft Word and other some applications, typing (c) will normally result in those three characters being automatically converted into a ©. 

If your application doesn’t do that, you can always just copy and paste the symbol into your document. We’re going to put a copyright symbol on its own on the next line, to make it easier for you to copy and paste, because we’re nice like that:

©

If that doesn’t work, or the copyright symbol brings some weird formatting with it when you post it into your document, look for an option to insert a special character. The copyright symbol will normally be among them.

In Libre Office Writer, for instance, you select Insert from the top menu, choose Special Character and the copyright symbol should be staring you slap in the face in the window that appears. Double-click it to insert into your document.

In Google Docs, again choose Insert and Special Character, but this time you’ll need to search for “copyright” to select it.

How to stop © when you want to type (c)

However, there are arguably many more situations where you want to type (c) and end up getting the copyright symbol. How do you stop this from happening?

In Microsoft Word, the solution is simple, but only if you know it. Once you’ve typed (c) and Word has automatically changed it to ©, hit Ctrl + Z and that will ‘undo’ the automatic conversion and revert to (c). 

If you’ve never shown the least bit of interest in the copyright symbol and want to turn this irritating conversion off permanently, you can. In Microsoft Word 2010 or later, click on the File menu in the top-left corner, select Options, then choose Proofing from the left-hand menu and select AutoCorrect Options at the top of the window that appears.

You should see the (c)/ © conversion listed on the page, as below:

Click on (c) so that it’s highlighted in blue and then click the Delete button. You will no longer suffer the curse of the copyright symbol every time you type a list of household rules. 

This article is  © Big Tech Question, 2018. No rights reserved.

Now read this: Why won’t my Word document save?