Needing to type a degree symbol is most likely a rare occurrence (unless you’re a meteorologist – in which case I’m sure you know this already) but none-the-less, it’s frustrating to not know how to type it when you need to.
On Windows
With Windows, it’s quite simple, assuming you have a keyboard with a numeric keypad.
- Press and hold the ALT key
- Type the number 0176 on the numeric keypad
No numeric keypad? You’ll have to resort to the Character Map program, which you can find by pressing windows and typing in “character map”. Select the degree symbol, and press copy to add it to the clipboard. Go forth and paste!
On MacOS
If you thought Windows was easy, MacOS is even simpler…
- Press Option, Shift and 8 at the same time.
On iOS
- Click the “123” button on the pop-up keyboard to bring up the numbers
- Press and hold the number 0
- It will give you a choice between the degree symbol and zero, which you choose by now sliding your finger to the character that you want.
On Android
- Press the “?123′ key on the keyboard to select the numeric keypad
- Then press “=\<” key to see more symbols
- The degree symbol will now be present on the keyboard for you to select
This may differ from phone to phone due to the fact that you can add custom keyboards but the above seems correct for the stock Android keyboard.
You auto-complete me
Many programs (such as Microsoft Office) use their own Autocorrect, and if you can modify this then you can set up your own, simple shortcuts – for example, changing empty brackets to the degree symbol.
Even better, if you’re using MacOS, then there is a system-wide autocorrect (go to System Preferences -> Keyboard -> Text). This doesn’t do the degrees sign by default but this could easily be set up.
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