How to Type Special Portuguese Letters with Accents on Keyboard
The Portuguese alphabet, or “Alfabeto,” is made up of 23 letters.
In addition to these letters, Portuguese uses several accents.
This guide will show you how to use the keyboard to type these special Portuguese letters.
Depending on the operating system, there are different ways to type these characters in different documents. You’ll be able to master each of these techniques in no time.
Let’s get started.
Type Portuguese Letters using Alt Code (Windows)
To type Special Portuguese Letters with Accents on the English keyboard, press and hold the alt key, then enter the Character alt code using the numeric keypad.
The table below contains all of the Alt codes for each of the Special Portuguese Letters – lowercase and uppercase (i.e., small and capital letters).
UPPERCASE
| Description | Portuguese Uppercase Letters | Alt Code |
|---|---|---|
| A Grave | À | ALT+0192 |
| A acute | Á | ALT+0193 |
| A Tilde | Ã | ALT+0195 |
| A Circumflex | Â | ALT+0194 |
| E Acute | É | ALT+0201 |
| E Circumflex | Ê | ALT+0202 |
| I Acute | Í | ALT+0205 |
| O Acute | Ó | ALT+0211 |
| O Circumflex | Ô | ALT+0212 |
| O Tilde | Õ | ALT+0213 |
| U Acute | Ú | ALT+0218 |
| U Umlaut | Ü | ALT+0220 |
| C Cedilla | Ç | ALT+0199 |
lowercase
| Description | Portuguese Lowercase Letters | Alt Code |
|---|---|---|
| A Grave | à | ALT+0224 |
| A acute | á | ALT+0225 |
| A Tilde | ã | ALT+0227 |
| A Circumflex | â | ALT+0226 |
| E Acute | é | ALT+0233 |
| E Circumflex | ê | ALT+0234 |
| I Acute | í | ALT+0237 |
| O Acute | ó | ALT+0243 |
| O Circumflex | ô | ALT+0244 |
| O Tilde | õ | ALT+0245 |
| U Acute | ú | ALT+0250 |
| U Umlaut | ü | ALT+0252 |
| C Cedilla | ç | ALT+0231 |
Here’s a step-by-step guide to typing any of these Special Portuguese Characters using the alt codes in the table above.
- To begin, open the document in which the Special Portuguese Letters will be typed. It could be in Microsoft Word, Excel, or PowerPoint, or it could be in your web browser.
- Press the Num Lock key to turn it on. In other words, ensure that the keys on the numeric keypad are not disabled.
- Hold down the Alt key and use the numeric keypad to enter the alt code for the Portuguese letter you want to type. The table above contains all the Alt Codes for the various Portuguese letters with Accents.
- After entering the alt code with the numeric keypad, release the Alt key.
NOTE: This option is only available to Windows users. Refer to the following option to type Portuguese letters with Accents on a Mac.
How to Type Special Portuguese Letters on Mac (Shortcut)
The quickest way to type foreign letters on a Mac is to use a keyboard shortcut.
Each accented Portuguese letter has its own unique shortcut. However, they all use a very similar keystroke pattern.
Let’s look at how to use keyboard shortcuts to type any of these characters on a Mac.
| Description | Portuguese Letters | Mac Shortcut |
|---|---|---|
| A Grave | À | [OPTION]+[`] then a |
| A acute | Á | [OPTION]+[e] then a |
| A Tilde | Ã | [OPTION]+[n] then a |
| A Circumflex | Â | [OPTION]+[i] then a |
| E Acute | É | [OPTION]+[e] then e |
| E Circumflex | Ê | [OPTION]+[i] then e |
| I Acute | Í | [OPTION]+[e] then i |
| O Acute | Ó | [OPTION]+[e] then o |
| O Circumflex | Ô | [OPTION]+[i] then o |
| O Tilde | Õ | [OPTION]+[n] then o |
| U Acute | Ú | [OPTION]+[e] then u |
| U Umlaut | Ü | [OPTION]+[u] then u |
| C Cedilla | Ç | Option + C |
To use these Mac Keyboard shortcuts to type Special Portuguese letters with accent marks, first, open the document containing the character and simultaneously press and release Option plus the corresponding key (see above table), followed by the Portuguese letter you want to type.
Note: If you want to type uppercase Portuguese letters, use the hotkeys listed above while your caps lock key is activated.
Refer to the sections below for more information on how to get these characters specifically in Microsoft Word, Excel, or PowerPoint.
NOTE: As previously demonstrated, you can easily type Portuguese letters with Accent in Word by using Method 1 (Alt code for Windows), Or Method 2 (shortcut for Mac).
However, if you want to learn more about how to insert these characters specifically into your Word document, continue reading below.
Insert Special Portuguese letters with Accents in Word
There are two other ways to insert the Portuguese letters with Accent in Microsoft Word, in addition to the alt code method.
The first method involved using the insert symbol dialog box, while the second method involved using a Microsoft-Word-specific keyboard shortcut.
Let’s explore these options one after the other.
Using Insert Symbol dialog
Follow these steps to insert the Portuguese special letters using the insert symbol dialog box:
- Open your Word document and place the cursor where you want the Character to appear.
- On the Insert tab, go to Symbols > Symbol > More Symbols.
- The Symbol dialog box will be displayed. From the “Subset:” drop-down menu, select Latin-1 Supplement. This will show all of the symbols in this category, including both lowercase and uppercase Portuguese letters.
- Double-click on the Portuguese letter you want to insert. Alternatively, select your desired Letters and then click the Insert button to insert them into your document.
- Close the dialog.
These are the steps you can take to insert these symbols in Word using the Insert Symbol dialog box.
Using keyboard shortcut for Word
Each of the special letters in Portuguese has its own set of keystrokes. These keystrokes or shortcut keys are only intended to work with Microsoft Word.
As a result, if you want to type these symbols in a program other than Word, consider the other methods in this post.
The following are the various keyboard shortcuts for typing Portuguese letters in Microsoft Word:
| Description | Portuguese Letters | MS Word Shortcut |
|---|---|---|
| A Grave | À | Ctrl+` (accent grave), then A |
| A acute | Á | Ctrl+’ (apostrophe), then A |
| A Tilde | Ã | Ctrl+Shift+~ (tilde), then A |
| A Circumflex | Â | Ctrl+Shift+^ (caret), then A |
| E Acute | É | Ctrl+’ (apostrophe), then E |
| E Circumflex | Ê | Ctrl+Shift+^ (caret), then E |
| I Acute | Í | Ctrl+’ (apostrophe), then I |
| O Acute | Ó | Ctrl+’ (apostrophe), then O |
| O Circumflex | Ô | Ctrl+Shift+^ (caret), then O |
| O Tilde | Õ | Ctrl+Shift+~ (tilde), then O |
| U Acute | Ú | Ctrl+’ (apostrophe), then U |
| U Umlaut | Ü | Ctrl+Shift+: (colon), then U |
| C Cedilla | Ç | Ctrl+,(Comma), then C |
NOTE: These keystrokes will produce Lowercase Special Portuguese Letters. If you want uppercase characters, turn on the caps lock while typing the shortcuts.
Insert Special Portuguese Characters in Excel
The steps below will show you another way to insert these characters specifically in Microsoft Excel.
To insert Accent on Portuguese Characters in Excel:
- Launch Excel.
- Select the cell that will contain the character.
- On the Insert tab, click on the Symbols drop-down button and select Symbol from the list.
- The Symbols Dialog box will appear. From the “Subset:” drop-down list, select Latin-1 Supplement. All the symbols under this group will appear including all lowercase and uppercase Portuguese Letters.
- Click to select the Portuguese special letters you want to insert, then click on the Insert button. Alternatively, double-click on the symbol to insert it into your Excel document.
These are all the steps needed to insert any of the Portuguese letters with Accent on top.
See Also: How to type Special German Letters on Keyboard
Insert Portuguese special letters in PowerPoint
Just like on Microsoft Word and Excel, you can use the Portuguese letters with Accent alt code to type them into your PowerPoint document.
However, if you want another way to perform this task especially for PowerPoint, keep reading.
To insert Portuguese letters with Accent in PowerPoint:
- Open your PowerPoint document.
- Place the insertion pointer on the slide you need the character.
- Go to the Insert tab on the ribbon.
- Click on the Symbols button to launch the Symbol dialog box.
- The Symbol dialog box will appear. From the “Subset” drop-down list, select Latin-1 Supplement. You should see all the Portuguese characters under this category of symbols.
- Select the particular Portuguese letter you wish to insert and click on the Insert button. Otherwise, just double-click on the symbol you want to insert into your PowerPoint document.
- Close the dialog.
These are the steps you need to be able to insert the Special Portuguese Letters in Microsoft PowerPoint using the Insert symbol dialog.
Copy and Paste Portuguese Letters
Another easy way you can get the Portuguese Letters on any PC (whether Windows or Mac) is to use my favorite method: copy and paste.
All you have to do is to copy the symbol from somewhere like a web page or the character map for windows users, and head over to where you need the symbol (say in Word, Excel, or PowerPoint), then hit Ctrl+V to paste.
Below are the Portuguese Letters for you to copy and paste into your Word document. Just select your desired symbol and press Ctrl+C to copy, switch over to your document, place your insertion pointer at the desired place, and press Ctrl+V to paste.
| Copy & Paste Special Portuguese Letters |
|---|
| À |
| Á |
| Ã |
| Â |
| É |
| Ê |
| Í |
| Ó |
| Ô |
| Õ |
| Ú |
| Ü |
| Ç |
You can also use the Character Map to copy and paste any symbol or character on Windows. It contains every symbol or character you can think of.
Obey the following instructions on how to use the Character Map on any Windows PC.
- Click on the Start button and search for Character Map. The Character Map app will appear in the search results, click on it to open.
- The Character Map dialog will appear.
- Select the Portuguese Letters you want to insert by double-clicking on them, it should appear in the Character to copy: field, then click on the Copy button to copy the symbol.
- Switch to your document where you want to paste the copied symbol, place the insertion pointer at the desired location and press Ctrl + V to paste.
This is how you may use the Character Map dialog to copy and paste any symbol on Windows PC.
Conclusion
Among all of these options for typing Special Portuguese Characters, I believe that using the alt code method for Windows is the quickest, provided you know the alt code for the symbol you want to type.
If you frequently use the Special Portuguese Characters, you should consider creating a cheat sheet for your convenience.
For Mac users, using the keyboard shortcut to type these letters is also a useful method.
If you are inserting these symbols into any of the Office programs such as Word, Excel, or PowerPoint, you can also use the mouse-based approach.