Chapter Text
How to Use
To put a special character into your writing, simply type or paste it where you would like it to go in your writing.
For example, if we wanted to put an inverted quotation mark at the end of a sentence, you would type:
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog¡
When you click "preview" the code will display as a character.
The result would be:
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog¡
However, you must type these special characters into the HTML text box, not the RichText box.
Thankfully, AO3 automatically formats your writing into HTML so you don't need to know how to code in HTML!
You can paste your writing into the RichText box, then view it in the HTML box and see that your writing has been formatted into HTML. Then you can paste in your special characters.
In this guide, the name of a symbol will be followed by 1-2 bullet points with the code that makes the symbol. There are multiple ways to make the same symbol, but I have compiled the 2 most common styles in bullet points.
Both styles begin with an ampersand (&) and end in a colon (;)
The first style is called "HTML Code" and it uses hashtags and numbers. The second is called "HTML Entity" and uses abbreviations.
For example, the HTML code for an em dash is — and the HTML Entity is —
HTML Code works across all browsers so people with older computers will be able to see the special symbols, but AO3 often converts it into HTML Entity anyways.