Typing in Circles (How to Insert Special Characters)

Do you ever stroll (actually roll) though the 'Insert Special Character' section of your word processing program?  Who has the time, right?!  Well, apparently one night I did (or I made the time by staying up WAY past my bedtime).  As much as my tired eyes burned, I have to tell you, I found some gems!  There are some really fun, easy ways to add that extra special touch to anything you type.  Today, I'm going to show you how to type letters in a circle.

This is a quote I typed up for my birthday memory board.  I did a whole post on birthday traditions over at Or So She Says earlier this week.  You can check it out here.  I made six birthday printable quotes in my post, so head on over and print away!

So, back to 'Inserting Special Characters'.  I use Apache Open Office 3.  You can download it here for free.  If you have a different word processing program, I'm sure the steps are about the same.  Here's where I start.  Open up a text document.  Once it's opened, look at the top of your document for 'Insert'.  Click on 'Insert', and a drop down menu will appear.  Then, click on 'Special Character'.  

A box like this should appear.  My Open Office default font is Times New Roman, so that's the font that appears in the box.

We don't want to use Times New Roman, because it doesn't have the letters in circles.  What we want to use is GungSeo (interesting name- I know).  Click on the box where Times New Roman appears, and a drop down menu should come up.  Scroll up until you see GungSeo.  Click on it.  (BTW, you will only see GungSeo in the 'Special Characters' window if you have it as a font in your word processing program.  My Open Office came with this font.  If you don't have GungSeo, you can download it here for free.)

Once you've clicked on GungSeo, your widow will look like this.  See any letters in circles (besides the copyright sign)?  Not yet.  Scroll down a bit and you will.

My letters (and numbers!) show up after about four scrolls down.  

Now you just need to select (by clicking on them) the letters you want to use in your document.  You can select 33 letters at one time.  As you select them, they'll show up in the bottom part of your window next to Characters:.  For the birthday quote, my window would look like this.

Once you've selected the letters you want, click on OK.  Your letters should appear in your text document now.  Once the letters are in your document, you can change the size or color, copy them, paste them, center, add other fonts to them, whatever you'd like.

Here's a few other ideas with the letters in circles. 

Check out the fonts Hiragino Kaku Gothi and Hiragion Mincho Pro- they also have letters in circles.  Be careful!  Once you get looking at you special characters, you might be up all night like me :).  

I hope you found a little something worth your time.  I think the letters in the circles are a lot of fun!  Oh, and if you'd like to print out the Dr. Seuss quote, click here.

Linking to these parties & Savvy Southern Style.