How to put playing card symbols into my manuscript?

Scrivener Scrivener for Windows
1

I’m writing a book on card games, and would like to know how to insert playing card symbols into my manuscript? For example, I’d like to use a card symbol or icon for the Ace of Hearts, rather than writing out the words.

Does anyone know how to do this within Scrivener?

Many thanks in advance…

2

In Scrivener, access the Edit menu, then select Character Map. This will call up the Windows Character Map utility. Select the Times New Roman font (other fonts may work too, but not all, and I don’t know which ones). Scroll down through many pages of characters in various alphabets, and near the end you’ll come to groups of symbols. With keen eyes, you can spot :spades: :clubs: :heart: :diamonds: (that’s spade, club, heart, diamond, in case they don’t come through). Double click one to copy to the clipboard, then paste into Scrivener. You may have to use Documents > Convert > Formatting to Default Text Style to restore your proper margins, etc.

My further suggestion would be to set up a document in Scrivener into which you paste these symbols. Then you can just copy and paste them within Scrivener without invoking the Character Map.

3

… Or if copying and pasting them in is tedious, just come up with a short-hand text way to represent them, such as -spade-, and then in the compile settings use the Replacement section to replace -spade- with the symbol. The text in your project will remain untouched, but the output will contain the symbol instead.

Regardless of how you get them into your compiled output, be sure the compile settings use a font that supports those symbols.

4

Robert,

Hold down the Alt button and mash 3 for :heart:, or 4, 5 or 6 for the other symbols. When you release the keys, there you go. Alt codes can be found here:

alt-codes.net/

Cheers!
CyberDave

5

Well, I’ll be darned. That’s an old trick from way back. Good to know it still works!

6

It may be self-evident to anyone who has used this technique, but if you want :heart::diamonds::clubs::spades: all in a row, like I was trying to do, you have to release the ALT key after entering each of the single-digit codes. Otherwise, you get: Ç

On the Mac, for comparison, if you hold down the OPT or SHIFT-OPT combo and start tapping keys, you get the extended character set characters without having to release the modifier keys in between.