In the days of yore, one could insert special characters into a Google Spreadsheet. However, after the 2014 refresh, this handy feature was taken away from us. For whatever reason, Google decided that people using spreadsheets would not need the ability to insert special characters. How dare they!
It seems to me this was not the best decision. If Google wants to make inroads into the business spreadsheet market, where Excel is the unquestioned champion, it should be catering to the professions that use spreadsheets the most. Accountants, yes you know one or two of them, are very heavy spreadsheet users. Any decent size company employs at least one of them, and they use spreadsheets daily.
Many of these accountants have a pedigree of Public Accounting where they are taught to use “tickmarks” to their workpapers. These tickmarks are essentially symbols, and they can’t be easily replaced with regular characters. Thus, Google has made their product markedly less useful to accountants in public practice, which is where millions of accountants work after college graduation for at least a while and thus start to develop their business software preferences and prejudices.
However, if you want special characters and don’t want to stop using Google Sheets, I finally have a solution. Eight years after writing this post, I released a Google Sheets add-on called Insert Special Characters. It gives you a sidebar from which you can insert any special characters without leaving the Google Sheets app.
However, if you want special characters and don’t want to stop using Google Sheets, I finally have a solution. Eight years after writing this post, I released a Google Sheets add-on called Insert Special Characters. It gives you a sidebar from which you can insert any special characters without leaving the Google Sheets app.
The Insert Special Characters Google Sheets Add On