Insert Special Characters
A Special Character inserter for the WordPress block editor (Gutenberg).
4.9(8 reviews)
·3.0K+ active installs·Updated 3 months agoAs of April 2026, Insert Special Characters is a WordPress Omega plugin with 3.0K+ active installations and a 4.9/5 rating from 8 reviews. It has been downloaded 79K+ times in total. Requires WordPress 6.5+ and PHP 7.4+. Available on WordPress.org since 2019. Recently updated within the last 3 months. Downloads are up 24% this week.
4.9/58 reviews
3.0K+active installs
79K+total downloads
7 yearssince 2019
Overview
Ever wanted to add a special character while working within the WordPress block editor (Gutenberg) and suddenly find yourself longing for the days of the Classic Editor and the Special Character inserter? Well long no more, the Insert Special Characters plugin is here to ease your publishing woes!
Note: you can display the popover via the ctrl/cmd + o keyboard shortcut.
Development takes place in the GitHub repository.
Technical Notes
- Requires PHP 7.4+.
- Requires WordPress 6.6+
- Issues and Pull requests welcome in the GitHub repository.
Extending
To control the available tabs and characters, developers can filter the data set using the insertspecialcharacters-characters JavaScript (wp.hooks) filter.
For example, to create a character inserter that only provides currency symbols:
wp.hooks.…Screenshots
Ratings & Reviews
4.98 reviews
5 ★
7
4 ★
1
3 ★
0
2 ★
0
1 ★
0
Recent Reviews
Easy and useful
by olistic·1 year ago·1 reply
Easy and useful. I like it!
My new favorite plugin! Does just what I need it to do
by LonelyPilgrim·1 year ago·1 reply
As a lover of em dashes, en dashes, diacritics, and typography and Unicode in general, and a pedant for using the precise, proper characters where they are appropriate, this plugin does exactly what I need it to do. It works very similarly to the insert-special-characters feature of MediaWiki’s VisualEditor plugin, which I also love. Bravo for this, and please keep up the good work.
Dingbats are back!
by Chaz DeSimone·5 years ago·1 reply
THANK YOU! I am a typographer from way back when I was hand-setting (and pieing — the term for spilling) little pieces of metal in the forms of letters, numbers & dingbats. Special Characters is the WordPress feature I have missed most in Gutenberg, and your plugin is the first & only that makes inserting Special Characters easy and enjoyable. Look for a donation from this old type lover! ❤
Much needed!
by burnuser·6 years ago·1 reply
Thank You!
It solves a big problem in Gutenberg, which misses this function!
Thank You! Works perfectly!
by GoddessNYC·6 years ago·1 reply
Thank you for this great plugin!
WHY special characters are STILL absent from the Gutenberg WordPress editor — though it has been requested numerous times — is quite the annoyance.
This plugin is perfect!
Thanks again!
Download Trends
Today: 25Yesterday: 47This week: 194Period total: 10K
Compatibility
| WordPress | 6.5+ requiredTested up to 6.9.4 |
| PHP | 7.4+ required |
Version Adoption
v1.1
90.2%
v1.0
9.8%
Frequently Asked Questions
Changelog
1.1.3 – 2024-11-18
- Changed: Update the UI to be more consistent with WordPress core props (@psorensen, @fabiankaegy via #263).
- Changed: Clean up NPM dependencies and update node to v20 (props @Sidsector9, @dkotter via #238).
- Changed: Bump WordPress “tested up to” version 6.7 (props @sudip-md, @sonali886, @godleman, @jeffpaul, @dkotter via #260, #261, #273, #274).
- Security: Bump
expressfrom 4.18.2 to 4.19.2,follow-redirectsfrom 1.15.5 to 1.15.6,ipfrom 1.1.8 to 1.1.9 andwebpack-dev-middlewarefrom 5.3.3 to 5.3.4 (props @dependabot, @iamdharmesh via #254). - Security: Bump
bracesfrom 3.0.2 to 3.0.3,pac-resolverfrom 7.0.0 to 7.0.1,socksfrom 2.7.1 to 2.8.3,wsfrom 7.59 to 7.5.10 and removesip(props @dependabot, @faisal-alvi via #259).
…and 1 more changes
Contributors
Plugin data sourced from WordPress.org. Analysis and metrics by PluginSift.