To enter "special" characters such as the euro or copyright symbols, or diacritical marks such as the German umlaut or accent grave, digraphs can be used. Digraphs work by pressing CTRL-K and a two-letter combination while in insert mode. For example, in insert mode type: CTRL-K a: CTRL-K e> to give ä and ê. You can also set the digraph option :set digraph (or :set dg). With the digraph option set you can enter a : e > to give the same result. To list the currently defined digraphs type: :digraphs Here is a small extract from the :digraphs command: