Special Character Markers usually represent non-printing characters, and can be used anywhere where you would put text, such as in holidays names, slogans text, holidays options, macros, and saras*.
•As compared to tokens, these markers are not framed by braces, and they begin with an ampersand (eg: &n ).
•If you wish to include an ampersand as plain text (not as a special characters token) then you should use its ascii value, namely &.
•Note that some special characters require the internal use of xpress tags meaning that they cannot be used in saras.
The following table lists the available Special Character Markers, when using QuarkXPress to generate a diary or calendar.
Basic Special Character Markers
Special Character |
QuarkXPress Shortcut |
Token |
Non-Breaking |
Enter |
&c |
|
|
Shift and Enter |
&s |
|
|
Tab |
&t |
|
|
Shift and Tab |
&:t (not available in saras) |
|
|
CTRL and \ (backslash) |
&i |
|
|
ALT and 0xxx where xxx corresponds to the ascii code of the character you want to display |
&xxx |
|
|
CTRL and - (hyphen) |
&:h |
|
|
CTRL and = (equal sign) |
|
&!h (not available in saras) |
|
CTRL and Enter |
&:d |
|
|
CTRL and 5 |
|
&!s (not available in saras) |
|
Enter (keypad) |
&:c |
|
|
Shift and Enter (keypad) |
&:b |
|
|
CTRL and Shift and 6 |
&:f |
&!f (not available in saras) |
|
Shift and Space |
&:p |
&!p (not available in saras) |
|
Flex Space (Quarter em) |
CTRL and Shift and 5 |
&:q |
|
CTRL and Shift and Alt and 5 |
|
&!q (not available in saras) |
|
&0 |
|
||
&x |
|
Hexadecimal Special Character Markers
The following special character markers are accessible by their Unicode hexadecimal value.
Hard Space non-breaking, justifying space (same as &!s above) |
&$00A0 |
|
Zero Space Break |
&$200B |
Narrow No Break Space non-justifying non-breaking space (same as &!f above) |
&$202F |
|
Zero Space No Break |
&$FEFF |
Em Space typically the width of a capital letter M |
&$2003 |
|
Zero Width Non Joiner |
&$200C |
En Space half the width of an em space |
&$2002 |
|
Zero Width Joiner |
&$200D |
Third Space one‑third the width of an em space |
&$2004 |
|
Unicode Hyphen |
&$2010 |
Quarter Space one‑quarter the width of an em space |
&$2005 |
|
No Break Hyphen (same as &!h above) |
&$2011 |
Sixth Space one‑sixth the width of an em space |
&$2006 |
|
Discretionary Hyphen |
&$00AD |
Figure Space same width as a number |
&$2007 |
|
Figure Dash |
&$2012 |
Punctuation Space same width as an exclamation point, period, or colon |
&$2008 |
|
En Dash |
&$2013 |
Thin Space one-eighth the width of an em space, a good choice on either side of an em dash |
&$2009 |
|
Em Dash |
&$2014 |
Hair Space one‑twenty‑fourth the width of an em space |
&$200A |
|
Horizontal Bar |
&$2015 |
Flush Space adds a variable amount of space to the last line of a fully justified paragraph |
&$2001 |
|
|
Markers in the Q++Studio User Interface
Most of the special character markers, displayed above cannot be previewed in the editor used to display holidays names, one-time-dates names, slogans text , GenTokens repeated text, or MonthHeader text, and therefore they are converted during diary generation by QuarkXPress, and always appear as tokens in the Q++Studio user interface.
Topic 107048, last updated on 13-Jul-2025
