---
title: "How to: Use Special Characters in XAML"
description: Learn about the syntax for encoding special characters in Unicode UTF-8 file format in Visual Studio for use in XAML files in Windows Presentation Foundation.
ms.date: "03/30/2017"
helpviewer_keywords: 
  - "Unicode UTF-8 file format"
  - "UTF-8 file format"
  - "characters [WPF], special"
  - "typography [WPF], special characters"
  - "special characters [WPF]"
ms.assetid: a57776d1-f353-4794-afa0-bfa3c712ed1c
---
# How to: Use Special Characters in XAML
Markup files that are created in Visual Studio are automatically saved in the Unicode UTF-8 file format, which means that most special characters, such as accent marks, are encoded correctly. However, there is a set of commonly-used special characters that are handled differently. These special characters follow the World [Wide Web Consortium (W3C) XML standard for encoding](https://www.w3resource.com/xml/reserved-markup-characters.php).

The following table shows the syntax for encoding this set of special characters:

| Character | Syntax   | Description          |
|-----------|----------|----------------------|
| `<`       | `&lt;`   | Less than symbol.    |
| `>`       | `&gt;`   | Greater than sign.   |
| `&`       | `&amp;`  | Ampersand symbol.    |
| `"`       | `&quot;` | Double quote symbol. |
| `'`       | `&apos;` | Single quote symbol. |

> [!NOTE]
> If you create a markup file using a text editor, such as Windows Notepad, you must save the file in the Unicode UTF-8 file format in order to preserve any encoded special characters.

The following example shows how you can use special characters in text when creating markup.

## Example

[!code-xaml[SpecialCharsSnippets#SpecialCharsSnippet1](~/samples/snippets/csharp/VS_Snippets_Wpf/SpecialCharsSnippets/CS/Window1.xaml#specialcharssnippet1)]