Make symbols on word

You can easily insert a special character, fraction, or other symbol in your Word documents.

The most important thing to understand when inserting symbols, fractions, special characters, or international characters is that the font you use is critical. Not all fonts have the same characters in them. For example, the Elephant font has no fraction characters in it, while Verdana does. As a result it’s important to use the right font to find the symbol or character you want.

These marks are static symbols. If you’re looking for an interactive check box that you can click on to check or uncheck, see Make a checklist in Word.

Symbol such as currency (¥), music (♫), or check marks (✔)

1. Place your cursor in the file at the spot where you want to insert the symbol.

2. Go to Insert > Symbol.

   

3. Pick a symbol, or choose More Symbols.

4. Scroll up or down to find the symbol you want to insert.

   Different font sets often have different symbols in them and the most commonly used symbols are in the Segoe UI Symbol font set. Use the Font selector above the symbol list to pick the font you want to browse through.

5. When you find the symbol you want, double-click it. The symbol will be inserted in your file.

6. Select Close.

Tip: If you want to make your symbol larger or smaller, select it and use the Font Size setting.

If you’re going to insert the same symbol often, consider setting up AutoCorrect to insert it for you. You can find more info about that here: Insert a check mark or other symbol using AutoCorrect.

1. Click or tap where you want to insert the special character.

2. Go to Insert > Symbol > More Symbols.

3. Go to Special Characters.

   

4. Double-click the character that you want to insert.

   Tip: Many of the special characters have shortcut keys associated with them. If you want to insert that special character again in the future, just press the shortcut key. ALT+CTRL+C inserts the Copyright symbol (©), for example.

5. Select Close.

Some fractions (1/4, 1/2, and 3/4) automatically switch to a fraction character (¼, ½, ¾) when you type them. But others do not (1/3, 2/3, 1/5, etc.) so if you want to insert those as symbols you’ll need to use the insert symbol process.

1. Click or tapwhere you want to insert the fraction.

2. Go to Insert > Symbol > More Symbols.

3. In the Subset dropdown, choose Number Forms.

   

   Note: Not all fonts have a number forms subset. If you don’t see the number forms subset available for your font you will have to use a different font, such as Calibri, to insert the fraction character.

4. Double-click the fraction that you want to insert.

5. Select Close.

Only a handful of common fractions have a symbol that you can substitute. For more unusual fractions, such as 8/9, you can approximate the symbol by setting the numerator as superscript and the denominator as subscript. For more information see Insert subscript or superscript text.

If you plan to type in other languages often you should consider switching your keyboard layout to that language. You can find more information about that at Enable or change a keyboard layout language.

For one-off characters there are almost always keyboard shortcuts in Office to do that. For example:

• CTRL+SHIFT+ALT+? inserts a ¿

• CTRL+SHIFT+~ followed immediately by «a» will insert ã.

• CTRL+SHIFT+: followed immediately by «u» will insert ü.

For more info on international characters see: Keyboard shortcuts for international characters.

You can also use the character code of the symbol as a keyboard shortcut. Symbols and special characters are either inserted using ASCII or Unicode codes. You can tell which is which when you look up the code for the character.

1. Go to Insert >Symbol > More Symbols.

2. Scroll up or down the list to find the symbol you want. You might have to change the font or the subset to locate it.

   Tip: The Segoe UI Symbol font has a very large collection of Unicode symbols to choose from.

3. Towards the bottom right you’ll see boxes for Character code and a from:. The character code is what you’ll enter to insert this symbol from the keyboard and the from: tells you what kind of character it is. If from: says «Unicode (hex)» it’s a Unicode character. If from: says «Symbol (Decimal)» then it’s an ASCII character.

Unicode

ASCII

ASCII and Unicode information and character tables

For more info about using ASCII or Unicode characters, see Insert ASCII or Unicode character codes.

Insert a check mark

For info on inserting a check mark, see Insert a check mark.

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Microsoft Word is a software tool that allows us to create documents file like articles, office letters, projects files and many more in a very simplest and easy manner. MS Word makes our document more attractive as compared to paper or file work by providing different features like it has different sizes of pages, fonts, colors, design, bullets, tables, charts, page border/number, and many more.  

It also provides various features like editing, texting, formatting, graphics designs, fonts color and styles, inserting images, videos, printing documents etc.  

This MS Word software saves our articles/letters in a form of a document and saves them on the computer forever. Whenever it is required it can be shared or can access the document.  

Features of MS Word

1. Images- MS Word provides the inserting of various images in our document.
2. Videos- We can insert videos in our document
3. Fonts Styles- It has a wide range of font styles for our text.
4. Colors- It also has different types of colors to make our document more attractive.
5. Page number and size- You can set the size of the page of your document
6. WordArt- It provides various writing styles for our documents.
7. Tables- Tables in MS Word are used to represent data in Tabular form
8. Graph and Charts- These are used to represent statistical data
9. Animations and Designs- MS Word allows the creation of Animations and designs as per user needs
10. Page border/color- MS Word allows adding borders and colors to pages.

What are Symbols in MS Word?

Microsoft Word has a special features called symbols in which user can insert many different types of symbols in the document. 

MS Word has a variety of symbols, special characters, fractions, languages, etc. We can insert the symbols and special characters with the help of the Symbol dialog box present in MS Word. 

Some pictures of symbols in MS Word are:

Steps to Add Symbols in MS Word

Step 1: On the navigation menu click on the insert option.

Step 2: On the right-hand side of the navigation menu select the Symbol option as shown in figure:

Step 3: Next select the symbol from the menu as per your need.

Step 4: You can also select more different types of symbols by just clicking on the More Symbols option as shown in the figure:

Step 5: A symbol dialog box will be pop up on the screen.

Step 6: Now click on the symbols option as shown in the figure:

Step 7: Next click on the drop-down arrow of the font box to change the font style of symbols.

Step 8: Select the font style from the style menu.

Step 9: Next click on the drop-down arrow of subset box to select the different categories of the symbols.

Step 10: Select the symbol category from the menu.

Step 11: Select the symbol as per your choice as shown in the figure:

Step 12: Then click on the insert option to insert the symbol on your current page of the document.

Note – You can also search for a particular symbol using its character code as shown in the figure:

Step 13: Enter the symbol character code in the character code box.

Step 14: Select the option (UNICODE, ASCII) as shown in the figure:

Step 15: Then click on the insert option.

Step 16: Close the symbol dialog box as shown in the figure:

Finally, the symbol is added to your document.

Steps to Insert Special Symbols in MS Word

Step 1: Click on the Symbol option from the navigation menu.

Step 2: Select the More Symbols option as shown in the figure:

Step 3: A symbol dialog box will open.

Step 4: Now select the special characters option as shown in the figure:

Step 5: Select the special character as per your choice from the menu.

Step 6: Click on the insert option to continue.

Step 7: Close the symbol dialog box. 

Finally, special characters symbol is added to your document.

These are some of the steps to insert symbols and special characters in the document.

What makes a character special? Well, in this context, it means not being part of a standard keyboard. And while that might not sound especially special, it does make them trickier to use in a Microsoft Word document. Here, then, is a quick guide on how to use special characters in your writing.

1. Shortcuts and Autocorrect

Some symbols are common enough that Microsoft Word has default shortcuts for them. There are also some character combinations that autocorrect to a special character. These include:

So, to quickly add a copyright symbol to a document, we could either:

• Type the letter ‘c’ in brackets and let Word autocorrect it to the © symbol
• Hold down Ctrl + Alt + C to insert the character directly

There are also shortcuts for many accented letters, which can be useful if using foreign loanwords.

2. The Symbol Menu

For a fuller look at the special characters available to use, we need to open the Symbol menu.

Clicking this will show you the 20 most recently used symbols, but you can also click on More Symbols… to open a pop-up window that includes every character available in Microsoft Word. To use this:

1. Place the cursor where you need to add a special character
   
2. Go to Insert > Symbols > Symbol > More Symbols… on the main ribbon (or Insert > Advanced Symbol > Symbols via the dropdown menus in Word for Mac)
3. Find and select the character you want to use
4. Click Insert to add it to your document in the chosen location

After you have used a symbol, it will be added to the quick access menu in case you need to use it again. You can also use the AutoCorrect… and Shortcut Key… options in this menu to give yourself a quick way to add specific symbols to a document (like those outlined for © and similar above).

3. Special Character Codes

Finally, you can also use special character codes to add a symbol to a document. These rely on having a keyboard with a numeric keypad (usually found on the right of a keyboard).

They trick here is that every special character has its own code number, known as an ASCII code. If you have the ASCII code for a symbol, you can then add it to a document by:

1. Selecting where you want the symbol to appear with your cursor
2. Turning on Num Lock
3. Holding down the Alt key and typing the correct code

This is probably the quickest method of adding special characters if there are symbols you use frequently and you can remember the codes. But in most cases, or if you are using a laptop without a numeric keypad, it will be simpler to look up the character you need in the Symbols menu.

And assign them to shortcut keystrokes for quick access

Updated on February 4, 2020

What to Know

• Go to Insert and click the Symbol button on the Ribbon menu. Select a symbol or click More Symbols to unveil additional options.
• When you have the symbol, click Insert > Close. If you don’t see what you’re looking for, click the Special Characters tab and look there.
• To assign a keystroke to a symbol or character, select the symbol, select Shortcut Key > Press new shortcut key, and enter a key combination.

This article explains how to insert symbols and special characters in Microsoft Word and how to assign them to shortcut keystrokes for quick access.

What Are Special Characters or Symbols in Word?

Special characters are symbols that do not appear on a keyboard. What are considered special characters and symbols will vary depending on your country, your installed language in Word and your keyboard. These symbols and special characters can include fractions, trademark and copyright symbols, foreign country currency symbols and many others.

Word does differentiate between symbols and special characters, but you shouldn’t have difficulty locating and inserting either in your documents.

Inserting a Symbol or Special Character

To insert a symbol, follow these steps:

Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, and 2019

1. Click on the Insert tab.
2. Click the Symbol button in the far-right Symbols section of the Ribbon menu. This will open a small box with some of the most commonly used symbols. If the symbol you’re looking for is in this group, click it. The symbol will be inserted and you’re done.
3. If the symbol you’re looking for is not in the small box of symbols, click More Symbols… at the bottom of the small box.
4. Select the symbol you want to insert.
5. Click the Insert button at the bottom of the dialog box.

Once your symbol is inserted, click the Close button.

Word 2003

1. Click on Insert in the top menu.
2. Click Symbol… This opens the Symbol dialog box.
3. Select the symbol you wish to insert.
4. Click the Insert button at the bottom of the dialog box.

Once your symbol is inserted, click the Close button.

What If I Don’t See My Symbol?

If you don’t see what you’re looking for among the symbols in the dialog box, click on the Special Characters tab and look there.

If the symbol you’re looking for is not under the Special Characters tab, it may be part of a specific font set. Click back over to the Symbols tab and click the dropdown list labeled Font. You may have to look through several font sets if you’re not sure in which set your symbol may be included.

Assigning Shortcut Keys to Symbols and Special Characters

If you use a particular symbol often, you may want to consider assigning a shortcut key to the symbol. Doing so will allow you to insert the symbol into your documents with a quick keystroke combination, bypassing the menus and dialog boxes.

To assign a keystroke to a symbol or special character, first, open the Symbol dialog box as described in the steps under inserting symbols above.

1. Select the symbol you want to assign to a shortcut key.
2. Click the Shortcut Key button. This opens the Customize Keyboard dialog box.
   1. In the «Press new shortcut key» field, press the key combination you would like to use to automatically insert your chosen symbol or character.
      If the keystroke combination you choose is already assigned to something else, you will be alerted what command it is currently assigned to next to the «Currently assigned to» label. If you don’t want to overwrite this assignment, click Backspace to clear the field and try another keystroke. 
3. Select where you want the new assignment to be saved from the dropdown list labeled Save changes in (see the note below for more details on this).
4. Click the Assign button, and then Close.

Now you can insert your symbol by simply clicking the assigned keystroke.

You have the option of saving the shortcut key for the symbol with a particular template, such as the Normal template, the one upon which all documents are based by default, or with the current document. If you choose the current document, the shortcut key will only insert the symbol when you are editing this document; if you choose a template, the shortcut key will be available in all documents that are based on that template.

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