How to Insert Symbols in Word (©, °, €, ™ and More)

Need a degree sign, a copyright symbol or a proper dash? There's no need to copy them from Google. Word has several built-in ways to type any symbol.

Quick reference

Symbol	Shortcut
©	Ctrl + Alt + C or type (c)
®	Ctrl + Alt + R or type (r)
™	Ctrl + Alt + T or type (tm)
€	Ctrl + Alt + E
°	Alt + 0176 (number pad)
— (em dash)	Ctrl + Alt + minus (number pad)
– (en dash)	Ctrl + minus (number pad)

1. The Symbol menu

1. Go to Insert → Symbol.
2. Your recently used symbols appear. Click one to insert it.
3. For more, click More Symbols…, choose a symbol and click Insert.

Change the Subset drop-down to jump to groups like Arrows, Currency Symbols or Mathematical Operators.

2. Built-in keyboard shortcuts

Word has shortcuts for common symbols — see the table above. Many more are listed in the Special Characters tab of the Symbol dialog.

3. Let AutoCorrect do it

Type these and Word swaps them automatically:

• (c) → ©
• (r) → ®
• (tm) → ™
• --> → →
•
• :) → ☺

Two hyphens between words (word -- word) become an en dash.

4. Alt codes

Hold Alt and type a number on the number pad (not the number row):

• Alt + 0176 — ° degree
• Alt + 0163 — £ pound
• Alt + 0189 — ½
• Alt + 0215 — × multiply

5. The Unicode trick

Type a symbol's Unicode number and press Alt + X. For example, type 2192 then Alt + X and it becomes →. Type 2713 then Alt + X for ✓.

6. Emoji and symbol panel

Press Windows key + . (full stop) to open the emoji panel. The Ω tab has symbols, and you can search.

7. Make your own shortcut

In Insert → Symbol → More Symbols, pick a symbol and click Shortcut Key… to assign your own key combination.

On a Mac

Troubleshooting

Alt codes don't work on my laptop. They need a number pad. Use the Unicode + Alt + X trick instead.

Wrapping up

Remember (c), (tm) and Alt + X — between them they cover almost any symbol you'll need.