Alt Code Shortcuts for Arrow Symbols

There are four arrow keys on a standard keyboard to move the cursor in up, down, left or right direction. However, you cannot type the arrow symbols on documents to indicate the direction. Generally, people use hyphen and greater or less than symbols like –> or <–. Do you know there are 300+ different arrow symbols you can actually type with keyboard in Windows and Mac? Yes, you can do this using one of the alt keys with the combination of other keys and here is a complete list of alt code shortcuts for arrow symbols.

Related: Get 1000+ copy paste emoji symbols, Twitter emoji and Facebook emoji.

Arrow Symbols Categories

Unlike other symbols, Unicode has different categories and supplement for arrow symbols. Generally, all arrow symbols are categorized based on the below criteria:

• Rightwards arrows
• Leftwards arrows
• Upwards arrows
• Downwards arrows
• Leftwards rightwards arrows
• Upwards downwards arrows
• Miscellaneous arrows
• Arrow emoji

Alt Code Shortcuts for Arrow Symbols

Below is the complete list of shortcuts for various arrow symbols. You can use the search box to filter relevant symbol, for example, type “wedge” in the search box to get wedge-tailed arrow symbols. Check the explanation below the table on how to use these shortcuts in various platforms.

Using Alt Code Arrow Shortcuts

Unicode has an arrow blocks with the code point from 2190 to 21FF. You can use the decimal and hexadecimal codes to insert these Unicode symbols in Windows and Mac depending on the application. You can find the decimal and hexadecimal codes in the “Windows Shortcut” and “Mac Shortcut” columns of the above table.

Alt + Code Method in Windows

In this case, hold one of the alt keys and then enter the decimal code as in the above table. However, you should type the numbers using numeric pad on your keyboard. It will work on all Microsoft documents like Notepad, Word, Excel, PowerPoint and also on other applications like Outlook and Skype. For example, pressing Alt and then 8656 keys on the numeric pad will produce the leftwards double arrow symbol ⇐.

Hex Code + Alt + X in Word Documents

In this method, enter the hexadecimal Unicode value and then press alt and X keys together. The hexadecimal codes are provided in the last column of the above table. Word document will automatically convert the entered hex code into a symbol. For example, pressing 27B5 Alt + X keys will produce the black feathered rightwards arrow symbol ➵. The advantage here is that you don’t need to have separate number pad on your keyboard. However, it only works on Microsoft Word documents.

Using Symbol Utility in Office Documents

On Microsoft Office documents like Word or PowerPoint, go to “Insert > Symbols > More Symbols” menu. This will open “Symbol” utility in which you can find arrow symbols under Wingdings font.

Using Character Map App in Windows

You can also open Character Map app in Windows to find and insert symbols.

• Use Windows Search to open the Character Map app.
• Change the font to Wingdings 3.
• Find the arrow symbol and click on “Select” button.
• Once the symbol is shown in the “Character to copy” text box, click on “Copy” button to copy the symbol to clipboard. Remember, you can keep multiple items in clipboard using Windows Clipboard History feature.
• Position the cursor on the place where you want to insert and press “Control + V” keys to paste the copied symbol. If you have copied multiple symbols press “Windows + V” keys to choose the from the clipboard history list.

Emoji Arrow Symbols in Windows

Windows comes with an emoji keyboard which you can open by “Windows + ;” keys. Search for “arrow” and filter the emoji arrow symbols.

Option Code for Mac

Similar to alt codes, you can use option codes in Mac to insert arrow symbols. Press one of the option keys and then type the hexadecimal code as given in the above table. This method only works with four digits code and you should change the keyboard input to Unicode Hex Input. For example, option + 21bb will produce clockwise open circle arrow symbol like ↻. You can also use this symbol as a “Refresh” button in documents.

Using Character Viewer in Mac

Similar to Character Map in Windows, you can use Character Viewer in Mac.

• Use the Spotlight Search to open Character Viewer app.
• Click on the “Arrows” category or use the search box.
• Double click on any arrow symbol to insert.

Arrow Symbols Variations

When you type symbols using alt code, the application will treat the symbols like a normal text. Due to this fact, you can customize the look of symbols by adjusting font size and changing font family. Below are some of the examples of customized arrow symbols with different font colors.

On Mac, you can directly choose the font variations from the Character Viewer app. Remember, some of the applications will show emoji arrows as a solid block that you can’t customize.

Arrow Symbol Shortcuts Image Reference

Here is a cheatsheet of alt code shortcuts for arrow symbols in Windows and Mac. You can use this image for offline reference.