Alt Code Shortcuts for Block Elements

Unicode has lot of blocks to group different characters and symbols. Some groups are very useful like transportation symbols and emoticons. However, blocks like Block Elements have different purpose to create blocks using the Unicode point. You can use alt code shortcuts to insert these block elements on your Windows and Mac documents.

Alt Code Shortcuts for Block Elements

Below is the list of alt code shortcuts for inserting block elements.

Inserting in Windows

There are two ways to use the keyboard shortcuts on your Windows based documents like Word and PowerPoint.

• Hold one of the alt keys and type the code using number pad to type the symbol. For example, Alt + 9619 will produce a dark shade block element like ▓.
• Alternatively, you can use hexadecimal code point with alt + X keys. For example, 2587 alt + x will make lower seven eighths block symbol like ▇. This method will work only in Microsoft Word documents.

Inserting in Mac

Similar to Windows, macOS also offers multiple ways.

• You can change the input method to Unicode Hex Input and use the hexadecimal Unicode value with option key. This will help you to insert the block elements on Pages and Keynote documents. For example, option + 2588 will produce full block element like █.
• If keyboard shortcut is not working, you can press “Command + Control + Space” to open Character Viewer app. Using this app, you can search and insert all block element symbols.

Creating Text Faces

You can create beautiful text faces using these block elements. Below are few examples made with connecting the blocks continuously using alt code shortcuts. As you can see, it is also possible to change the font color and size of these blocks similar to text on your documents.

Note, some block element symbol may not be compatible on documents though they are showing properly on the web page.

Inserting Block Elements in HTML

You can use either decimal or hexadecimal codes to insert these symbols in HTML. Below is the code example, you can change the code for different symbols.

<span>&#9607;</span>
<span>&#x2587;</span>

Image Reference

Below is the image contains all shortcuts for block elements. You can download the image to your computer and keep it for offline reference.