Alt Code Keyboard Shortcuts for Encircled Numbers

Numbers are essential part of every document being it as a Word document, Excel sheet, Outlook email or a PowerPoint slide. All basic keyboards have numbers zero to nine as part of the default layout. Some longer keyboards may have additional numeric pad for entering numbers easily. This numeric pad along with alt key combination can do lot of tricks for you to insert numbers in different format. On MacBook, you can use the alt or option key to insert shortcuts using keyboard.

Related: Alt code shortcuts for encircled letters.

What is Enclosed or Encircled Numbers?

The Unicode system has a category for enclosed alphanumeric containing 160 symbols between the code range 2460 to 24FF. In addition, there are also supplementary enclosed characters available in different code point ranges. When we consider only numbers, the enclosed or encircled has a meaning that the number is surrounded by a character. Below are four types of encircled numbers you can insert using keyboard shortcuts based on Unicode value.

• Encircled with white circle like ⑥, ③, ⑯
• Covered by black circle like ❿, ❻, ❷
• Covered by parenthesize like ⒀, ⒄, ⒇
• Encircled with double circle like ⓻, ⓹, ⓵
• Covered with black square like ㉉, ㉌, ㉈
• Included with comma like 🄂 🄇 🄊
• Included with dot like ⒑ ⒗ ⒛

You may wonder what are those encircled numbers with comma and dot, since you can easily type them with standard keys. When you type with keyboard keys, the number and comma/dot are considered as two characters. You can any time delete either comma/dot or the number independently. However, when using keyboard shortcut, you can’t delete the number or comma/dot separately. They two form a single character.

Alt Code Keyboard Shortcuts for Encircled Numbers

Below is the complete list of alt code keyboard shortcuts for encircled numbers. If you are looking for inserting numbers on keycaps, learn how to make keycap emoji symbols.

1. Inserting Encircled Numbers in Windows

There are many different ways you can insert circled numbers on your Windows based documents.

1.1. Using Alt + Numbers Shortcuts Method

Press one of the alt keys and then enter the numbers one by one using numeric pad on your keyboard. It will work on all Microsoft documents like Word, Excel and PowerPoint. For example, pressing Alt and then 10102 keys on the numeric pad will produce the black circled number one symbol ❶. Use the first column in the above table for all alt code shortcuts for circled numbers.

Related: Alt code shortcuts for circle symbols.

1.2. Code + Alt + X Method for Word

If you don’t have a numeric pad, still you can insert numbers in different format using Unicode hexadecimal value with “Alt + X” combination. But this will only work on Word documents and you should copy and paste in Excel or PowerPoint.

Use the third column in the above table, type the numbers one by one using regular number keys and then press one of the alt keys and X. For example, pressing 277a keys and then press Alt with X keys will produce the dark or negative circled number five symbol ❺.

1.3. Using Symbol Utility

If the keyboard shortcut does not work, you can use alternate methods. One of the alternates is to pickup the circled number symbols from “Symbol” utility in Word or PowerPoint.

• Open Word document and navigate to “Insert” menu.
• Click on “Symbols” option and then choose “More Symbols” to open “Symbol” utility.
• Go to “Symbols” tab and choose the font as “Wingdings”.
• Scroll down and look for the circled number symbols.
• Choose one of the circled symbol and click on the “Insert” button to insert the symbol on your document.

1.4. Using Character Map

The second alternate method is to use Character Map app. The advantage is that you can use this app independently and copy/paste the symbols on any documents.

• Type “character map” in Windows Search box and open Character Map app.
• Choose the font as “Wingdings 2” and look for the circled number symbols.
• Double click on the symbol you want to insert, or select the symbol and click on “Select” button.
• Ensure that the number is showing in the “Characters to copy” text box and click on the “Copy” button.
• Now, you can paste the symbol using “Control + V” shortcuts anywhere on your documents.

2. Inserting Circled Numbers on Mac

Similar to Windows, you can also insert circled number symbols on MacBook using different methods.

2.1. Option Code Shortcuts

Use the second column of the above table to insert the symbols on your Mac documents like Pages and Keynote.

• First, change the input method to Unicode Hex Input.
• Hold one of the option keys and type the code.
• It will produce the corresponding symbol. For example, option + 24F6 will produce the double circled number two symbol like ⓶.
• You can anytime change the input method to default ABC or your preferred method to type other content.

Option code shortcuts on Mac will only work for the four digit Unicode hexadecimal values. For the symbols having more than four digit code, use the next method.

2.2. Using Character Viewer App

Character Viewer is an independent app you can find and insert symbols in Mac.

• Press “Control + Command + Space” to open Character Viewer app.
• Type “circle” in the search box to filter the symbols.
• Position the cursor on your document and double click on the symbol to insert it on your document.
• The advantage of using Character Viewer is that it has many font variations for each circled number symbol. You can easily pickup the different variation without customizing on your own.

Related: Alt code shortcuts for MacBook.

3. Inserting Circled Numbers on Web Documents

• If you want to insert these symbols on HTML based web pages, either use the decimal code in the format &# 9461; or use the hexadecimal code in the format &x# 24F5;.
• On JavaScript documents you can use the hexadecimal escape string in the format \u24F1.
• Similarly, on CSS documents you can use the hexadecimal escape string in the format \24F8. Below is a CSS code example to insert circled digit nine as an unordered list.

li:before {
     content:\2468;
 }

Example Usage

You can use the circled numbers in different formats. One of the beautiful usage is making bullet points in Outlook email or PowerPoint presentation. Below is an example PowerPoint slide showing four bullet points. We have used alt code shortcuts to type these numbers and used different styles for each circled number.

Font Variations

As mentioned above, on MacBook, you can easily choose the font variations from the Character Viewer app. it has large number of variations for each circled number symbol. However, on Windows documents, you need to manually customize the size, background and font family. Below are some of the variations with different colors and background.

Note the below points when using circled numbers on your documents:

• Some circled numbers are by default in sans-serif font.
• Some are with smaller size, you can adjust the size to match your content on the document.
• you may see some symbols as square box on the browser. However, it will display properly on the documents.
• Font type will affect the display of symbols. If the symbol is not displayed then change your font and try again.