ALT Key Shortcuts to Insert Symbols in Windows

How to Insert Symbols and Special Characters using ALT Key Shortcuts in Word, Excel and PowerPoint Documents?

Inserting symbols and special characters like Trademark and Copyright in any Windows software like Word, PowerPoint and Excel is very simple with the use of ALT key in the keyboard. Probably ALT key in the keyboard is one of the least used keys but having more hidden functions. Here is the list of ALT key codes which makes the symbol insertion in Windows based computers very simple. Please drop a comment if you find some useful shortcut is missing in the below lists, we will add it in the list so that others will also get benefited.

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Alt Key Shortcuts – Symbol Categories

Below table shows the complete list of Alt key shortcuts with search function. By default the table is sorted with the first column “Alt + Key”. You can change the filtering based on any column or enter the description in the search box and the results will be automatically filtered. The shortcuts are categorized under the last column “Symbol Category” for easy to filter with the following categories:

• Accented Characters – accented vowel letters used in different languages.
• Currency – all currency and money related symbols.
• Gaming – symbols related to games and sports.
• Hearts – since there are many heart symbols, we have a dedicated category.
• Human – covers different face symbols and other human related stuffs.
• Keyboard Defaults – all default keys available on standard international English keyboard.
• Language Characters – special language characters.
• Mathematics – Mathematical symbols like degree, plus or minus, etc.
• Musical Symbols – covers all music related symbols and instruments.
• Playing Cards – symbols of playing card deck.
• Special – special characters like copyright, trademark, registered, etc.
• Zodiac Symbols – covers zodiac symbols.
• Transport Symbols – all vehicles and signboard symbols.
• Arrows – covers different types of arrows.
• Numbers – rounded numbers in white and black.
• Stars – different kinds of star symbols.

Example Search – type “tick” in the search box to find all related tick mark symbols.

How to Use Alt Key Shortcuts?

All the shortcuts are checked on Microsoft Word 2010/2013/2016/Office 365 on Windows 7/8/10 platforms, hence some of the codes may not work on other software like Excel and PowerPoint. In this case you can just copy and paste the symbols. Also the symbols may look different on Microsoft office documents compared to the ones displayed on the above table as this is a browser display. Follow the below instructions on how to use these Alt key shortcuts:

• Press and Hold any of the ALT key and then press the numbers one by one.
• Make sure Numeric lock is switched on.
• Shortcut keys with numbers will only work with ALT and the number pad keys as shown in the below keyboard picture. It may not work as expected with the number keys part of the regular keyboard.

If you don’t have separate number pad on your keyboard, enable the number lock and using the shortcuts with keyboard numbers as shown below. In most cases, you have to use function key with alt and press numbers.

Learn more on how to alt codes on different computers.

Alt Key Keyboard Shortcuts without Numbers:

There are also shortcuts without using numbers to insert symbols like trademark, copyright, registered, etc. which should work in all type of keyboards.

Alt Code Shortcuts Images – Currency, Math, Special, Zodiac and All Symbols

If you are looking for alt key shortcuts in image format, click the below links to get download the shortcuts images. Once the image is opened in a new tab, right click and save to your PC or Mac for offline use. Check out the shortcuts list for using options or alt code in Mac.

Download 1000+ alt code emoji shortcuts in printable PDF eBook format.