How to Make Reference Mark Symbol with Keyboard?

It is a common practice to use references when preparing documents. Generally, we use asterisk or superscripts to mark references and provide more details at the bottom of the page. However, there is a dedicated reference mark symbol ※ used in Japanese, Chinese and Korean writing. It is used to mention the referenced text immediately after the reference mark. You can type the reference mark symbol using the keyboard shortcuts in Windows and Mac computers.

Alt Code Shortcuts for Reference Mark ※

Reference mark symbol is called komejirushi in Japanese. You can use the following shortcuts to type the symbol.

Symbol Name	Reference Mark ※
Windows Shortcut	Alt + 8251
Word Shortcut	203B Alt + X
Mac Shortcut	Option + 203B
HTML Entity Decimal	※
HTML Entity Hexadecimal	※
CSS Value	\203B;
Decimal	8251
Hexadecimal	203B
Unicode Point	U+203B

How to Type Reference Mark Symbol ※?

Other Options to Make Reference Mark

If the above shortcuts are not working on your computer then follow one of the below method.

• Alt + X method – on Microsoft Word documents in Windows computers, type 203B then press alt and x keys together to make the symbol.
• Using Character Map – you can use Character Map app in Windows to insert reference mark symbol. Open Character Map app using Windows search. Type “reference” in the search box and hit enter. The app will filter the reference mark symbol which you can copy and paste on your documents.

• Using Character Viewer in Mac – on Mac, you can press “Control + command + Space” to open Character Viewer app. Search for “reference” to filter the symbol.

Related: How to type Caps Lock symbol using keyboard?

HTML Code Example

<span>&#8251;</span>
<p>&#x203B;</p>

CSS Code Example

li:before {
	content:\203B;
	font-family:Arial;
}

Symbol Variations

Character Viewer app in Mac offers plenty of font variations for you to choose. However, on other platforms you can change the font, color and background manually to highlight the reference mark from the regular text content on the document. Below are some of the examples with color and background variations.