How to Insert Symbols Into Microsoft Word

By eHow Computers Editor

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Many times in writing we want to use symbols or characters not found on a standard keyboard. With Microsoft Word, you can insert many of these symbols as text in a document with a few clicks of your mouse. This saves you from having to insert an image file into your document.

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Instructions

Difficulty: Easy

Step1

Open Microsoft Word and choose "Symbols" from the "Insert" menu at the top of the window.

Step2

Select the "Symbols" tab to display the symbols available. All the characters pertaining to your installed fonts are displayed.

Step3

Choose the font you want to use for your symbol with the drop down menu on the left. Your symbol displays in the selected font regardless of other fonts used in your document.

Step4

Narrow the symbols down to groups, such as currency, arrows or Greek letters with the drop down menu on the right. Be sure that "Unicode" is selected in the drop down menu in the lower right corner of the window. If it's not, some symbol choices might not appear.

Step5

Highlight the symbol you want to insert into your Microsoft Word document and click "Insert" to place it in your document. The symbol is inserted at the location of your cursor. Once inserted, it can be copied, cut and pasted just like regular text. Look for the name of the selected symbol in the lower left corner of the tab to verify that you have chosen the proper symbol.

Step6

Click on the "Special Characters" tab for more symbols. Insert these by highlighting the symbol you want and clicking the "Insert" button. In this tab, a shortcut key is also given for each symbol. Type the shortcut to insert a symbol at any time in Microsoft Word.

Tips & Warnings

You can insert a symbol you've recently used by choosing from the last 16 symbols inserted. These are displayed in the table at the bottom of the "Symbols" tab.