Monday, August 29, 2005

Keyboard Shortcuts to Insert Special Symbols in Excel

The copyright ©, trademark ™, and registered trademark ®, symbols can be inserted quickly in Office applications using the Autocorrect feature. Typing (c), (tm), or (r) will accomplish this. The other way to enter special symbols in Excel is by going to Insert > Symbol.


You can actually create your own keyboard shortcuts for inserting other special symbols in Excel such as the micro symbol (µ), delta symbol (∆), degree sign (°), plus-minus sign (±), common superscripts such as ² or ³, common fractions such as ¼, ½, ¾, dot sign (·), partial differential (∂), infinity (∞), etc.

To do this in Excel, go to Tools > Options > Spelling tab > Autocorrect Options button > Autocorrect tab. Add the entries in the table listed below. Because the Autocorrect options apply to the other Office applications, you'll find that after you add these using Excel, you can use the same shortcuts in Word, PowerPoint, Outlook, etc.

Replace:   With:
(micro)      µ
(delta)      ∆
(deg)        °
(degree)     °
(+/-)        ±
(^2)         ²
(^3)         ³
(1/4)        ¼
(1/2)        ½
(3/4)        ¾
(dot)        ·
(part)       ∂
(partial)    ∂
(inf)        ∞
(infinity)   ∞

Note that not all of the unicode characters will be displayed correctly on other computers.

By the way! If you ever want to undo when Autocorrect makes an unwanted change, such as when you really want to use (c) for the copyright symbol and not ©, right after Autocorrect changes the text, press Ctrl+z to undo and go on typing.

13 comments :

Anonymous said...

This is a great help. Thanks for posting.

Anonymous said...

How do I turn this auto feature off? For my accounting homework I literally need to type (R) to classicy an account as revenue but excel automatically gives me the registered trademark symbol

Jon Wittwer said...

To UNDO an autocorrect, press Ctrl+z (or undo) immediately after the symbol changes. So, if you want (R) and not (®), then UNDO immediately after the autocorrect occurs.

mhyh_jv said...

This is big help for me, thank you so much.

Anonymous said...

thank you so much .

Anonymous said...

Thanks a lot

vivek said...

HOW TO ENTER LATIN CHARACTERS LIKE PHI, PI , ETC THROUGH KEYBOARD SHORTCUT

Anonymous said...

there's no 1/2 in excel symbol

Anonymous said...

why isn't there a 1/2 in Excel Symbol?

Anonymous said...

You can use the common + keypad numbers to add symbols (including ½) to Excel. ½, for example, is 0189. BUT, you can't do math with it. Not all of them work, but the ones that do are easier that the auto-correct solution. 0176 = ° , 0177 = ±, 227 = π etc.

Anonymous said...

For 1/2 symbol, hold alt-button and type "171" with your numpad.

Unknown said...

TYVM you made my day :)

Unknown said...

Please someone can help me if A is my demands & B is Inventory-In then if Invntory-In show "OK" otherwise "Pending"
e.g

A B C
30 30 OK
30 25 Pending