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Three Ways to Insert Currency Symbols in Microsoft Word

By Erin Wright 2 Comments

Last week’s post covered basic guidelines for formatting money in general writing. This week, we’ll look at three ways to insert currency symbols in Microsoft Word:

The Symbol Dialog Box

Alt Codes

Shortcut Codes

For simplicity, we’ll concentrate on the euro, pound, and cent signs in these examples.

However, these steps can be modified for all currency symbols available through the font files installed on your computer.

This tutorial is also available as a YouTube video showing all the steps in real time.

Watch more than fifty other videos about Microsoft Word and Adobe Acrobat on my YouTube channel.

Please note that the images below are from Microsoft Word for Office 365, which is currently the same as Word 2019. The steps are the same for Word 2016 and Word 2013 and similar for Word 2010.

How to Use the Symbol Dialog Box to Insert Euro, Pound, and Cent Signs

The following twelve steps show how to use Word’s Symbol dialog box to insert euro, pound, and cent signs.

The Symbol dialog box method is also available as a YouTube video, which you can watch on my YouTube channel or in the embedded video player at the end of this post.

1. Place your cursor where the symbol should appear.

2. Select the Insert tab in the ribbon.

Image of Word 2019 / Word 365 Insert Tab | Step 2 in How to Insert Currency Symbols in Word3. Select Symbol in the Symbols group.

Image of Word 2019 / Word 365 Symbol Group in the Ribbon | Step 3 in How to Insert Currency Symbols in Word4. Select More Symbols in the drop-down menu.

Image of Word 2019 / Word 365 Symbol Group Drop-Down Menu | Step 4 in How to Insert Currency Symbols in Word5. Select the Symbols tab in the Symbol dialog box.

Image of Word 2019 / Word 365 Symbol Dialog Box Symbols Tab | Step 5 in How to Insert Currency Symbols in Word

Insert Euro Signs

(Skip to step 9 for pound and cent signs.)

6. Select Currency Symbols in the Subset drop-down menu.

Image of Word 2019 / Word 365 Symbol Dialog Box Currency Symbol Subset | Step 6 in How to Insert Currency Symbols in Word7. Choose the euro sign in the symbols menu.

Image of Word 2019 / Word 365 Euro in the Symbol Dialog Box | Step 7 in How to Insert Currency Symbols in Word8. Select the Insert button.

Image of Word 2019 / Word 365 Symbol Dialog Box Insert Button | Step 8 in How to Insert Currency Symbols in Word

Insert Pound or Cent Signs

9. Select Latin-1 Supplement in the Subset drop-down menu.

Image of Word 2019 / Word 365 Symbol Dialog Box Latin-1 Supplement Subset | Step 9 in How to Insert Currency Symbols in Word10. Choose the pound or cent sign in the symbols menu.

Image of Word 2019 / Word 365 Cent and Pound Sign in the Symbol Dialog Box | Step 10 in How to Insert Currency Symbols in Word11. Select the Insert button. (As shown in step 8.)

12. Select the Close button to close the Symbol dialog box.

Image of Word 2019 / Word 365 Symbol Dialog Box Close Button | Step 12 in How to Insert Currency Symbols in Word

Pro Tip: You can insert more than one symbol without closing and reopening the Symbol dialog box.

How to Use Alt Codes to Insert Euro, Pound, and Cent Signs

If you have a numeric keypad or a simple way to activate your integrated number keys, you can use Alt codes to insert currency symbols.*

To use Alt codes, place your cursor where the symbol needs to appear and then press and hold the Alt key as you type the sign’s four-digit code:

Euro (€): 0128

Pound (£): 0163

Cent (¢): 0162

*Integrated number keys are usually activated by pressing a combination of function keys such as FN plus NumLk; however, the process differs by computer manufacturer.

How to Use Shortcut Keys to Insert Euro and Cent Signs

You can use preset shortcut keys to insert a variety of symbols, including the euro and cent signs.

Begin by placing your cursor where the symbol needs to appear and then press the appropriate keyboard sequence:

Euro (€):  Alt + Ctrl + E

Cent (¢):  Ctrl + / + C

You may notice that the Symbol dialog box shows the cent sign’s shortcut key as Ctrl + /,C (Control, forward slash, comma, C) in the Symbol dialog box. This shortcut doesn’t produce a cent sign, and I believe it is a typo in the software’s interface.

Note about the Pound Sign: Word’s preset shortcut key for the pound sign is the same as the Alt code above (Alt + 0163), so it’s difficult to use without a numeric keypad or a simple way to activate your integrated number keys.

Not all symbols have a preset shortcut key. Existing shortcut keys appear at the bottom of the Symbol dialog box.

Image of Word 2019 / Word 365 Euro Shortcut Key in the Symbol Dialog Box

Further Reading: How to Write Euros and Pounds as Words and Symbols

2 Comments Filed Under: Microsoft Word Tagged With: formatting, Word 2010, Word 2013, Word 2016, Word 2019, Word 365

Home » Three Ways to Insert Currency Symbols in Microsoft Word
Technical Writer and Editor Erin Wright

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Hello! My name is Erin. I am a technical writer and editor who shares step-by-step software tutorials and writing tips for the real world on this blog and YouTube

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Comments

  1. Gé van Gasteren says

    January 17, 2019 at 9:13 am

    My Microsoft Word for Mac 2011 replaces the top row of the keyboard with “combining diacritical marks” when the Option key is held down (that’s more or less the Mac equivalent of Windows’ Alt key).

    This can be very handy sometimes, but it effectively makes the Sterling, Bullet, and some other important characters unavailable through the usual shortcut (pound sterling: Option 3, bullet point: Option 8).

    This seems to happen irrespective of the currently active keyboard layout.

    Bottom line: Maybe you know if Microsoft provided a setting to disable that top-row replacement thing? Or a work-around to make those symbols available in a slightly different way, but still more conveniently than going through the Insert Symbol routine?

    Reply
    • Erin Wright says

      January 17, 2019 at 10:46 am

      Hello, that’s a great question, but I’m afraid I don’t have any suggestions. My own Windows laptop doesn’t offer those shortcuts from the top row of the keyboard. However, I’m inclined to believe that these setting would be controlled by your Mac operating system rather than Word. Best of luck and please let me know if you find a solution. Thank you for reading my blog!

      Reply

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