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 Word:
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.
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.
3. Select Symbol in the Symbols group.
4. Select More Symbols in the drop-down menu.
5. Select the Symbols tab in the Symbol dialog box.
Insert Euro Signs
(Skip to step 9 for pound and cent signs.)
6. Select Currency Symbols in the Subset drop-down menu.
7. Choose the euro sign in the symbols menu.
8. Select the Insert button.
Insert Pound or Cent Signs
9. Select Latin-1 Supplement in the Subset drop-down menu.
10. Choose the pound or cent sign in the symbols menu.
11. Select the Insert button. (As shown in step 8.)
12. Select the Close button to close the Symbol dialog box.
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.
Further Reading: How to Write Euros and Pounds as Words and Symbols
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?
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!