You can use Alt codes in programs like Excel and Word to insert special characters such as £ (Alt 0163), © (Alt 0169), ° [degree symbol] (Alt 0176) and ½ (Alt 0189)
You can also use Alt codes to insert commonly used non-English characters that are not found on a standard US keyboard such as á ("a" with acute accent - Alt 160), ö ("o" with diaeresis - Alt 148), ñ (enye - alt 164) and ç (cedilla - Alt 135)
1. What is an ALT code?
Alt codes are based largely on ASCII, which stands for "American Standard Code for Information Interchange". Each ASCII code represents a different character. It was developed in the sixties as a standard character set for computers and electronic devices. The character sets used in modern computers, in HTML, and on the Internet, are all based on ASCII.
2. How to insert an Alt code
Just hold the ALT key and type the appropriate 3 or 4 digit code. Here are some of the more useful ones.
You must use the numeric keypad on the right hand side of an extended keyboard. Make sure that the NumLock is switched on. If you use the numbers along the top of the regular keyboard, you will inadvertently activate a tab, command or Quick Access function.
3. Currency Symbols
£ ALT + 0163
¥ ALT + 0165
¢ ALT + 0162
€ ALT + 0128
4. Legal symbols
© ALT + 0169
® ALT + 0174
§ ALT + 0167
™ ALT + 0153
5. Mathematical symbols
° ALT + 248 / 0176
¹ ALT + 251
² ALT + 253
³ ALT + 252
÷ ALT + 246
¼ ALT + 0188
½ ALT + 0189
¾ ALT + 0190
± ALT + 0241
6. Chevrons
« ALT + 174 / 0171
» ALT + 175 / 0187
7. Diacritical characters (non-English letters not found on a standard US keyboard)
à ALT + 0195
å ALT + 0229
Å ALT + 143
å ALT + 134
Ä ALT + 142
ä ALT + 132
À ALT + 0192
à ALT + 133
Á ALT + 0193
á ALT + 160
 ALT + 0194
â ALT + 131
Ç ALT + 128
ç ALT + 135
É ALT + 144
é ALT + 130
È ALT + 0200
è ALT + 138
Ê ALT + 202
ê ALT + 136
Ë ALT + 203
ë ALT + 137
Ï ALT + 0207
ï ALT + 139
Î ALT + 0206
î ALT + 140
Í ALT + 0205
í ALT + 161
Ì ALT + 0204
ì ALT + 141
Ñ ALT + 165
ñ ALT + 164
Ö ALT + 153
ö ALT + 148
Ô ALT + 212
ô ALT + 147
Ō ALT + 229
ō ALT + 228
Ò ALT + 0210
ò ALT + 149
Ó ALT + 0211
ó ALT + 162
Ø ALT + 157
Ü ALT + 154
ü ALT + 129
Û ALT + 0219
û ALT + 150
Ù ALT + 0217
ù ALT + 151
Ú ALT + 233
ú ALT + 163
ÿ ALT + 152
8. What next?
I hope you found plenty of value in this post. I'd love to hear your biggest takeaway in the comments below together with any questions you may have.
Have a fantastic day.
About the author
Jason Morrell
Jason Morrell is a professional trainer, consultant and course creator who lives on the glorious Gold Coast in Queensland, Australia.
He helps people of all levels unleash and leverage the power contained within Microsoft Office by delivering training, troubleshooting services and taking on client projects. He loves to simplify tricky concepts and provide helpful, proven, actionable advice that can be implemented for quick results.
Purely for amusement he sometimes talks about himself in the third person.
SHARE
I want to write N2 (nitrogen) with 2 in subscript. I am looking for character formula in excel
I’ve been on a hunt and I can’t find anything that works. The common suggestions are Alt + 2082 and Alt + 8322, neither of which works in Excel.
The best suggestion I have is to highlight the ‘2’ then press ALt HFNB Enter. This is the keyboard shortcut to activate the Home ribbon, open the Format Cells dialog and check/tick the Subscript box. Alternatively, press Ctrl 1 then Alt B Enter.
If anyone has the Alt Code and wants to claim the bragging rights, feel free to share!
Any idea whats the Alt code for Up Arrow? I swore I saw it before but no idea what combination I punched…
Alt 24 = up arrow
Alt 25 = down arrow
Alt 26 = left arrow
Alt 27 = right arrow
Hi,
Is there an alt key for the += key on the keyboard? Or any of the keys on the keyboard eg !1 @2 #3 etc.
Not that I’m aware of, sorry.
Hi. I’m having trouble finding ALT for : not equal, approx., sq root
Hi Fabio
Approx – ALT 247
Square Root – ALT 251
Not equals – is usually ALT 2260 or ALT 8800 but some ALT codes including this one do not work in Excel.
Other codes that you may find useful are:
Similar – ALT 126
Equivalent to – ALT 240
Greater than or equal to – ALT 242
Less than or equal to – ALT 243
Infinity – ALT 236
Pi – ALT 227
You can also choose Insert | Symbol then change the subset to Mathematical Operators and insert the symbol manually.
I hope that helps
Alt+227 doesn’t work for me.
Alt+227 is not on the list. What were you attempting to get?