How to type symbols on any keyboard (Windows, Mac, phone, Chromebook)

Alt codes, Option combos, long-press keys and Ctrl + Shift + U explained, plus a table of 12 everyday symbols with the shortcut for every platform.

Updated 25 September 2026

Copying a symbol from a page like the symbols hub is the fastest way to get one into a message. But if you type ° or © several times a day, it is worth learning the shortcut your own keyboard already has. Every operating system hides a different method, and none of them is discoverable on its own. This guide walks through all of them, then puts the twelve symbols people ask about most into one table.

Windows: Alt codes, Alt + X and the emoji panel

The oldest trick on Windows is the Alt code. Hold the Alt key, type a number on the numeric keypad, then release Alt. Alt + 0176 produces °, Alt + 0169 produces ©, and Alt + 3 produces ♥. Two rules trip people up:

• The digits must come from the keypad on the right of a full-size keyboard, with Num Lock on. The number row above the letters does nothing. On a laptop without a keypad, look for tiny keypad digits printed on the J, K, L, U, I, O keys and hold Fn while typing them; if your laptop has no such labels, Alt codes simply will not work and you need one of the other methods.
• Codes with a leading zero (0176) and without (176) are different tables. The four-digit codes with a zero follow the Windows-1252 layout, which matches what you see in most apps. The three-digit codes without the zero use the old DOS table, which is why Alt + 3 is a heart and Alt + 1 is a smiley.

In Microsoft Word and a handful of other Office apps there is a cleaner alternative. Type the hexadecimal Unicode number of the symbol, then press Alt + X, and Word swaps the number for the character. 2665 then Alt + X gives ♥; 2713 then Alt + X gives ✓. Because this uses the real Unicode number, it reaches thousands of characters that have no Alt code at all. It does not work in browsers, Notepad or chat apps.

For everything else, press Win + . (the Windows key and the full stop) to open the emoji panel. In Windows 11 it has tabs for emoji, GIFs, kaomoji and symbols; the symbols tab is organised into punctuation, currency, Latin letters, geometric shapes, maths and language symbols, with a search box. The older Character Map app (search the Start menu for “charmap”) still exists and is handy for finding a character’s code so you can use it elsewhere.

Mac: Option combinations and the Character Viewer

macOS assigns symbols to the Option key (labelled ⌥, and Alt on some keyboards). Hold Option and press a letter or number, and you get whatever is mapped there on your keyboard layout. On the US layout the useful ones are:

• Option + Shift + 8 → ° (degree)
• Option + 8 → • (bullet)
• Option + G → ©, Option + R → ®, Option + 2 → ™
• Option + Shift + 2 → €, Option + 3 → £, Option + Y → ¥, Option + 4 → ¢
• Option + Shift + = → ±, Option + / → ÷, Option + V → √
• Option + ; → … (ellipsis), Option + - → – (en dash), Option + Shift + - → — (em dash)
• Option + 6 → §, Option + 7 → ¶, Option + 1 → ¡, Option + Shift + / → ¿

Other layouts (UK, French, German and so on) move these around, so if a combo gives you the wrong character, open System Settings → Keyboard → Input Sources and check which layout is active. Holding Option with the on-screen Keyboard Viewer open shows every mapping for your layout at once.

Anything not on the Option layer, including hearts, arrows, ticks and the multiplication sign, comes from the Character Viewer. Press Ctrl + Cmd + Space (or the 🌐 Globe key on newer keyboards, or tap Edit → Emoji & Symbols in any app). It opens as a small emoji popup; click the icon in its top-right corner to expand it into the full browser with categories for arrows, maths symbols, pictographs and every writing system. Double-click a character to insert it, and use the search field to find one by name.

iPhone and Android: long-press and text replacement

Phone keyboards hide alternate characters under the keys you can already see. Press and hold a key and a small tray of variants slides out; slide your finger to the one you want and let go.

On the iPhone keyboard, switch to the 123 layer, then:

• hold 0 for °
• hold $ for ¢, €, £, ¥, ₩ and ₽
• hold - for –, — and •
• hold . for …, hold & for §, hold % for ‰
• hold ! or ? for ¡ and ¿
• hold “ for „, “, ” and the « » guillemets

Copyright, registered and trademark signs live on the emoji keyboard under the Symbols category, and the same category has ✔ and ✖ as emoji. Gboard on Android works the same way: tap ?123, then =\< for the second symbols page, which carries ©, ®, ™, °, ±, ×, ÷, √, π, § and ¶ directly, with more variants under a long press.

For a symbol you use constantly, set up a shortcut so a short code expands into it. On iPhone go to Settings → General → Keyboard → Text Replacement, tap +, paste the symbol into Phrase and type something like ;deg into Shortcut. In Gboard open Settings → Dictionary → Personal dictionary, choose your language, tap + and fill in the word and its shortcut. From then on, typing the shortcut and a space produces the symbol. This is also the only comfortable way to type a text heart ♥ or a ✓ on a phone, since neither appears on the standard keyboard; the heart symbols page has the full set to copy into a replacement.

Chromebook and Linux: Ctrl + Shift + U

ChromeOS and most Linux desktops share one method for typing any character by its Unicode number. Press Ctrl + Shift + U, release, type the hexadecimal code, then press Space or Enter. On a Chromebook you will see an underlined u appear while you type the digits; on GNOME-based Linux the same thing happens in GTK apps such as Files, Text Editor and Firefox. So Ctrl + Shift + U, b0, Space gives °, and Ctrl + Shift + U, 2665, Space gives ♥. Leading zeros can be left out.

Chromebooks also have a picker: press Launcher + Shift + Space (the Launcher key sits where Caps Lock would be) to open the emoji panel, which at the time of writing includes a symbols tab and search. On Linux, KDE and some terminal apps do not support the Ctrl + Shift + U sequence, and there the usual fallback is the Compose key. Enable it in your keyboard settings, then press Compose followed by a mnemonic pair: o o for °, c o for ©, t m for ™, + - for ±, x x for ×, < 3 for ♥, . . for …, and 1 2 for ½. Failing all that, GNOME’s Characters app and KDE’s KCharSelect both let you search by name and copy.

Twelve common symbols, every method

Hex codes below are what you type after Ctrl + Shift + U on Chromebook and Linux, and before Alt + X in Word. Where a platform has no dedicated shortcut, use its picker (Win + ., Character Viewer, emoji keyboard) or a text replacement.

The degree sign has the widest support of the lot and is the one most people learn first, so it gets a full page of its own with variants and examples at degree symbol. Ticks and crosses in every weight are on the check mark symbols page, and arrows, which have no keyboard shortcut anywhere except via a code, are collected on the arrow symbols page.

When a shortcut does not work

A few things can go wrong even when you press the right keys. The app may swallow the shortcut for its own purposes: some games and remote-desktop clients intercept Alt, and Discord uses Ctrl + Shift + U for underline. Try the picker instead. The symbol may also insert correctly and still display as a box, which means the app’s font lacks it rather than that the shortcut failed; why fonts show as boxes explains what to do about that. And on Windows, a symbol that works in Word but not in a browser is almost always an Alt + X habit carrying over to an app that does not support it.

Finally, remember that decorative symbols are read aloud by screen readers using their Unicode names, so a line of ✧･ﾟ sparkles from the aesthetic symbols collection sounds much longer than it looks. Use them where they add something and keep functional text plain.

Quick checklist

• Windows: Alt + keypad digits with Num Lock on, Alt + X in Word, Win + . for the panel.
• Mac: Option combos for the common signs, Ctrl + Cmd + Space for everything else.
• Phone: long-press the closest key, or create a text replacement for anything missing.
• Chromebook and Linux: Ctrl + Shift + U, hex code, Space.
• Copy from the site when you need a symbol once; set a shortcut when you need it daily.