Quick Help to Insert a Pound sign
Below table contains the Pound symbol if you want to copy and paste it into your work. It also has the symbol Alt code as well as the keyboard shortcut.
| Name | Pound sign |
| Symbol | £ |
| Alt Code | 0163 |
| Shortcut (windows) | Alt+0163 |
| Shortcut (Mac) | Option+3 |
To use the keyboard shortcut, first switch on the Num Lock. Then press Alt+0163 on the numeric keypad to insert the pound symbol into your Word document.
Mac users should press Option+3 on the keyboard.
With the above table, you can insert the Pound symbol into Word.
However, if you are not satisfied with this quick help, and would want to find out more ways to perform this task, read on.
Below is a detailed guide on how to insert the Pound symbol using several methods including a keyboard shortcut, using the Alt code, using AutoCorrect, or simply copy and paste.
In Microsoft Word, you can effortlessly type some special symbols directly from your keyboard. One is the copyright symbol ©, which you can insert by entering the text (C) and letting the AutoCorrect handle the rest.
There are other symbols which are readily available as second keys on the keyboard. One is the dollar symbol ($), which you can insert by pressing Shift+4.
Other symbols, however, aren’t that easy to type using the keyboard. One is the Pound symbol (£).
To insert this sign, you need to tap Word’s library of symbols, or use the symbol’s Alt code, or a keyboard shortcut.
How to Insert a Pound symbol in Word
In this tutorial, I’ve explained some of the easy ways to insert or type the pound sign in Word.
Note: Even though I demonstrate how to insert the pound symbol, the same methods can be used to insert any symbol into Word and even Excel.
Below are the various ways you can insert the Pound sign in Word.
Using the insert symbol dialog
The Symbol dialog is a library of all symbols in Word where you can search for the symbol you want to insert.
Below are the steps to guide you:
- On the Insert tab, click the Symbol button and choose More Symbols…
These few clicks will display the Symbol dialog box. Now it’s time to hunt for the Pound symbol.
- Locate the Symbol
Scroll down or up until you find the Pound sign in the symbol’s library.
To easily find this symbol, look at the bottom right area of the Symbol dialog box and select Unicode (hex) in the from: drop-down. Then look again at the top right area of the dialog and select Latin-1 Supplement in the Subset: drop-down.
This will filter out all the Latin-1 Supplement symbols including the Pound symbol you want to insert.
- Select the Pound symbol, and then click Insert.
Just like that, the symbol will be inserted into your document.
Alternatively, you can double-click on the Pound symbol to insert it into your document.
Using the Pound symbol alt code (Shortcut)
Every symbol in MS Word has a character code which you can use to insert that character or symbol into your document. This code is well known as Alt code.
The Alt code for the Pound symbol is 0163.
Below are the steps to type the pound symbol in MS Word using the alt code:
- Turn on your Num Lock. To turn on Num Lock on laptops without numeric keypad, press Fn key plus NumLk.
- Whilst holding down the [Alt] key, type [0163] on the numeric keypad (on the right for PC).
- Then release the [Alt] key. The Pound (£) symbol should appear in your document.
NOTE: Click here to learn how to get the numeric keypad on a laptop with no numeric keypad.
Copy and paste the Pound symbol
Another simple way to insert the pound symbol is to copy and paste it into your document.
If you already used it once in your work, you can just copy and paste it again. Or you can copy it from somewhere else such as a web page.
Below is the Pound symbol if you want to copy and paste:
£
Using Word AutoCorrect to type a Pound sign
Another way to obtain the Pound symbol is through AutoCorrect. This technique is a very interesting one.
The AutoCorrect is a facility designed for correcting spelling mistakes like adn to and.
Using this feature, you can assign a code to the Pound symbol (such as PSYM).
This way, whenever you type the text PSYM, Word will think that you actually wanted to type the Pound symbol (£) and will convert it to the symbol automatically.
What makes this approach interesting is that you can assign any code you want to the symbol and Word will insert a Pound sign whenever you type the code assigned.
Without further ado, here are the steps to use AutoCorrect to insert the Pound symbol in Word.
- Go to Insert→Symbol→More Symbols…
- Click to select the Pound symbol.
- Click on the AutoCorrect… button to display the AutoCorrect dialog.
In the AutoCorrect dialog, enter the following:
- Replace: PSYM (or any AutoCorrect text you want to assign to the Pound symbol)
- From: £
You can press Alt+0163 (with numeric keypad) to insert the symbol or copy and paste from a document or a webpage.
- Click Add, then click OK.
Word will automatically insert the Pound symbol as soon as you type PSYM anywhere in your document.
Below are a few things to note when you are using the AutoCorrect Method to insert the Pound sign.
- AutoCorrect is case sensitive. This means that if you type psym (in lowercase), MS Word will not convert it into the Pound symbol unless you type PSYM (in uppercase).
- If there is any text immediately before or after PSYM, Word will consider the code as part of the text and hence will not convert it to the Pound symbol. For example, 10PSYM will not get converted, but 10 PSYM will get converted to 10 £.