How to Type Pound Sterling Symbol on Keyboard

In today’s article, you’ll learn how to use your keyboard to type the Pound Sterling Symbol (£) anywhere like Word/Excel using Windows or Mac.

Just before we begin, I’ll like to tell you that you can also use the button below to copy and paste the Pound symbol into your work for free.

However, if you just want to type this symbol on your keyboard, the actionable steps below will show you how.

Pound Sterling Symbol [£] Quick Help

To type the Pound Sterling symbol on Mac, press Option + 3 shortcut on your keyboard. For Windows users, simply press down the Alt key and type 0163 (i.e. Pound Sterling alt codes) using the numeric keypad, then let go of the Alt key. These keystrokes work in MS Word, Excel and PowerPoint, on both Windows and Mac.

Below table contains all the shortcuts you need to type the Pound Symbol on keyboard.

Symbol Name	Pound sign
Symbol	£
Alt Code	0163
Shortcut for Windows	Alt+0163
Shortcut for Mac	Option + 3
Shortcut in Word (Win)	00A3, Alt+X

The above quick guide provides some useful shortcuts and alt codes on how to type the Pound Sterling sign on both Windows and Mac. However, below are some other methods you can also use to insert this symbol into your work such as Word or Excel document.

Type Pound Sterling [£] symbol in Word/Excel

Microsoft Office provides several methods for typing Pound Sterling or inserting symbols that do not have dedicated keys on the keyboard.

In this section, I will make available for you five different methods you can use to type or insert the Pound Sterling sign on your PC, like in MS Office (ie. Word, Excel, or PowerPoint) for both Mac and Windows users.

Without any further ado, let’s get started.

Using the Pound Sterling symbol [£] Alt Code (Windows Only)

The Pound Symbol alt code is 0163.

Even though the Pound Sterling symbol does not have a dedicated key on the keyboard, you can still type it on the keyboard with the Alt code method. To do this, press and hold the Alt key whilst pressing the Pound Sterling symbol Alt code (0163) using the numeric keypad.

This method works on Windows only. And your keyboard must also have a numeric keypad.

Below is a break-down of the steps you can take to type the Pound Sterling sign on your Windows PC:

• Place your insertion pointer where you need the Pound symbol.
• Press and hold one of the Alt keys on your keyboard.
• Whilst holding on to the Alt key, press the Pound Sterling symbol’s alt code (0163). You must use the numeric keypad to type the alt code. If you are using a laptop without the numeric keypad, this method may not work for you. On some laptops, there’s a hidden numeric keypad which you can enable by pressing Fn+NmLk on the keyboard.
• Release the Alt key after typing the Pound sign Alt code to insert the Symbol into your document.

This is how you may type this symbol in Word using the Alt Code method.

Using the Pound symbol Shortcut (Mac and Windows)

For Mac users, the keyboard shortcut for the Pound Sterling Symbol is Option + 3. For Windows users, use the Alt Code method by pressing down the [Alt] key whilst typing the Pound sign alt code which is 0163. You must use the numeric keypad to type the alt code. Also ensure that your Num Lock key is turned on.

Below is a breakdown of the Pound Sterling symbol shortcut for Mac:

• First of all, place the insertion pointer where you need to type the £ symbol.
• Now, press Option + 3 simultaneously on your keyboard to insert the symbol.

Below is a breakdown of the Pound Sterling symbol shortcut for Windows:

• Place the insertion pointer at the desired location.
• Press and hold down the Alt key
• While pressing down the Alt key, type 0163 using the numeric keypad to insert the symbol.

These are the steps you may use to type Pound Sterling in Word or Excel.

Copy and Paste Pound Sterling sign

Another easy way to get the Pound Sterling symbol on any PC is to use my favorite method: copy and paste.

All you have to do is to copy the symbol from somewhere like a web page, or the character map for windows users, and head over to where you need the symbol (say in Word or Excel), then hit Ctrl+V to paste.

Below is the symbol for you to copy and paste into your Word document. Just select it and press Ctrl+C to copy, switch over to Microsoft Word, place your insertion pointer at the desired location and press Ctrl+V to paste.

£

Alternatively, just use the copy button at the beginning of this post.

For windows users, obey the following instructions to copy and paste the Pound Sterling symbol using the character map dialog box.

• Click on the Start button and search for Character Map. The Character Map app will appear in the search results, click to open.

• The Character Map dialog will appear. Click to check the Advanced view check-box to expand the dialog box for more advanced options.

• On the advanced view, type Pound in the Search box.

• You should now see the Pound Sterling on the character map dialog. If you can’t see it, then you should look through the library of symbols to spot it. When found, double click it to select. Alternatively, click on the Select button.
• After you select the symbol by double-clicking it, it should appear in the Character to copy: field, then click on the Copy button to copy the symbol.

• Switch to your Microsoft Word or Excel document, place the insertion pointer at the desired location and press Ctrl+V to paste.

This is how you may use the Character Map dialog to copy and paste any symbol on Windows PC.

Using insert Symbol dialog box (Word, Excel, PowerPoint)

The insert symbol dialog box is a library of symbols from where you can insert any symbol into your Word document with just a couple of mouse clicks.

Obey the following steps to insert the Pound Sterling Symbol in Word using the insert symbol dialog box.

• Open your Word document.
• Click to place the insertion pointer where you wish to insert the symbol.
• Go to the Insert tab.

• In the Symbols category, click on the Symbol drop-down and select the More Symbols button.

• The Symbol dialog box will appear. In the Subset drop-down list, select Latin-1 Supplement to display symbols in this category which includes the Pound symbol.
• Select the symbol and click on the Insert button. Alternatively, double click on the symbol to insert it into your Word document.

• Close the dialog.

The symbol will then be inserted exactly where you placed the insertion pointer.

These are the steps you may use to insert the Pound Sterling symbol in Word.

Conclusion

As you can see, there are several different methods you can use to type the Pound sign in Microsoft Word.

Using the shortcuts for both Windows and Mac makes the fastest option for this task. Shortcuts are always fast.

Thank you very much for reading this blog.

If you have anything thing to say or questions to ask concerning the Pound Sterling symbol, please drop it in the comments.