5 ways to insert the Section Symbol (§) in Word (or Excel)

Ready to learn how to insert the section symbol in Word?

Awesome!

This post contains 5 easy ways to insert this symbol into Microsoft Word.

Some of the methods shown here can also be used to insert symbols into other Office apps like Excel, PowerPoint or Access.

Let’s get started!

Insert Section symbol in Word (Quick Help)

The table below is your quick rescue. If you don’t have the time to scan through the details, below is a table to help you.

It contains the section symbol you can easily copy and paste into your work. It also has the section symbol Alt code as well as the keyboard shortcut.

Name	Section Sign
Symbol	§
Alt Code	0167
Shortcut (windows)	Alt+0167 Or Alt+21
Shortcut (Mac)	Option+6

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To type the section symbol on windows, hold down the [Alt] key, then type the symbol Alt code (0167) on the numeric keypad, then release the [Alt] key. (Press Fn key plus NumLk to turn on Num Lock for small laptops that has no numeric keypad). To type this symbol on Mac, press Option+6.

The above information is enough to help you insert the section symbol into your document.

However, if you are not satisfied with this quick help, below is a blow by blow guide on how to insert the Section symbol, or any other symbol in Word, Excel or PowerPoint.

What is the Section Symbol?

The section sign (§) is a typographical glyph for referencing individual numbered sections of a document, frequently used when referring to legal code. Source:

Wikipedia

Some symbols can easily be spotted on the keyboard and inserted by simultaneously pressing some keys on the keyboard.

Other symbols, however, aren’t that easy to type using a keyboard shortcut since they are not found on the keyboard. One of these symbols is Section symbol (§).

Typing becomes very difficult and slow for the typist if he or she needs to insert some of these symbols regularly into his work.

Inserting symbols don’t have to be that cumbersome. Especially after reading this post.

How to Insert Section symbol in Word

Today I am going to show you all the easy ways to insert the Section symbol (§) into Word.

NOTE: Even though I demonstrate using the Section symbol (§), the same approach can be used to insert any other symbol you can think of.

Below are the various ways to insert the Section symbol.

Insert Section symbol with Alt code

NOTE: This method can be used to insert Section Symbol in all windows applications including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access, and even on the web.

Every character or symbol has a character code. With this character code, you can insert any symbol using your PC Keyboard. It is popularly known as Alt code.

The Alt code for the Section symbol is 0167.  

To insert this symbol (using the Alt code), follow these four simple steps:

• Place the insertion pointer at where you want to insert the symbol.
• Turn on the Num Lock.
• Hold down the [Alt] key and type the Alt code – 0167 or 21
• Then release the Alt.

As soon as you release the Alt code, the section symbol should be inserted into your document.

Copy and paste the Section symbol

This is the easiest option to insert the section symbol into your work.

Irrespective of the software you are working with, you can always copy and paste any symbol you want to insert.

You can copy and paste again if you have already inserted the symbol into your document. Or you can copy it from elsewhere like a webpage.

Below is the Section symbol if you want to copy and paste it into your work:

§

Using Insert Symbol Dialog (Special Characters Tab)

This method and the next doesn’t involve using the keyboard. Therefore, it can only be used in applications that have the insert symbol function such as Office Word, Excel, PowerPoint or Access.

Without further ado, below are the steps:

• Go to Insert→Symbols→More Symbols…

The Symbol dialog box will appear.

• Click on the Special Character Tab.
• Locate the Section sign in the list and click to select it.
• Click Insert then Close.

The section symbol will now be inserted into your document.

Using Insert Symbol Dialog (Symbols Tab)

This method is very similar to the previous one.

Let’s see how similar they are in the steps below:

• On the Insert tab, click the Symbol button and Click More Symbols…

The Symbols dialog box will display. It’s now time to look for the symbol you want to insert (the Section Symbol).

• Locate the Symbol

Search for the symbol by scrolling up or down using the scroll bar.

To easily find the Section symbol in the dialog box, 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 from the Subset: drop-down.

This way, only the Latin symbols including the Section symbol will show in the visible area of the Symbols dialog.

• Click to select the symbol, and then click Insert. Alternatively, you can just double-click on the symbol to insert it into your document, then close the dialog.

• After inserting, close the Symbol dialog box.

This is how you may insert a Section symbol into Word/Excel/PowerPoint/Access using the insert symbol dialog.

Using AutoCorrect to type the Section symbol

Another way to obtain the Section symbol is through the use of the AutoCorrect feature.

It is a facility designed for correcting spelling mistakes such as adn to and.

Using this feature, you can assign an AutoCorrect text to the Section symbol (like SECSYM).

This way, whenever you type the text SECSYM, Word will think that you actually wanted to type the section sign (§) and will convert it for you automatically.

The interesting thing about this approach is that you can assign any text you want to any symbol and Word will be more than glad to insert the symbol whenever you type the text.

Without further ado, below are the steps you can use to assign AutoCorrect text to symbols.

• On the Insert tab, click the Symbol button and choose More Symbols…

The Symbol dialog appears.

• Locate the Section symbol, then click to select it.
• Click on the AutoCorrect… button to display the AutoCorrect dialog.

In the AutoCorrect dialog box, enter the following:

• Replace: SECSYM (or any text you want to assign to the symbol)
• With: §

• Click Add, then click OK.

Word will automatically insert the Section symbol into your document whenever you type SECSYM.

Below are some few things to note when you are using the AutoCorrect Method to insert the Section symbol.

• AutoCorrect is case sensitive. This means that if you type secsym (in lowercase), Word will not convert it into the Section symbol unless you type SECSYM (in uppercase).
• If there is any text before or after the AutoCorrect text, Word will consider the AutoCorrect text as part of the text and hence will not convert it to the Section symbol. For example, XSECSYM will not get converted, but X SECSYM will get converted to X §.