Pound £ symbol in Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook

Pound £ symbol in Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook

Type the Pound Sterling £ currency symbol into Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint or Outlook. Both in Office for Windows and Office for Mac.

£ symbol is easy on a UK keyboard but for other keyboards there’s no specific key for Pound.

Pound is used for British Pounds Sterling and also other ‘pound’ currencies like the Egyptian Pound.

In the US there’s also the ‘Pound key’ # or Hash symbol that’s above the 3 key on the top row of the US layout keyboard.

Pound can look different

The Pound symbol has slightly different looks depending on the font. Some are plain with equal line widths, other more ornate with serifs, loops or even a double horizontal line.

Pound £ codes

These are the important code numbers or values you’ll need to enter the Pound or £

Decimal: 163 Hex: 00A3 or just A3

Web: £ or £ or £

(web codes aren’t used in Microsoft Office, we’ve included them for the sake of completeness.)

Word and Outlook

The Pound £ sign does NOT have an inbuilt shortcut in Word.

Use the standard Word Alt + X symbol shortcut A3 + Alt + X

Once in a document you can copy it to AutoCorrect and make your own shortcut.

Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook

Insert | Symbols | Symbol and look for the Pound symbol. It’s not far down the character list, just after the lower-case letters.

Windows

In Windows there are several shortcuts to enter the degree character into any program but they use a numeric keypad, not the number row above the letters.

Alt + 163 or Alt + 00A3

Windows Character Map

The Windows Character Map accessory in all Windows releases.

Character Map has a search feature, something missing from the Insert | Symbol in Office.

MacOS and Office for Mac inserting characters

Type Pound £ on a Mac with Option + 3 aka Option + #

On a Mac, press the Command + Control + Spacebar shortcut to open the Character Viewer.

Search for ” Pound ” and the Viewer should find the symbol you need. Despite the name Character Viewer, the Apple system tool will also insert characters into any program, including Office for Mac.

Office for Mac has an ‘Advanced’ Insert Symbol feature which can display symbols like Pound.