Last week’s post covered basic guidelines for formatting money in general writing. This week, we’ll look at three ways to insert currency symbols in Microsoft Word:
For simplicity, we’ll concentrate on the euro, pound, and cent signs in these examples.
However, these steps can be modified for all currency symbols available through the font files installed on your computer.
This tutorial is also available as a YouTube video showing all the steps in real time.
Armstrong CBDM or digital meter. Determine flow rate by use of venturi C v performance curves on page 4 or the Armstrong Balancing Slide Rule. The handle of the ARMflo CBV is not designed to be removable. Do not try to take it off the valve, or it may become damaged. If for any reason, the handle is damaged, replace the entire handle / stem. On the Insert tab, in the Symbols group, click the arrow under Equation, and then click Insert New Equation. Under Equation Tools, on the Design tab, in the Symbols group, click the More arrow. Click the arrow next to the name of the symbol set, and then select the symbol set that you want to display. Click the symbol that you want to insert. How to type lambda symbol in Microsoft WordLambda is the 11th letter of the Greek alphabet and is used in many stem fields. The upper-case for lambda is Λ an. Bill Gates Gates in 2017 Born William Henry Gates III (1955-10-28) October 28, 1955 (age 65) Seattle, Washington, U.S. Education Harvard University (dropped out) Occupation Software developer investor entrepreneur Years active 1975–present Known for Co-founder of Microsoft Net worth US$143.8 billion (As of May 15, 2021) Title Co- chairman and co-founder of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The symbols that Microsoft now calls “formatting marks” were previously referred to as “nonprinting characters.” By either name, they are characters that take up space or have a formatting function but do not appear on the printed page: spaces, tab characters, paragraph breaks, and the like.
Watch more than fifty other videos about Microsoft Word and Adobe Acrobat on my YouTube channel.
Please note that the images below are from Microsoft Word for Office 365, which is currently the same as Word 2019. The steps are the same for Word 2016 and Word 2013 and similar for Word 2010.
How to Use the Symbol Dialog Box to Insert Euro, Pound, and Cent Signs
The following twelve steps show how to use Word’s Symbol dialog box to insert euro, pound, and cent signs.
The Symbol dialog box method is also available as a YouTube video, which you can watch on my YouTube channel or in the embedded video player at the end of this post.
1. Place your cursor where the symbol should appear.
2. Select the Insert tab in the ribbon.
3. Select Symbol in the Symbols group.
4. Select More Symbols in the drop-down menu.
5. Select the Symbols tab in the Symbol dialog box.
Insert Euro Signs
(Skip to step 9 for pound and cent signs.)
6. Select Currency Symbols in the Subset drop-down menu.
7. Choose the euro sign in the symbols menu.
8. Select the Insert button.
Insert Pound or Cent Signs
9. Select Latin-1 Supplement in the Subset drop-down menu.
10. Choose the pound or cent sign in the symbols menu.
11. Select the Insert button. (As shown in step 8.)
12. Select the Close button to close the Symbol dialog box.
Pro Tip: You can insert more than one symbol without closing and reopening the Symbol dialog box.
How to Use Alt Codes to Insert Euro, Pound, and Cent Signs
If you have a numeric keypad or a simple way to activate your integrated number keys, you can use Alt codes to insert currency symbols.*
To use Alt codes, place your cursor where the symbol needs to appear and then press and hold the Alt key as you type the sign’s four-digit code:
Euro (€): 0128
Pound (£): 0163
Cent (¢): 0162
*Integrated number keys are usually activated by pressing a combination of function keys such as FN plus NumLk; however, the process differs by computer manufacturer.
How to Use Shortcut Keys to Insert Euro and Cent Signs
You can use preset shortcut keys to insert a variety of symbols, including the euro and cent signs.
Begin by placing your cursor where the symbol needs to appear and then press the appropriate keyboard sequence:
Euro (€): Alt + Ctrl + E
Cent (¢): Ctrl + / + C
You may notice that the Symbol dialog box shows the cent sign’s shortcut key as Ctrl + /,C (Control, forward slash, comma, C) in the Symbol dialog box. This shortcut doesn’t produce a cent sign, and I believe it is a typo in the software’s interface.
Note about the Pound Sign: Word’s preset shortcut key for the pound sign is the same as the Alt code above (Alt + 0163), so it’s difficult to use without a numeric keypad or a simple way to activate your integrated number keys.
Not all symbols have a preset shortcut key. Existing shortcut keys appear at the bottom of the Symbol dialog box.
Further Reading:How to Write Euros and Pounds as Words and Symbols
In 1929, when the song “Ain’t Misbehavin’ ” became a big hit, composers Thomas “Fats” Waller and Harry Brooks probably weren’t too worried about that final apostrophe. Lyricist Andy Razaf may have cared, but he didn’t have to blog about it or promote the song on social media.
I worry about the apostrophe, and I would guess that I’m not the only editor or proofreader who would.
The Problem
The problem with the apostrophe at the end of the song title is that according to Chicago style—and most other styles—song titles are placed in quotation marks when they are mentioned in text.
And when an apostrophe appears next to a quotation mark, it can be hard to tell what’s going on.
This situation is similar to the more common one that occurs when a single quotation mark bumps up next to a double quotation mark. As this blog covered in a recent post, the apostrophe is the same character as the right single quotation mark. And that only adds to the confusion.
Let’s look at some examples.
In the following sentence, the apostrophe in “Ain’t” is clear, but can you identify the one at the end of the song title?
Louis Armstrong’s Hot Five recorded “Ain’t Misbehavin’” for Parlophone in 1929.
What about when the title is in single quotation marks, as in quoted dialogue? Can you sort out the apostrophe from the quotation marks in this example?
“Have you heard the song ‘Ain’t Misbehavin’’?”
Or maybe you’re working for a publisher in the UK or elsewhere who uses single quotation marks:
Louis Armstrong’s Hot Five recorded ‘Ain’t Misbehavin’’ for Parlophone in 1929.
In those last two examples, it looks a lot like there’s a double quotation mark after the title.
“Ain’t Misbehavin’,” Louis Armstrong’s Hot Five, Parlophone R. 462, 1929, label (Internet Archive).
The Solution
Attentive readers will have guessed how to solve the problem from the title and first paragraph of this post. It’s a simple matter of adding a space between the contiguous marks.*
For online environments like this one, CMOS recommends a regular nonbreaking space (see paragraph 6.11). In Unicode, this space is called the “no-break space” and has number 00A0. Many readers will know it by the common abbreviation “nbsp”—the name of its HTML character entity. The no-break space is readily available—you can insert it in Word or Google Docs using the Unicode number or the special characters menu—and it should show up anywhere, on any device, in any font.
In Microsoft Word, a nonbreaking space can be inserted via Insert > Symbol > Special Characters. Or choose the Symbols tab and enter the Unicode number (00A0).
In print, where space is at a premium, a thin space (Unicode 2009) or a hair space (Unicode 200A) may be preferred instead. To get the equivalent of a thin space online—and to ensure that the space doesn’t break at the end of a line—you can use a “narrow no-break space” (Unicode 202F).†
You need to use a nonbreaking space because if you simply hit the space bar, you risk stranding a closing quotation mark at the beginning of a new line (or an opening quotation mark at the end of a line)—a case of misbehaving punctuation you would be wise to prevent, even if it takes a little extra effort.‡
Here are the examples from the previous section, but with nonbreaking spaces added between the final apostrophe and the right (or closing) quotation mark that follows:
Louis Armstrong’s Hot Five recorded “Ain’t Misbehavin’ ” for Parlophone in 1929.
or
Louis Armstrong’s Hot Five recorded ‘Ain’t Misbehavin’ ’ for Parlophone in 1929.
and
“Have you heard the song ‘Ain’t Misbehavin’ ’?”
It’s all still a little complicated—but the results are significantly more legible, don’t you think?
“But what about periods and commas?”
In Chicago style, a period or a comma always comes before a closing quotation mark. And when that happens, the punctuation at the baseline supplies the needed space up above.
So, for example, in the middle of a sentence you would write “Ain’t Misbehavin’,” and at the end you would write “Ain’t Misbehavin’.”
Note that punctuation never precedes the apostrophe, because the apostrophe is part of the word—and that’s true in any style (see CMOS 6.118).
Compare the case of a single quotation mark next to a double quotation mark—for example, when a song title that doesn’t end in an apostrophe is mentioned in quoted dialogue and appears at the end of a sentence. In that case, a period would precede the single quotation mark, so in the following example (which also features two contiguous opening quotation marks), three nonbreaking spaces are needed:
“ ‘Ain’t Misbehavin’ ’ is great, but I prefer ‘Mood Indigo.’ ”
Here’s that same example, this time with the nonbreaking spaces highlighted in red:
“‘Ain’t Misbehavin’’ is great, but I prefer ‘Mood Indigo.’”
“But what if an apostrophe comes at the beginning of a word?”**
When an apostrophe comes at the beginning of the first word in a song title, it’s best to add a space between the opening quotation mark and the apostrophe, even though in most fonts the marks will be oriented in opposite directions (and therefore somewhat easier to distinguish):
“ ’Deed I Do,” composed in 1926 by Fred Rose, with lyrics by Walter Hirsch, has been recorded by many artists.
For an illustration of this scenario in CMOS, see the last three examples in paragraph 14.94.
* * *
Applying proper spacing around quotation marks and apostrophes is easy to do, and it will make your text more legible. So the next time someone asks you if you know what to do when quotation marks and apostrophes bump into each other, you’ll have an answer for them: “ ’Deed I do.” ?
* An exception: in a monospaced font, each character takes up the same amount of space, so a single quotation mark or apostrophe next to a double quotation mark will be visually distinct, and you won’t need to add a space between the two marks (e.g., “Ain’t Misbehavin’”).
† For technical details on all of this, including lists of breaking and nonbreaking spaces, consult the latest version of the “Unicode Line Breaking Algorithm.” Note that the rules in that report may be implemented in different ways depending on the application. For example, in MS Word and Google Docs, thin and hair spaces act as nonbreaking spaces—even though they are listed as breaking spaces in the report.
‡ Not using any space between an apostrophe and a quotation mark, or between a single and a double quotation mark, has the advantage of never stranding a mark—which is probably why this approach seems to be so popular. But for the sake of your readers, it’s best to add a nonbreaking space.
** “But can I start a sentence with ‘But’?” For an answer to that question and many others, see But Can I Start a Sentence with “But”? Advice from the Chicago Style Q&A, available from The Chicago Manual of Style Bookstore.
Top image: Gramophone, by R. Halfpaap, licensed under CC BY 2.0.
Editor’s Corner posts at Shop Talk reflect the opinions of its authors and not necessarily those of The Chicago Manual of Style or the University of Chicago Press.
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Russell Harper (@cpyeditor) is editor of The Chicago Manual of Style Online Q&A and was the principal reviser of the last two editions of The Chicago Manual of Style. He also contributed to the revisions of the last two editions of Kate L. Turabian’s A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations.
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