Symbol Shortcuts Not Working in Word? Fix Alt+X and Alt Codes

Alt+X converts the hexadecimal code immediately to the left of the cursor into its character. It is precise about what immediately means.

• No space between the code and the cursor. Typing 00B0 with a trailing space gives Word nothing to convert.
• Valid hex only. Digits 0 to 9 and letters A to F. A typo such as 00G0 fails silently with no error.
• Not in Word Online. The browser version does not implement it at all — use Insert, Symbol there.
• Not always in text boxes, shapes or equation fields. Convert in the body and paste it in.

A useful detail: Alt+X works in reverse too. Put the cursor after an existing character and press it to see that character's code point, which is a quick way to identify a symbol somebody else typed.

This one confuses people for years, and the rule is short: the leading zero selects the table.

• Alt + 0176 → ° the degree sign, from the Windows-1252 table
• Alt + 176 → ░ a shading block, from the original OEM code page

Both codes are valid, they just address different tables. Nearly every published Alt code for a punctuation or currency symbol assumes the four-digit form with the zero, so include it.

The other two requirements are unchanged from the operating system: Num Lock must be on, and the digits must come from the number pad rather than the row above the letters. On a laptop with no pad, seeAlt codes without a number pad, and the difference between Word's behaviour and Excel's is covered inAlt codes in Word versus Excel.

You type the character you want and Word replaces it a fraction of a second later. That is AutoCorrect or AutoFormat As You Type, and the single most useful thing to know is thatCtrl + Z pressed immediately reverts the correction rather than your typing.

To stop it permanently, open File, Options, Proofing, AutoCorrect Options. The rules that catch symbols most often are:

• Straight quotes with smart quotes — turns ' into ’ and " into “ ”
• Hyphens with dash — turns -- into an em dash
• Ordinals with superscript — turns 1st into 1ˢᵗ
• Fractions with fraction character — turns 1/2 into ½
• The replacement table itself, where (c) becomes © and (r) becomes ®

Whether the smart-quote substitution matters depends entirely on where the text is going, which is the subject ofcurly versus straight quotes. For the general case seeautocorrect changing symbols.

If even Ctrl + B fails to embolden text, the problem is bigger than symbols and there are three things to try in order.

1. Reset the shortcut set. File, Options, Customize Ribbon, Customize beside Keyboard shortcuts, then Reset All. A customised set stored in the template can suppress the defaults.
2. Start in Safe Mode. Hold Ctrl while launching Word, or runwinword /safe. If shortcuts return, an add-in is intercepting them — re-enable add-ins one at a time from File, Options, Add-ins.
3. Rename Normal.dotm. Close Word, find the file under%appdata%\Microsoft\Templates, rename it, and reopen. Word rebuilds a clean template. You lose custom styles and macros stored there, so copy it somewhere first.

If shortcuts also fail outside Word, the cause is system-wide rather than Word-specific — start withkeyboard shortcuts stopping after an update.

When a document is due and the debugging is not going well, Insert, Symbol, More Symbols is unaffected by all of the above. Set the subset dropdown to narrow the grid, and use the Shortcut Key button in that dialog to assign your own combination that cannot collide with Word's defaults.

The broader reference isspecial characters in Word.