How Alt codes work (and the one thing everyone gets wrong)
An Alt code is the oldest trick in Windows: hold the Alt key, type a number on the numeric keypad, release Alt, and the symbol appears. Hold Alt, type 0176, release — you get a degree sign: °.
Alt+0151 is not Alt+151 — the leading zero matters
There are actually two Alt code systems living in every Windows machine, and the leading zero is the switch between them:
- Alt+0nnn (with the leading zero) uses the modern Windows-1252 character set. This is the form we list on this site wherever one exists. Alt+0151 → — (em dash).
- Alt+nnn (no leading zero) uses the ancient DOS-era OEM/CP437 set. Same digits, different symbol: Alt+151 → ù. Drop the zero from an em dash and you get a French letter.
Some symbols only exist in the old set — the arrows (Alt+26 →), the card suits (Alt+3 ♥), infinity (Alt+236 ∞). We list those too, marked legacy in the table so you know which system you're typing into.
Why isn't my Alt code working?
- No numeric keypad. Alt codes need the numpad — the number row above the letters won't do it. On many laptops there's a hidden numpad behind the Fn key; otherwise use the entity, the copy button above, or the Windows emoji panel (Win+.) which includes a symbol tab.
- Num Lock is off. The numpad must be in number mode.
- The app intercepts it. Some applications grab Alt combinations for their own shortcuts. Try Notepad to confirm the code itself works, then paste.
- Word has its own trick. In Microsoft Word you can type a Unicode
code point and press Alt+X: type
2014then Alt+X and it becomes an em dash.
Typing symbols on a Mac
Macs don't use Alt codes. Instead, the Option key turns the whole keyboard into a symbol layer: Option+Shift+8 is °, Option+Shift+- is an em dash, Option+g is ©. Accented letters use dead keys: press Option+e, release, then type the letter — Option+e, e gives é. When the table above shows a comma in the Mac column, that's a dead-key sequence. For anything without a shortcut, press Ctrl+Cmd+Space to open the Character Viewer and search by name.
HTML entities: the third way
Writing for the web? Every symbol here has a numeric entity
(—) and most have a friendlier named one
(—). Entities survive any file encoding, which makes them the
safe choice in HTML source, email templates, and anywhere copy-pasted characters get
mangled.
What is this symbol called?
Every character has one official name in the Unicode standard, and it's often not what people call it. § is SECTION SIGN, not "the legal symbol". ¶ is PILCROW SIGN, not "the paragraph mark". The curly apostrophe is RIGHT SINGLE QUOTATION MARK, which surprises everyone. Paste any symbol into the search box above and you'll get its official name, code point, and every way to type it — and the search understands nicknames too: "checkmark", "smiley", and "upside down question mark" all land.
Symbol data last reviewed: July 9, 2026.