GARGLEBLASTER Loc: Spain

Thank you very much, that is the most sensible suggestion so far and as you say, it works.

dragoncello

I use Word 10. I'd guess later versions are the same, but can't be sure. Baked into the program are various preset shortcuts, including (e) for the Euro glyph, (c) for the copyright symbol, etc. (Also some of the classic emoticons.) The Pound symbol wasn't there, so I added it. If you've never added a shortcut like this, it's trickier than it should be, but useful in many ways.

1. First you need a copy of the symbol. As others have suggested here in their responses, in the word ribbon, go to the Insert tab, click on Symbol off to the right and then More Symbols. The pound symbol will be in the top row. Click Insert and it will appear in your text. Now select (highlight) it and then copy it (Ctl-C).

2. To create the shortcut analogous to the Euro sign, click on the File tab and then Options, the second last item in the list on the right (or type alt-f and then the letter t if you're in the Home menu). Click on Proofing in the list on the right, and then the AutoCorrect Options box. This is the list of automatic typo corrections in the program--hte auto corrects to the, for example, and accross to across. It's primarily designed to protect you from typos, but as you'll see the first items are the symbols such as the ones I mentioned at the beginning, (e) for Euro, etc.

3. You'll see that there are two columns, one for the key combination to REPLACE (e.g. het) and the second for the combination to substitute WITH (e.g., the). Ihe first line has two hyphens in each box, erase them and put in your own variables. To keep the parallel with the Euro, I inserted "(l)" in the left box and in the right I typed ctl-v, to copy the Pound symbol that I had saved to the clipboard back in step 1. Click the OK button to return to the Options tab and then OK again to save the change. Now every time you type "(l)" into your text, your "misspelling" will auto correct to £.

4. I said this was a useful trick to learn, because you can use it for all sorts of shortcuts. I use the combination "letter" plus left bracket key ("[")for several words that I type frequently, since I know I will never type that combination in a regular text. (There's always a space before the left bracket in a regular sentence, so I'll never type them consecutively.) For example, if I wanted to type the name of our forum as one word with the U and both H's capitalized, it would be a slight nuisance to type. But I can enter "u[" as word and "UglyHedgeHog" as its correct spelling. Then every time I enter "u[" that's what I get.

This is non-destructive, of course. If you no longer want the "correction," just go back in, type the letter combination into the right hand empty box, and delete it, so you can set up a variety of shortcuts for a given project and then erase them when you finish if they're no longer useful.

GARGLEBLASTER Loc: Spain

Thanks dragoncello for your long and explicative reply but see my message directly above yours. I already have the € symbol, that is already on my Spanish keyboard.

Flyerace Loc: Mt Pleasant, WI

I just used Alt + 156 and the £ symbol showed up in Word 2010.

G Brown Loc: Sunny Bognor Regis West Sussex UK

We have the £ sign above number 3 $ sign above 4 presumably as these are MS compatible keyboards using Englsh (UK and US)
can you not get a keyboard sent out to you?

Ruedrich Loc: Hampshire, UK

The easy way is to insert it once, copy it and then whenever you want it - in the same document - just paste

GARGLEBLASTER Loc: Spain

I have Windows in Spanish installed on my computers so no matter what keyboard I used, just because a £ sign is on the keyboard doesn't mean that it would type that symbol, in my case it would produce a dot like this: ·

I use a Spanish keyboard because I write extensively in that language and I cannot write Spanish on a UK or US keyboard.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

What a crock of crap Micro$lop puts us through! Use a Mac. There's an Option key combo for £ in OS X, and an app in the main menu bar that lists all the characters for every font, and how to key them.

gdoro1 Loc: Florida

You are using the number keypad on the right side of your keyboard aren't you? Works for me that way using Win 7 and MS Word 2007.

Valenta Loc: Top of NZ

I find using Alt+156 on the KEYPAD on the right works perfectly. It will not work using numbers across the top of the keyboard

Indi Loc: L. I., NY, Palm Beach Cty when it's cold.

SB is correct. I just changed the shortcut key to Alt+3 and it works fine.
I also have Word 2007 (with Win 10) and after I read your post I tried it.
No...Alt+156 Does Not work on the main keyboard BUT,
Yes if I press Alt, and type 156 on the NUMBER KEYPAD it does work.

drucker Loc: Oregon

I use ASCII shortcuts in Word 2010 all of the time. (And just tested it with £ (Alt+156).)

For dots • (Alt+0149), Fractions ¼, ½, ¾, (Alt+0188, +0189, +0190), etc.

Do pay attention to what font you have active when entering the shortcuts. Most fonts will have standard characters in the same position in the first 256 codes, but a few fonts will not have them or they may be at another ASCII.

I use dozens of keyboard shortcuts daily. Many of them hark back to WordStar -- long before anyone ever heard of the "F" keys, Word Perfect and Word! Now I'm showing my age.

Indi Loc: L. I., NY, Palm Beach Cty when it's cold.

Going along with Drucker's ASCII Shortcuts, my favorite is the degrees symbol 75°. ALT + 0176

GARGLEBLASTER Loc: Spain

I have the problem solved and there is no need (for me) to consult any further replies to this thread so I am "unwatching". Thank you everyone for your input.

lorenww Loc: St. Petersburg

Your problem is character encoding.
Google for,
ms word change charset

I'm sure your answer is in there, you are just working with the wrong charset to get that funny looking L symbol.