Insert a Check Mark

Last week while traveling, I met a person who asked me a smart question. He was quietly working on his laptop and suddenly asked me this:

“Hey, do you know how to insert a check mark symbol in Excel?”

And then I figured out that he had a list of customers and wanted to add a check mark for every customer to whom he met.

Well, I showed him a simple way and he was happy with that.

Eventually today morning, I thought maybe there is more than one way to add a check mark in a cell. And, luckily I found that there are 5 different ways for this.

So today, in this post, I’d like to show you how to add a check mark symbol in Excel using 5 different methods and all those situations where we need to use these methods.

Apart from these 5 methods, I have also mentioned a bonus method at the end of this post.

Quick note: In Excel, a check mark is a character of wingding font. So, whenever you insert it in a cell that cell needs to have wingding font style (Except, if you copy it from anywhere else).

So let’s get started.

1. Insert a Check Mark from Symbols

There are a lot of symbols in Excel which you can use and the check mark is one of them. Inserting a symbol in a cell is no brainier, you just need few steps.

• First of all, you need to select the cell where you want to add it.
• After that, go to Insert Tab -> Synbols -> Symbol.

• Once you click on the symbol button, you will get a window.
• Now from this window, select “Winding” from font drop down.
• And in the character code box, enter “252”. (It will instantly select the check mark symbol and you don’t need to locate it).

• In the end, click on “Insert” and close the window

2. Type Check Mark with a Shortcut Key

Another quick way is to use a keyboard shortcut key. It’s simple and fast.

The only thing you need to take care: the cell where you want to add the symbol must have wingding as font style.

• ​Select the cell where you want to add it.
• Use Alt + 0252 ( make sure to hold the Alt key and then type “0252” with your numeric keypad).

After adding the symbol for once you copy paste it into other cells.

Now let’s come to a formula based solution. Suppose you want to add a check mark based on the value from a different cell.

In the below example, we need to have our check mark in cell A2 if the cell C2 has value done.

• First of all, make sure to change the font style to “Wingding”.
• And after that, enter below formula in the cell A1.
• =IF(C2="Done",CHAR(252),"")

How does it work

Char is a function to convert a number into an ANSI character (Windows) and Macintosh character set (Mac).

When you enter “252” in CHAR function it returns “ü”.

​As you have applied wingding font style to your cell(s), it converts into a check mark symbol.

And, if you want to save your efforts and time then you can use a VBA code to insert a check mark. Here is the code.

Sub addCheckMark()
Dim rng As Range
For Each rng In Selection
With rng
.Font.Name = "Wingdings"
.Value = "ü"
End With
Next rng
End Sub

To use this code you need to select the cell or the range of the cells where you need to insert the symbols.

And it will simply insert “ü” in all the cells and then change the font style to “Wingdings”.

Here’s the last but not least method. In fact, it’s a big time saver.

Instead of using any formula, shortcut or VBA you can simply copy paste a check mark from here ==> ✓ or you can also copy it by searching it on google.

The best thing about copy-paste method is there is no need to change the font style.

If you want to be more awesome and creative, you can use conditional formatting for a check mark as well.

Here are the steps:

• First of all, select the target cell or range of cells and go to Home Tab -> Styles - > Conditional Formatting -> Icon Sets -> More Rules.

• Now in the rule window, do the following things.
1. Select green check mark style from the icon set.
2. Tick mark “Show icon only” option.
3. Enter “1” as a value for green check mark and select number from the type.

• Click Ok.

Once you do that, enter 1 in the cell where you need to enter a check mark and because of conditional formatting, you will get a green check mark there without the actual cell value.

Download this sample from here to try it yourself.

A check mark is helpful when you are tracking your tasks or if you are just managing lists.

And creating a list with check marks in Excel is no big deal now, as you have more than 5 methods for this.

From all the methods above, I always love to use conditional formatting and sometimes copy-paste. But you can use any of these which you think is perfect for you.

I hope this tip will help you in your daily work. 

Now tell me one thing. Have you ever use any of the above methods? Which method is your favorite one? And, if you have any other method, please share with me in the comment section, I would love to hear from you.

And, please don’t forget to share this tip with your friends. Tell them what you have learned today.

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