How to Quickly Insert a Check Mark Symbol in Excel [6 Smart Methods]

How to Quickly Insert a Check Mark Symbol in Excel

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.

Content

Get my exclusive Excel Productivity Bundle Worth $20, Absolutely Free.

#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 ➜ Symbols ➜ 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).

insert check mark in excel from select symbol min

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.

insert check mark in excel with shortcut key

Select the cell where you want to add it.
Use Alt + 0 2 5 2 (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.

#3. Check Mark with a Formula

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.

#4. VBA Code for a Check Mark

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”.

#5. Simply Copy-Paste a Check Mark

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.

[Bonus] Green Check Mark with Conditional Formatting

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.

Select green check mark style from the icon set.
Tick mark “Show icon only” option.
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.

Sample File

Download this sample from here to try it yourself.

Conclusion

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 and now tell me one thing.

Have you ever use any of the above methods? Which method is your favorite?

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.

Share0

Tweet0

Related Tips

Add Leading Zeros in Excel: In Excel, there is no way to add leading zeros by default but you can use these methods to [...]
Bullet Points in Excel: These are the top 8 methods to insert bullet points in Excel to manage your lists easily [...]
Insert a Timestamp in Excel: In general, it contains the current date and time, and we use it to capture completing time of a task [...]
Insert Checkbox in Excel: A checkbox is a small but powerful tool that you can use to control a lot of things by un-checking/checking it [...]
Insert/Type Degree Symbol in Excel: And one more good news is these methods are same in Windows and MAC versions of Excel [...]
Serial Number Column: The good news is, there are some ways which we can use to automatically add serial numbers in a column [...]
Strikethrough in Excel: When it comes to Excel, we don’t have any direct option to apply strikethrough to a cell. No button or [...]
Insert Delta Symbol in Excel: Now the thing is if you look at the Excel ribbon there is no direct way for you to insert it into a cell [...]
SQUARE ROOT in Excel + [Insert Symbol]: It a quite common calculation which we do in our day to day work, and in Excel, you can calculate it [...]
Remove Extra Spaces: You will also learn that why all these methods are unique and usable in different situations.