How to Type Check Mark & Checkbox Symbols [✓ ✔ ☑ ☑︎ ☐ ✅ ❌] on Your Keyboard

The check mark symbol (✓) and checkbox symbols (☑, ☑︎, ☐) are used everywhere:

• To mark tasks as done
• To show yes / no or correct / incorrect
• To tick or untick checkboxes in forms and lists

In this guide you’ll learn all the common ways to type or insert:

• Check marks: ✓ ✔ 🗸 ✅
• Checkboxes: ☑ ☑︎ ☐ ☒ 🗹
• Cross / X alternatives: ✗ ✘ ❌ ❎ 🗴

…on Windows, Mac, Microsoft Word, Google Docs, phones, and websites.

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Quick Reference – Check Marks & Checkboxes

1. Click to copy symbols

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2. Main codes for Check Mark & Checkbox Symbols

These are the core symbols most people use:

Symbol	Name	Unicode	Typical Use
✓	Check mark	U+2713	Simple tick inside text
✔	Heavy check mark	U+2714	Bolder tick for emphasis
☑	Ballot box with check	U+2611	Ticked checkbox in documents
☑︎	Ballot box with check (text)	U+2611 + text style	Same as ☑, forced text-style (non-emoji)
☐	Ballot box	U+2610	Empty checkbox
☒	Ballot box with X	U+2612	Crossed checkbox / no / wrong
✅	White heavy check mark (emoji)	U+2705	Green check emoji
❌	Cross mark (emoji-style)	U+274C	Red cross emoji
❎	Negative squared cross mark	U+274E	Boxed X emoji
✗	Ballot X	U+2717	Text-style X (wrong)
✘	Heavy ballot X	U+2718	Bold X (wrong)
🗸	Ballot box with bold check	U+1F5F8	Another boxed check variant
🗹	Ballot box with bold X	U+1F5F9	Box with bold X
🗴	Ballot X emoji-style	U+1F5F4	Modern X icon in a box

Don’t worry if the emoji-style ones (✅, 🗸, 🗹, 🗴) look slightly different on each device – that’s normal.

We’ll now go through practical ways to type or insert these symbols.

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Method 1 – Easiest: Copy & Paste (Any Device, Any App)

For most people, the quickest way is to copy and paste.

1. Use the click-to-copy widget at the top of the page, or select a symbol here:
   • ✓ ✔ ☑ ☑︎ ☐ ☒ ✅ ❌ ❎ ✗ ✘ 🗸 🗹 🗴
2. Press Ctrl + C (Windows) or Command + C (Mac) to copy.
3. Go to your document, spreadsheet, slide, email, or chat.
4. Press Ctrl + V or Command + V to paste.

This works in:

• Word, Excel, PowerPoint
• Google Docs / Sheets
• Web forms, email, WhatsApp Web, Slack, etc.
• Most mobile apps if you copy from your browser on the phone

For many users, copy & paste + widget is all they ever need.

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Method 2 – Windows: Alt Codes, Emoji Panel & Character Map

2.1 Alt codes (numeric keypad)

On Windows, some apps (especially desktop apps like Word/Excel/PowerPoint) let you use Alt codes.

Requirements

• A numeric keypad (numbers on the right side of the keyboard)
• Num Lock turned on

Steps

1. Place the cursor where you want the symbol.
2. Turn on Num Lock.
3. Hold down the Alt key.
4. Type the code on the numeric keypad, then release Alt:

Common examples:

• Alt + 10003 → ✓
• Alt + 10004 → ✔
• Alt + 9745 → ☑
• Alt + 9744 → ☐

⚠️ Alt code warning
These “large” Alt codes are not supported in every program. In some apps, they may give the wrong symbol because Windows falls back to an old-style character map.
If that happens, use the emoji panel, Word’s Alt+X, or copy & paste instead.

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2.2 Windows emoji & symbols panel (Win + .)

This is the most reliable modern way on Windows 10 and 11.

Steps

1. Place your cursor where you want the symbol.
2. Press Windows key + . (period) or Windows key + ;.
3. The emoji/symbol panel opens.
4. Do either of the following:
   • Search for “check”, “box”, “cross” in the search field, or
   • Click the Symbols section and browse.

You can insert:

• Text-style symbols: ✓ ✔ ☑ ☐ ☒ ✗ ✘
• Emoji-style symbols: ✅ ❌ ❎ 🗸 🗹 🗴

Click a symbol and it is inserted into most modern apps: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, browsers, chat apps, etc.

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2.3 Character Map (Windows app)

Character Map is a small built-in app that lets you copy any symbol.

1. Click the Start button and search for Character Map.
2. Open it and tick “Advanced view”.
3. Choose a font like Segoe UI Symbol or your normal text font.
4. In the Search for box, type check, ballot, or paste a code like 2713 if supported.
5. Click the symbol you want (✓, ✔, ☑, ☑︎, ☐, ☒, etc.).
6. Click Select → Copy.
7. Paste into your document with Ctrl + V.

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Method 3 – Mac: Emoji & Symbols Viewer and Unicode Hex Input

3.1 Emoji & Symbols viewer (Control + Command + Space)

On Mac, this is the easiest method.

1. Place your cursor where you want the symbol.
2. Press Control + Command + Space.
3. The Emoji & Symbols viewer opens.
4. In the search box, type “check”, “box”, or “cross”.
5. Double-click the symbol you want:
   • Check marks: ✓ ✔ ✅ 🗸
   • Checkboxes: ☑ ☑︎ ☐ ☒ 🗹
   • Crosses: ✗ ✘ ❌ ❎ 🗴

The symbol appears at the cursor in Word, Pages, Notes, email, browsers, etc.

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3.2 Unicode Hex Input (direct typing with Option key)

If you type these often, you can type them using Unicode Hex Input.

Step 1 – Enable Unicode Hex Input (one time)

1. Open System Settings / System Preferences → Keyboard → Input Sources.
2. Click + and choose “Unicode Hex Input”.
3. Add it.
4. Switch to it from the menu bar (keyboard/input icon) when needed.

Step 2 – Type the symbol

With Unicode Hex Input active:

1. Hold down the Option (⌥) key.
2. While holding Option, type the hex code on your main keyboard:
   • 2713 → ✓
   • 2714 → ✔
   • 2611 → ☑ (and ☑︎, depending on font/emoji settings)
   • 2610 → ☐
   • 2612 → ☒
   • 2705 → ✅
3. Release Option. The symbol appears.

Note: Whether you see ☑ or ☑︎ (text vs emoji-style) can depend on font and whether the system prefers emoji or text for that character.

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Method 4 – Microsoft Word, Excel & PowerPoint (Any OS)

Even though this article is general, many people still search specifically for check marks in Word/Excel/PowerPoint, so here’s a focused section.

4.1 Insert → Symbol in Word & PowerPoint

1. Place the cursor where you want the symbol.
2. Go to the Insert tab.
3. Click Symbol → More Symbols… (or Advanced Symbol… on Mac).
4. Choose a font that supports these symbols (often your current body font, or Segoe UI Symbol).
5. Scroll and click the symbol you want (✓ ✔ ☑ ☑︎ ☐ ☒).
6. Click Insert → Close.

In PowerPoint, do the same inside a text box.

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4.2 Alt+X in Word (Windows only)

Word on Windows has a special shortcut: Unicode code → Alt+X.

Examples:

• 2713 + Alt+X → ✓
• 2714 + Alt+X → ✔
• 2611 + Alt+X → ☑ (you may see ☑︎ depending on fonts)
• 2610 + Alt+X → ☐
• 2612 + Alt+X → ☒
• 2705 + Alt+X → ✅

Press Alt+X again to flip back to the code if you need to edit.

This works best in Word, and sometimes in other Microsoft Office programs, but not in all Windows apps.

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4.3 Check mark bullets (non-clickable lists)

To create simple check mark bullet lists in Word:

1. Type your list (one item per line).
2. Select the list.
3. Go to the Home tab.
4. Click the Bullets dropdown.
5. Choose a check mark bullet style,
6. Or click Define New Bullet… → Symbol….
7. The Define New Bullet dialog box will appear. In the Bullet Character category, click on the Symbol… button to launch the Symbol dialog.
8. Pick ✓, ✔, ☑, or ☐ from a font like Wingdings/Wingdings 2 or Segoe UI Symbol.
9. Click Ok.

Now every bullet will be a check mark or checkbox.

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4.4 Clickable checkboxes in Word (Developer tab)

The clickable checkmark symbols allow users of your document to select and deselect the checkboxes as illustrated below:

Adding this type of checkmark symbol requires you to use the developer tab on the ribbon. This tab is not visible by default.

Thus, first of all, look and see whether there’s a tab named Developer on the ribbon.

If you seem not to find the Developer tab on the ribbon, you’ll therefore need to take steps to add it to the ribbon. Just obey the following instructions.

Adding the Developer tab

To add the developer tab in Word:

• Right-click anywhere on the Ribbon and select Customize Ribbon from the shortcut menu.

• The Word Options dialog box will appear with the Customize Ribbon category displayed. On the right side of this dialog box, click to select the Developer checkbox, then click on the OK button. If this is checked, the Developer tab will now become visible.

Now that you have the developer tab visible on your ribbon, follow the remaining steps below to add clickable checkboxes and checkmarks into your Word document:

• Click to place the cursor where you want to add the checkmark.

• Click on the Developer Tab.

• In the Controls category, click the Checkbox button.

The checkbox button will be added exactly where you placed your insertion pointer.

• Follow the same steps to add the checkbox to the rest of the items. Or, copy and paste the checkbox at the beginning of each line.

By default, clicking on this checkbox will mark an “X” symbol instead of the tick mark we want to see. The X sign is not what we want. We want to see a tick mark inside the tick box when clicked. You can change it to include any symbol you want (like this: ☑). Continue the steps below to learn how to change the checked symbol.

• Click to select the symbol.
• Go to the Developer tab, in the Controls category, click on Properties.

• In the Content Control Properties dialog, click on the Change button next to the Checked symbol option.

• The Symbol dialog box appears. Select Webdings 2 from the Font dropdown to display some of the Microsoft Word Advanced Symbols.
• Locate the tickbox symbol and click on it.

• Also, click the OK button for the Content Control Properties dialog.

Now you should have a tick on your checkbox whenever you click on it.

This how you may create a clickable check box or tick box into Microsoft Word documents.

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Method 5 – Google Docs & Google Sheets

Google Docs

1. Place the cursor where you want the symbol.
2. Go to Insert → Special characters.
3. In the search box, type check, tick, or ballot.
4. Click the symbol you want (✓ ✔ ☑ ☑︎ ☐ ☒ ✅ ❌ etc.).

Google Sheets

• Google Sheets doesn’t have the same Special Characters dialog, so:
  • Insert symbols in Google Docs first, then copy and paste into a Sheet, or
  • Copy from this page / your widget and paste into a cell.

You can then copy or drag-fill the cell to repeat the symbol.

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Method 6 – Phones & Tablets (Android/iPhone/iPad)

Emoji keyboard

On most phones and tablets:

1. Tap where you want to type.
2. Switch to the emoji keyboard.
3. Use the search (if available) and type “check” or “box”.
4. Tap a symbol you like:
   • ✅ ☑️ ✔️ – check marks
   • ☐️ ☒ – boxes
   • ❌ ❎ ✗ ✘ – crosses

These are mostly emoji-style, so they will have color and different styles depending on your phone.

Plain text symbols on mobile

If you want plain text-style symbols like ✓ or ☐ (no color), it’s easiest to:

1. Open this page in your mobile browser.
2. Tap your click-to-copy widget or manually select ✓, ✔, ☑, ☑︎, ☐, etc.
3. Tap Copy.
4. Paste into your notes, chat, or document app.

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Method 7 – HTML & Code (for websites and developers)

If you’re adding check marks and boxes to a website:

HTML entities

Examples:

• Check mark:
  • ✓ → ✓ or ✓
• Heavy check:
  • ✔ → ✔ or ✔
• Box with check:
  • ☑ / ☑︎ → ☑ or ☑
• Box empty:
  • ☐ → ☐ or ☐
• Box with X:
  • ☒ → ☒ or ☒
• Green check emoji:
  • ✅ → ✅ or ✅
• Cross emoji:
  • ❌ → ❌ or ❌

CSS content example

.todo-item::before {
  content: "\2713"; /* ✓ check mark */
  margin-right: 0.4em;
}

You can switch \2713 to other codes for different symbols.

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Complete List of Common Variations (with Uses)

Here’s a summary of the main symbols you might want in your widget and article:

Check marks (text-style)

• ✓ – CHECK MARK
• ✔ – HEAVY CHECK MARK
• 🗸 – BALLOT BOX WITH BOLD CHECK (looks like a check leaning in a box, modern style)

Checkboxes (text-style)

• ☐ – BALLOT BOX (empty checkbox)
• ☑ – BALLOT BOX WITH CHECK (ticked box)
• ☑︎ – Same as ☑ but forced as text-style (not emoji). Depending on OS/font, this version avoids turning into a colored emoji box.
• ☒ – BALLOT BOX WITH X (box with cross / wrong)
• 🗹 – BALLOT BOX WITH BOLD X (modern thick box with X)

Emoji-style variants

• ✅ – Green check (emoji)
• ❌ – Red cross (emoji)
• ❎ – Boxed cross (emoji)
• 🗴 – Ballot X (modern icon)

Cross / X (text-style)

• ✗ – BALLOT X (simple X for wrong/no)
• ✘ – HEAVY BALLOT X (bolder X)

You don’t have to use all of these on the page, but your widget can easily include the most useful ones:

• ✓, ✔, ☑, ☑︎, ☐, ☒, ✅, ❌, ❎, ✗, ✘

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FAQs – Check Marks & Checkboxes

1. Why do ☑ and ☑︎ look slightly different?

• ☑ is the basic “box with check” character.
• ☑︎ is the same character plus a “text style” instruction (called a variation selector).
• Some systems convert these symbols into emoji-style colored boxes by default. Using the text-style version ☑︎ helps keep it looking like normal black-and-white text in many fonts.

2. Why don’t some Alt codes work on my Windows PC?

Because Alt codes behave differently in different programs:

• Older apps only support Alt codes from 0–255 using old code pages.
• Newer apps (like Word) map larger numbers (10003, 9745, etc.) to Unicode symbols.
• If you get the wrong symbol, use Word’s Alt+X, the emoji/symbol panel, or copy & paste instead.

3. Which symbol should I use in a serious document?

For reports, CVs, and forms:

• Use text-style symbols: ✓, ✔, ☑, ☑︎, ☐, ☒.
• Avoid relying only on color (like ✅, ❌) if the document may be printed in black and white.

4. How can I quickly insert many check marks?

• Use check mark bullets for lists (in Word/Docs).
• Use AutoCorrect in Word to turn short codes (like ;tick, ;box) into ✓ or ☑.
• Use clickable checkboxes (Word Developer tab or form tools) for interactive forms.

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Quick Recap

To type check mark & checkbox symbols (including ☑︎ and many variations):

• Use your click-to-copy widget at the top of this page to copy ✓ ✔ ☑ ☑︎ ☐ ☒ ✅ ❌ ❎ ✗ ✘ and more.
• On Windows, use Win + . for the emoji/symbol panel, or Alt codes where supported.
• On Mac, use Control + Command + Space (Emoji & Symbols viewer), or Unicode Hex Input for direct codes.
• In Word/Office, use Insert → Symbol, Alt+X codes, check mark bullets, or clickable checkboxes.
• In Google Docs/Sheets, use Insert → Special characters or copy & paste.
• On phones, use the emoji keyboard or copy from this page.