The inverted question mark or upside down question mark is a mark used in written Spanish to begin an interrogative sentence. When written before a sentence or clause, it indicates that a question follows.
In today’s article, you’ll learn about all the available ways you can type the upside-down question mark symbol in Microsoft Word using either Windows or Mac keyboard.
Without any further ado, let’s get to work.
Upside-Down Question Mark [¿] Quick Guide
The table below contains a quick information to type the inverted question mark into your Mac or Windows PC. You can also copy and paste the symbol into your document to save you some time of typing.
| Symbol Name | Inverted Question Mark |
| Symbol | ¿ |
| Alt Code | 0191 |
| Shortcut for Windows | Alt+0191 |
| Shortcut for Mac | Option+Shift+? |
| Shortcut in Word (Win) | Ctrl+Alt+? |
To type the upside-down question mark in Word for Mac, press Option+Shift+? hotkeys on your keyboard. For Windows users, whilst you press and hold the Alt key, press the Inverted Question Mark alt code which is 0191 on the numeric keypad, then release the alt key.
The above quick guide provides some useful information about the inverted question mark symbol. However, below are some step by step options you can also use to insert this symbol into your Word document.
5 ways to type an upside-down question mark [¿] symbol in Word
Word provides several options for typing or inserting symbols.
In this section, I will make available for you five different methods you can use to type or insert the inverted question mark symbol into your Word document.
Without any further ado, let’s get started.
Option 1: Using the Upside-Down Question Mark [¿] Alt Code for Windows
The upside-down question mark symbol alt code is 0191.
Obey the following instructions to type this symbol using the alt code method:
- Place the insertion pointer where you need the symbol.
- Press and hold the Alt key on your keyboard.
- Whilst holding on to the Alt key, press the symbol’s alt code (0191). You must use the numeric keypad to type the alt code. If you are using a laptop without the numeric keypad, this method may not work for you. On some laptops, there’s a hidden numeric keypad which you can enable by pressing Fn+NmLk keystrokes on the keyboard.
- Release the Alt key after typing the Alt code to insert the Symbol into your Word document.
This is how you may type the this symbol in Word for Windows using the Alt Code method.
Option 2: Using the Upside-Down Question Mark Keyboard Shortcut
The keyboard shortcut for the Upside-Down Question Mark symbol is Option+Shift+? for Mac. For windows users, Press Ctrl+Alt+?. However, you need to press the Shift key to be able to type the question mark ?. Thus, practically, you should use Ctrl+Alt+Shift+? in Microsoft Word Only.
Obey the following instructions to type this symbol on Mac using the keyboard shortcut stated above:
- First of all, place the insertion pointer where you need to type this symbol.
- Press and hold the Option and the Shift key and hit once on the ‘?’ (question mark) key.
With this keyboard shortcut, you can type the inverted question mark symbol anywhere on your Mac computer.
- For windows users, press Ctrl+Alt+Shift+?. Alternatively, press and hold the alt key and type 0191 on the number pad.
Option 3: Copy and Paste Upside-Down Question Mark
Another easy way to do the upside-down question mark on any PC is to use my favorite method: copy and paste.
All you have to do is to copy the symbol from somewhere like a web page or the character map for windows users, and head over to where you need the symbol then hit Ctrl+V to paste.
Below is the symbol for you to copy and paste into your document. Just select it and press Ctrl+C to copy, switch over to where you need it and press Ctrl+V to paste.
¿
For windows users, obey the following instructions to copy and paste the upside-down symbol using the character map dialog.
- Click on the Start button and search for Character Map.
- The Character Map dialog will appear. Click on the Advanced view check box to expand the dialog box for more options.
- On the advanced view, type Inverted Question Mark in the Search for: box.
- You should now see only the upside-down question mark on the character map dialog. Double click on the symbol to select it to copy. Alternatively, click on the Select button.
- After you select the symbol, hit on the Copy button to copy.
- Now switch to where ever you wish to insert the symbol and press Ctrl+V to paste.
This is how you may use the Character Map dialog to copy and paste any symbol on Windows PC.
Option 4: Using insert Symbol dialog box
The insert symbol dialog box is a library of symbols from where you can insert any symbol into your Word document with just a couple of mouse clicks.
Obey the following steps to insert the upside-down question mark symbol in Word using the insert symbol dialog box.
- Click to place the insertion pointer at where you wish to insert the symbol.
- Go to the Insert tab.
- In the Symbols category, click on the Symbol drop-down and select More Symbols.
- The Symbol dialog box will appear. In the Subset drop-down list, select Latin Supplement to display symbols in this category which includes the inverted question mark symbol.
- Select the symbol and hit the Insert button. Alternatively, double click on the symbol to insert it into your document.
- Close the dialog.
The symbol will then be inserted exactly where you place the insertion pointer.
These are the steps you may use to insert the upside-down question marks in your Word document.
Option 5: Using AutoCorrect
Another way you may use to obtain this symbol is through the AutoCorrect feature in Word.
AutoCorrect in MS Word is a facility designed for correcting spelling mistakes like thsi to this.
This feature allows you to assign your own shortcuts to symbols you type regularly in your document. For instance, if you happen to frequently type the inverted question mark symbol, you can assign a shortcode like UPSIDE?? to this symbol. This way, whenever you type the text UPSIDE??, Word will think that you actually wanted to type ¿ and will convert it into the Upside-Down Question Mark symbol automatically.
What I like about this the AutoCorrect tool is that you can assign any code you want to the symbol and Word will be more than glad to insert it for you whenever you type the code.
Without any further ado, below are the steps.
- Go to the insert tab.
- In the Symbols category, click on the Symbol drop-down and select More Symbols.
- The Symbol dialog box will appear. In the Subset drop-down list, select Latin1 Supplement from the list to display the Latin Supplement symbols which include the inverted question mark symbol.
- Select the symbol and click the AutoCorrect button.
- The AutoCorrect dialog box will appear. In the Replace: field, enter the shortcode or text you wish to assign to the symbol. Ensure that the inverted question mark is in the next field.
- Click on the Add button and hit on OK.
At this point, whenever you type the text UPSIDE?? in your Word document, it’ll convert to the inverted question mark symbol.
However, below are some things to note when you are using the AutoCorrect Method to type this symbol in Word.
- AutoCorrect is case sensitive. Meaning if you type upside?? (in lowercase), Word will not autocorrect it for you unless you type UPSIDE?? (in uppercase). Whatever case you used to assign the AutoCorrect text is what Word will recognize.
- If there is any text before or after the AutoCorrect text, Word will consider the AutoCorrect text as part of the text and hence will not do any autocorrection. For example, XUPSIDE?? will not get converted since the UPSIDE?? is joining with another character X.
Conclusion
As you can see, there are a variety of different options to type the upside-down question mark symbol in Microsoft Word.
Using the shortcuts for both Windows and Mac make the fastest option for this task.
If you have anything thing to say or questions to ask about this guide, please drop it in the comments below.
