A skull and crossbones ☠ is a symbol typically used in the maritime industry to indicate the presence of danger, such as underwater mines, or the presence of water. In Windows it can be created in two main ways: using an alt code or using the character map.
Type Skull and Crossbones Using a Keyboard Shortcut
As with many symbols, even skull and crossbones have their dedicated keyboard code. To insert skull and crossbones into your text, press and hold the left Alt key, and type the 9760 on your number pad. Then release the Alt key.
As soon as you release the Alt key, the skull symbol will appear in the text.
Note: If you’re using a laptop that doesn’t have a numerical keypad, please activate the hidden number pad. On most laptops, the hidden numeric keypad is activated by pressing the FN + numbers printed on some of your letter keys. So, hold the Fn and Alt keys at the same time, and then type 9760 on the letter keys.
Use Windows Character Map
If the method above doesn’t work, the best option is to use Windows Character Map With this tool, you can easily find, copy and paste the skull and crossbones symbol into your text.
STEP 1: To open the tool on Windows, type the character map on the Start menu or the taskbar.
STEP 2: Near the button, select the Advance View checkbox to expand more Character map options. This way you can search through the list of all the characters until you find the skull symbol.
STEP 3: When you find the character, highlight it and then click the Select button. With this action, you are moving the skull and crossbones symbol into the Characters to copy field.
STEP 4: In the last step, click on the Copy button and then paste the symbol into your text.
Skull Symbol in Microsoft Word
To type skull and crossbones symbol into the document in MS Word, simply type 2620, and then press and hold Alt + X at the same time.
You can also use the MS Office Symbol Library:
STEP 1: Open any document in MS Office.
STEP 2: Click on Insert in the upper menu and find the Symbol button in the Symbol group.
STEP 3: Then simply select More Symbols from the drop-down menu.
When done correctly, the Symbol window will appear. So, find the skull symbol and use it in your text.
Bottom Line
Typing symbols like skull and crossbones that do not have dedicated keys on the keyboard can be quite difficult. That is why in this article, I have mentioned a few methods and instructions on how to find this symbol and type it in your text.
