Inserting the Section Symbol in a Word Document


February 26, 2020

It’s one of the first minor annoyances every first-year law student faces: creating the § in a Word document. There are ways to get around learning this skill, such as copying and pasting the section symbol from elsewhere or writing out the word “section.” However, for legal writing purposes, it is probably best to know how to get the § in N.C. Gen. Stat. §7A-13 without resorting to a work-around. The UNC Law Library decided it was time to update one of our most popular posts in the history of the Carolina Blawg: How to Create the Section Symbol in Word.

Instructions for Word on a PC

  1. Click on the “Insert” tab at the top of the screen, so that the Insert ribbon appears.
  2. Click on the “Symbol” button all the way to the right.
  3. Select the “More Symbols” tab.
  4. Select the “Special Character” tab.
  5. Select the Section symbol.
  6. Click on the “Insert” button.

Instructions for Word on a Mac

  1. Click on the “Insert” tab at the top of the screen, so that the Insert ribbon appears.
  2. Click on the “Advanced Symbol” button all the way to the right.
  3. Select the “Special Character” tab.
  4. Select the Section symbol.
  5. Click on the “Insert” button.

Creating a Shortcut

Does this seem like a lot of steps to take each time you need to insert the section symbol?

Assign a Shortcut Key to the section symbol by clicking “Shortcut Key” (on a PC) or “Keyboard Shortcut” (on a Mac) while the section symbol is highlighted in the steps above. Sara Sampson’s original blog post recommended Alt + S, since it isn’t assigned to anything by default. Once you’ve created the shortcut, insert your section symbols with ease!