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North West/Top Left Arrow ↖ in Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook

5 September 2022

Insert the North West or Top Left Arrow ↖ into Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint or Outlook. Both in Office for Windows and Office for Mac.

North West Arrow ↖ or “Top Left Arrow” can be used for directions on a map (naturally) or pointing to ‘top left’ in a Word / PowerPoint table or Excel cell.

How North West Arrow ↖ looks in different fonts.

Here’s some examples of how North West Arrow ↖ looks in common Office fonts – various options for the arrow head and line thickness

Left Arrow icons rotated

There are also ‘left arrow’ options in modern Office icons (Insert | Illustrations | Icons ). Search for ‘left arrow’ then select one that suits or is nearly right.

Rotate any icon so it points exactly where you want. Here we’ve inserted the circled left arrow and rotated it (look for the rotate handle) to the exact direction we want.

North West Arrow ↖ codes

These are the important code numbers or values you’ll need to enter the North West Arrow or ↖

Decimal: 8598 Hex: 2196

Web: &nwarr; or ↖ or ↖

(web codes aren’t used in Microsoft Office, we’ve included them for the sake of completeness.)

Word and Outlook

The North West Arrow ↖ sign does NOT have an inbuilt shortcut in Word.

Use the standard Word Alt + X symbol shortcut 2196 + Alt + X

Once in a document you can copy it to AutoCorrect and make your own shortcut.

Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook

Insert | Symbols | Symbol and look for the North West Arrow symbol.

Windows

In Windows there are several shortcuts to enter the North West Arrow ↖ character into any program, but they use a numeric keypad, not the number row above the letters.

Alt + 8598

Window 10 Emoji Panel

The Windows 11/10 Emoji Panel has the Omega symbol Ω. Use Win + . (period/fullstop) to open the panel. Go to Symbols | Geometric symbols …

See Emoji Panel is part of Windows 10 that totally sucks

Windows Character Map

The Windows Character Map accessory in all Windows releases

Character Map has a search feature, something missing from the Insert | Symbol in Office.

MacOS and Office for Mac inserting characters

On a Mac, to enter the North West Arrow ↖ symbol:

Command + Control + Spacebar shortcut to open the Character Viewer.
Search for “ North West Arrow “ or just “Arrow” and the Viewer should find the symbol you need.

Despite the name Character Viewer, the Apple system tool will also insert characters into any program, including Office for Mac.

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