11 November 2023

Care of ℅ symbol in Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook

Peter Deegan Microsoft 365, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Office, Microsoft Office for Mac, Microsoft Powerpoint, Microsoft Word, Office 2007, Office 2010, Office 2013, Office 2016, Office 2019, Office 2021 / Office LTSC, Office 365 Symbols & Emoji in Microsoft Office, Windows and Mac

The Care of ℅ symbol can be typed into Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint or Outlook. Both in Office for Windows and Office for Mac.

Care of ℅ symbol is one of those useful symbols you’ll never see on a keyboard and have to go hunting for. ℅ is used on envelopes and addresses, it refers to an intermediary responsible for transferring a piece of mail between the postal system and the final addressee. For example:

Jack Torrance
℅ Overlook Hotel
Estes Park CO 80517

Microsoft Office, Windows and Mac can enter many different symbols and emoji, easily and in different ways see Symbols & Emoji in Microsoft Office, Windows and Mac

How Care of ℅ looks in different fonts.

Here’s some examples of how Care of ℅ looks in common Office fonts.

Care of ℅ codes

These are the important code numbers or values you’ll need to enter the Care of or ℅

Decimal: 8453 Hex: 2105

Web: &incare; or ℅ or ℅

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

Word and Outlook

The Care of ℅ sign does NOT have an inbuilt shortcut in Word.

Use the standard Word Alt + X symbol shortcut 2105 then 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 Care of symbol.

Windows

In Windows there are several shortcuts to enter the Care of ℅ character into any program, but they use a numeric keypad, not the number row above the letters.

Alt + 2105

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, Command + Control + Spacebar shortcut to open the Character Viewer. Search for “ Care of “ 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.