How to Make a Check Mark on a Mac

There are certain keyboard combinations you can type on a Mac in combination with the Alt or Option key to insert special symbols into your documents or web searches.

However, there's no check mark available this way, so you can't type a check mark on a Mac keyboard directly. A similar looking symbol represents the square root, but it looks out of place when used in place of a check mark.

You can find many symbols in the Mac's Emoji & Symbols menu. To find this menu, click the "Edit" menu in any program and then select "Emoji & Symbols." Scroll down to find a symbol that looks like the one you want or type its name to search by name.

You can find several variations of a traditional check mark in the Emoji & Symbols menu, including some checked boxes and some standalone check marks. Find the one you want, click it and click "Select" to copy it to the clipboard. Then paste it into your program.

Another way to use a symbol on a Mac or on any computer is to find it in an existing document or online and then copy and paste it where you want it. You may need to adjust the font or size to match your document.

When you find a symbol through an online search or in your files, highlight it with your mouse, right-click or control-click and select "Copy" in the pop-up menu. Right-click or control-click again and click "Paste" to paste it where you want it.

If you're editing a web page, there are HTML codes known as entity codes you can use to type special characters. You can either use special shorthand, like " " to type a nonbreaking space or "&" to type an ampersand or use codes derived from a symbol's Unicode codes. Unicode is a system for representing a wide variety of symbols and languages online.

Look up the Unicode code on the official Unicode website or in another reference and then type "&#;" where "code" is the numeric code. For example, "☑" generates a checked box.