In Excel: set the cell font to Wingdings and type a lower-case ü for ✓, or use Insert ▸ Symbol ▸ font: Segoe UI Symbol ▸ character code 2713.
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Wingdings: select the cell, set Home ▸ Font to Wingdings, type ü for ✓ or û for ✗.
Unicode: Insert ▸ Symbol, set Font to Segoe UI Symbol, enter 2713 (✓) or 2714 (✔) in Character code, click Insert.
Keyboard: with Num Lock on, hold Alt and type 0252 on the numeric keypad while the cell is in Wingdings.
Copy-paste is fine too: ✓ ✔ ✗ ✘ — pasting keeps them as Unicode text.
For a tick driven by data, keep the truth value in its own column and use =IF(B2, CHAR(252), "") in a Wingdings cell.
For a clickable tick box rather than a character, use Developer ▸ Insert ▸ Check Box, which stores TRUE/FALSE in a linked cell.
What this does
There are three routes and they behave differently. The Wingdings trick is fastest: with the cell in Wingdings, ü prints ✓, û prints ✗, and the boxed versions are ý and ý's neighbours. Insert ▸ Symbol inserts a real Unicode character (U+2713 ✓ or U+2714 ✔) that keeps working in any font. And =CHAR(252) with a Wingdings cell, or a conditional-formatting icon set, makes the mark appear automatically from a condition rather than being typed. A tick typed into a cell is decoration — if you need to count completions, store TRUE/FALSE or 1/0 and show the tick with formatting. The same idea underpins a lot of everyday Excel work, so the few minutes spent getting it right here pay back across every sheet you build afterwards. Treat it as a pattern, not a one-off, and it stops being something you look up and starts being something you reach for. The difference between a quick fix and a sheet you can trust is the extra minute you spend validating “add check mark in excel”. Start on a copy or a tiny sample, keep the affected cells visible, and compare the result with the tool above before you touch the real workbook. When this is a ribbon command, the selection matters more than the button: confirm the range, apply the command, then spot-check the output before saving. The point is a layout choice that keeps the sheet readable and sortable, but the practical win is that someone else can open the file and understand what happened without asking you.
A worked example
Fast route: select C2, set the font to Wingdings, type ü and press Enter — the cell shows ✓. Unicode route: Insert ▸ Symbol ▸ Font: Segoe UI Symbol ▸ type 2713 in the Character code box ▸ Insert; this ✓ survives a font change. Automatic route: leave the source column as TRUE/FALSE and put =IF(B2, CHAR(252), "") in a Wingdings-formatted C2, so the tick appears when B2 is TRUE and =COUNTIF(B:B, TRUE) still counts correctly. Ticks show up in every checklist, QA sheet and status tracker, and the distinction that matters is whether the mark is decoration or the data — because only one of those can be counted. If this is something you do often, add the command to the Quick Access Toolbar (right-click it on the ribbon and choose Add to Quick Access Toolbar) or learn its shortcut, so next time it is one click instead of a hunt through the menus.
In Google Sheets
This is a command rather than a formula, so there is no syntax to carry over. Google Sheets arranges its commands in menus across the top instead of a ribbon, names some of them differently and does not have every Excel command — look for the equivalent in the Sheets menus or its help before assuming the steps match. The aim was to get you unstuck fast and leave you a little more capable than a copy-paste would. The answer is at the top and the detail above shows why it holds — so the next time a colleague asks, you can answer without reaching for search. If you take one thing from this page on “add check mark in excel”, make it the order of checks rather than the individual clicks: confirm what is selected, apply the step, and look at the result before moving on. That small routine is what keeps Excel work predictable when the same task comes back in a slightly different workbook.
Common mistakes
- Typing ü in a non-Wingdings cell and getting a literal ü.
- Storing the tick character as the data and then being unable to count or filter it reliably.
- Using Wingdings characters in a file that will be opened on a machine without that font, where they fall back to letters — Unicode ✓ is the portable choice.
- Mixing ✓ (U+2713) and ✔ (U+2714) in one column so filters treat them as two different values.
- Reaching for a checkbox control when a data-driven ✓ from a formula would be simpler and easier to total.
Frequently asked questions
How do I insert a check mark in Excel?
Set the cell font to Wingdings and type a lower-case ü, or use Insert ▸ Symbol with the Segoe UI Symbol font and character code 2713.
What is the shortcut for a tick?
With the cell in Wingdings, Alt+0252 on the numeric keypad types ✓ and Alt+0251 types ✗. There is no shortcut in the default font.
How do I make a tick appear automatically?
Keep the condition in its own column and use =IF(B2, CHAR(252), "") in a Wingdings-formatted cell, or apply a conditional-formatting icon set to the value.
Tick character or checkbox?
A character is text and is fine for display. A Developer ▸ Insert ▸ Check Box is clickable and writes TRUE/FALSE to a linked cell, which is what you want if the state has to be counted.
Other ways people ask this
People reach this page typing “add check mark in excel”, “how to add a check mark in excel”, “how do you add a check mark in excel” and “add a check mark in excel”, among other phrasings; whichever wording you used, the fix above is the one you want.
Why do people search for this in so many different ways?
Because the same task has many names. “add check mark in excel”, “how to add a check mark in excel”, “how do you add a check mark in excel” all point at the one operation explained on this page, which is why they all lead here.