Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. If you are using a later version (Word 2007 or later), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for later versions of Word, click here: Inserting a Section Mark.

Inserting a Section Mark

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated June 17, 2023)
This tip applies to Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003


In legal and scholarly documents, it is sometimes necessary to use a character commonly known as a section mark. This character looks like a stylized S with a small circle in the middle of it. This character is not available from the keyboard, but can be inserted in a document in two ways. The first is to hold down the Alt key and type the numbers 0167 on the numeric keypad. The second method involves these steps:

  1. Choose Symbol from the Insert menu. Word displays the Symbol dialog box.
  2. Click on the Special Characters tab. (See Figure 1.)
  3. Figure 1. The Special Characters tab of the Symbol dialog box.

  4. Choose Section from the list of characters.
  5. Click on Insert. The symbol appears in your document at the insertion point.
  6. Click on Close.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (539) applies to Microsoft Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. You can find a version of this tip for the ribbon interface of Word (Word 2007 and later) here: Inserting a Section Mark.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. ...

MORE FROM ALLEN

Keeping Tables on One Page

Need to make sure that your smaller tables stay on a single page? Here's a handy trick you can use to enforce this rule.

Discover More

Symbols for Non-Printing Characters

Displaying non-printing characters can help you better understand the formatting and contents of your documents. What do ...

Discover More

Using Dynamic Chart Titles

Want the title of your chart to change based upon what is placed in a worksheet cell? It's easy; just add a formula to ...

Discover More

Do More in Less Time! An easy-to-understand guide to the more advanced features available in the Microsoft 365 version of Word. Enhance the quality of your documents and boost productivity in any field with this in-depth resource. Complete your Word-related tasks more efficiently as you unlock lesser-known tools and learn to quickly access the features you need. Check out Microsoft 365 Word For Professionals For Dummies today!

More WordTips (menu)

Selective Undo

Ever wonder why you can't undo just a single edit you made a few minutes earlier? The short answer is that it could make ...

Discover More

Collecting Highlighted Text Selections

Got a document with text passages marked with the highlighter tool? You can collect all those highlighted selections and ...

Discover More

Generating a List of Dates

When creating tracking documents in Word, you may need to come up with a series of dates in the document. You can type ...

Discover More
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in WordTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

View most recent newsletter.

Comments

If you would like to add an image to your comment (not an avatar, but an image to help in making the point of your comment), include the characters [{fig}] (all 7 characters, in the sequence shown) in your comment text. You’ll be prompted to upload your image when you submit the comment. Maximum image size is 6Mpixels. Images larger than 600px wide or 1000px tall will be reduced. Up to three images may be included in a comment. All images are subject to review. Commenting privileges may be curtailed if inappropriate images are posted.

What is 9 - 1?

There are currently no comments for this tip. (Be the first to leave your comment—just use the simple form above!)


This Site

Got a version of Word that uses the menu interface (Word 97, Word 2000, Word 2002, or Word 2003)? This site is for you! If you use a later version of Word, visit our WordTips site focusing on the ribbon interface.

Videos
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in WordTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

(Your e-mail address is not shared with anyone, ever.)

View the most recent newsletter.