How to Use Wingdings and Webdings Font

About Webdings and Wingdings Fonts

The Wingdings and Webdings fonts have been a bit of a phenomenon for the last few decades since the fonts came out. Part of the strange phenomenon is that these fonts consist of only series of symbols. Although, by knowing what symbols are available in the Wingdings and Webdings fonts can help take your document or presentation to the next level.

There are 4 types of these fonts total: Wingdings, Wingdings 2, Wingdings 3, and Webdings. These fonts consist of 78 characters per font, totaling 312 potential symbols. Within the fonts are a variety of different symbols that can be useful in various reports and documentations.

In order to help you better understand the fonts, when to use the fonts and what keystroke results in specific symbols, we have created this guide. This guide will include:

1. When to Use Webdings and Wingdings
2. Step By Step Example
3. About the Character Chart
4. Hesitations When Using These Fonts

When to Use Webdings and Wingdings

There are many uses for the Webdings and Wingdings fonts. These are a great way to spruce up any document or presentation. There are a variety of symbols with an array of uses. Here are a few examples:

• The triangles to display increases or decreases in financial reports
• The box with a check to display how to properly fill out a form
• A cross to represent a church on a document
• A telephone to represent a phone number to call of a business

Below are a couple of examples of when these fonts can help you illustrate your message with greater impact.

Using the Triangles – Example

Inserting triangles using Wingdings 3 can be a great way to show performance or financial increases and decreases. In the photo example below there is a comparison of performance levels of a few employees.

On the left, the before is very basic and bland. It shows the results but does not tell a story. On the right, the after, you will see the chart displayed with Wingdings 3 triangles in green and red font colors to help the performance chart pop. It also tells the story of if the person increased or decreased from their last performance review.

To use these triangles, you would select Wingdings 3 and use the “p” and “q” keys to insert up and down arrows, respectively. This is a quick way to add some flare to your representation to help tell a story.

Using the Cross Symbol – Example

If you’ve ever been struggling with church content or marketing, it may because you are not using enough icons. In the example below, we turned the simple phrase “Welcome to our Church! We are glad to have you” into something more appealing and eye-catching. Through the use of Wingdings, we added across to the right of the text. Now, viewers will be drawn in to wonder what the brochure, document or display is trying to say.

We inserted the cross using Wingdings font with a capital “U”.

Step-By-Step Example

Below is a quick how-to for inserting a checkmark using Webdings. This example will be done in Microsoft PowerPoint, but can also be used in other Microsoft applications.  In this example, we will insert a large checkmark onto the presentation.

1. Insert Text Box

Go to the area you wish to insert the Webdings font. In the example below, we had inserted a text box onto the title slide because we want the checkmark to appear to the right of the title. If you are in Microsoft Word, then select the part of your document you would like this to be inserted or insert a text box as well.

2. Customize Font

Then change your font to Webdings and change your font size to an appropriate size for your presentation or document.  In this example, we used font size 200 so that the check mark would have a large impact on the slide. Just as any other font, you have the ability to change the Webdings font color to any color in order to match your color scheme.

3. Insert Character

Next, insert the check mark. Ensure you are on the “Webdings” font. Then, insert a check mark by clicking the “a” letter on the keyboard. Note: the “a” you are typing is a lowercase “a”. Therefore, do not hold down “Shift” while typing.

4. Alternate Insert

Another optional way to explore all the symbols is through the use of the “Symbols” function. If you go to the “Symbols” section of the Quick Access Toolbar in Microsoft PowerPoint (“Insert Tab” in Microsoft Word), you will see the option to insert an equation or symbol. Click on “Symbol” and select one of the Webdings or Wingdings fonts. Then, you can explore the different options of symbols per font.

About the Character Chart

PowerPointify has created a great, character chart to allow you to know what keyboard keys create what symbol per Webdings and Wingdings fonts. This character chart will allow you to quickly identify what letter or key will output what symbol within the four fonts.

To use this chart, simply download it on your computer – this will also allow you to find it quickly for future use. Then, find the character you are looking for (for example, the checkmark). Then, see which keyboard key the character corresponds with. For the checkmark, the keyboard corresponds with a lowercase “a” in the Webdings font. When wanting to insert a checkmark into this document, simply change your font to Webdings and then click the “a” key on your keyboard.

It is important to note that with the 78 characters per font, some characters may require you to use multiple keys at once. For instance, the cross that was made with Wingdings in the second example (see above), and used a capital U. Therefore, in order to use that symbol, you would need to hold down “Shift” while clicking “U.” Be sure to know what key(s) the symbol requires you to type.

Hesitations When Using These Fonts

There is a hesitation that should be discussed when using the Wingdings or Webdingss fonts. Have you ever not been able to see an emoji someone sent you because your phone did not support the symbol? Similarly, you can run into issues with Wingdings and Webdings fonts. These four fonts strictly come on Windows devices or computers. The fonts can be downloaded for Android and iOS devices, but do not come preinstalled automatically. Therefore, using these fonts on websites may not be the best idea.

When using these fonts on websites, there is the possibility that someone viewing your website will not have Wingdings or Webdings compatibility. Instead, if you wish to create icons or pictures on a website using these symbols, then we suggest you make create your symbol on Microsoft Word or PowerPoint and then save your desired symbol as a PNG or JPG. Saving as an image will allow you to insert the photo into your website for all types of devices to see.

Read more:

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