The Symbol field inserts a single character or a string of characters in the ANSI character set. You can insert a character more easily, however, by using the Symbol command (on the Insert tab, in the Symbols group, click Symbol).
You can apply character formatting directly to the field result or use switches to specify the formatting. Formatting that you specify using switches overrides formatting that you apply to the field result.
Syntax
When you view the Symbol field in your document, the syntax looks like this:
{ SYMBOL CharNum [Switches] }
Note: A field code tells the field what to show. Field results are what’s shown in the document after having evaluated the field code. To toggle between viewing the field code and the field code results, press Alt+F9.
Instructions
CharNum
The character or the decimal or hexadecimal value of the ANSI code. A hexadecimal value must have the format 0xn, where the hexadecimal number n is preceded by 0x (a zero followed by the letter x).
Switches
\a
Treats the specified code as an ANSI character.
\f "Font Name"
The font that contains the character you want to insert; the font name must be enclosed in quotation marks. Without this switch, the character is from the font applied to the Symbol field codes.
\h
Inserts the symbol without affecting the line spacing of the paragraph. If large symbols are inserted with this switch, text above the symbol may be overwritten.
\j
Treats the specified code as a SHIFT-JIS character.
\s points
Specifies the font size in points.
\u
Specifies that the characters are Unicode.
Example
In the font Times New Roman, the result of the field { SYMBOL 163 } is £.
The result of the field { SYMBOL 211 \f "Symbol" \s 12 } is this 12-point character: ©.
