Insert a Cross Mark or X Mark in PowerPoint for Mac

Do you want to insert a cross mark, which is also called an X mark, in your slides? Very often, this symbol indicates a task is canceled or a concept is negated or no longer applicable. You may want to add this symbol as part of your regular text in text placeholders and boxes, shapes, tables, and even charts. Fortunately, it is very easy to complete this task in most versions of PowerPoint for Mac. There may be slight differences, depending upon whether you are using a newer or older version of PowerPoint, but even then, the process is very similar. Using one of these options, you will be able to add a cross mark or an X mark in PowerPoint.

We will look at two ways to add a cross mark in PowerPoint for Mac:

1. Use the Symbol option to bring up Character Viewer
2. Create an AutoCorrect entry

1. Use the Symbol option to bring up Character Viewer

To access the cross mark character from the Symbol dialog box, follow these steps:

1. Click inside any text container object to place your insertion point, as shown in Figure 1, below.
2. 
   Figure 1: Place your insertion point
2. Now access the Insert tab of the Ribbon, and click the Symbol button, as shown in Figure 2, below. Alternatively, press the Ctrl + ⌘ + Spacebar keyboard shortcut.
3. 
   Figure 2: Click the Symbol button


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3. Either option brings up the Character Viewer dialog box, that you can see in Figure 3, below.
4. 
   Figure 3: The Character Viewer dialog box
4. Drag the Character Viewer diaog box a little so that you can see the controls at the top of the box, as shown in Figure 4, below (compare with Figure 3, above). You then scroll within the dialog box, until you see the Bullets/Stars category. Here you will find the cross mark symbol, as you can see again in Figure 4, below. Do note that there are 4 variations of the cross mark symbol.
5. 
   Figure 4: Locate the cross mark in the Character Viewer
5. Double-click any character to quickly add it to your insertion point in PowerPoint, as shown in Figure 5, below.
6. 
   Figure 5: Cross mark checked

2. Create an AutoCorrect entry

You can create an AutoCorrect entry that lets you add the cross mark quickly, with a shortcut. To do so, follow these steps:

1. Choose Tools | AutoCorrect Options in the menu, as shown in Figure 6, below.
2. 
   Figure 6: AutoCorrect Options in the Tools menu
2. Doing so will bring up the AutoCorrect dialog box, as shown in Figure 7, below. Select the AutoCorrect tab, and type in your shortcut in the Replace box, highlighted in red within Figure 7. We typed -x, that is a hyphen followed by an x.
3. 
   Figure 7: AutoCorrect dialog box
3. In the With box, we typed in a u with a circumflex. You can use any technique, or just copy this character (û) into the With box, highlighted in blue in Figure 7. Next, click the Plus button, highlighted in green.
4. Now click the red close button on the top left of this dialog box.

Now, whenever you type -x, PowerPoint will replace with the u with a circumflex. In case you don't want the hyphen followed by an x to be replaced with the u with a circumflex, press ⌘ + Z to undo. Also, do note that any AutoCorrect entry you create will work in all Microsoft applications, such as Word, Excel, Outlook, etc.

Now to change the u with a circumflex to a cross mark, just select the u with a circumflex character only, and change the font to Wingdings. Typically, Wingdings is found on Mac computers that have Microsoft Office programs installed.