Delta Symbol in Excel

Definition of Delta Symbol

The delta symbol is used to showcase change over time. These type of changeovers are mostly used in different dashboards, in which the data variations appear for a quick view.

How to Insert Delta Symbol to the Excel?

You won’t get the delta symbol directly from the keyboard. The two different methods are by selecting from the insert menu and through keyboard short cut. Let’s see the different ways to insert the delta symbol into the excel.

Delta Symbol from the Insert Menu

• Select a cell where you want to insert the delta menu. Go to the insert menu. Select the Symbols.

• Once you click on the symbols it will provide a wi0ndow with different symbols used in excel which are not available in the keyboard.

• If the delta symbol is showing within the list, select it and click on the insert button. Or else change the ‘Subset’ drop-down select the ‘Greek and Coptic’.

• This will list the symbols where you can see the delta symbol. Select the symbol and press insert button.

• The delta symbol will get inserted in the cell. Press the close button once the symbol gets inserted to the cell.

• The delta symbol is similar to a triangle will be inserted. You can change the look using the different available font. Let’s try to insert a black color filled delta symbol. To get a center filled delta change the ‘Font’ to ‘Arial’. And select the Subset to ‘Geometric Shape’.

Shortcut key to Insert Delta Symbol in Excel

If the delta symbol is continuously used in an excel sheet, doing the above process is time-consuming. Here you can use the shortcut key for delta symbol. Hold Alt key and press number 30 from number keypad in the keyboard. This will insert a black color filled delta symbol to the selected area.

This is another method to insert the delta symbol in a worksheet. To insert an empty delta, select the targeted cell type” D”.

Select the home menu then change the font type into “Symbol”. The letter will be changed into a delta symbol.

Inserting Delta Using Formula

It is possible to insert a delta symbol using the CHAR function. Special characters and symbols are inserted using this function.

• Open a char function in the cell where you want to insert a delta symbol.

• Enter the character number to the char function and press enter.

• You will get the corresponding character ‘r’ for the character number provided to the char function.

• Change the font type to “Wingdings 3”. This will insert an empty delta symbol to the cell instead of character ‘r’.

• To get a filled delta symbol change the character number to 112 from 114.

Inserting Delta Symbol Using AutoCorrect

AutoCorrect is a feature used in excel to automatically correct the misspelled words while you type. Apart from the automatic correction, this is used to change abbreviations into full text, insert the special characters or symbols without using any other sources. By storing the delta symbol in a text or word set the auto-correction. So once the same is typed in the spreadsheet excel will autocorrect it into the delta symbol.

• Copy a delta symbol from the spreadsheet, then click on the File>>>> Options

• Move to the option ‘Proofing’ in the available list.  Select the AutoCorrect tab where you can set the word which needs to correct automatically while typing.

• You will get a new window to set the autocorrect word. A list of previously set auto-corrections will be shown. Two textboxes will be shown, in the ‘With:’ textbox paste the delta symbol.

• In the ‘Replace’ textbox give the word for which the auto-correction should perform. Here we use the word ‘del’ as the auto-correction text for delta symbol. Use the ‘Add’ button to add the given symbol and word to the list. Press the ‘OK’ button to save the list.

• Open the worksheet and type the word which you set for auto-correction. Here we set the word as ‘del’. So type the word in the cell where you want to insert the delta symbol.

• Press space after typing ‘del’. The delta symbol will get inserted in the cell where the word is typed. Similarly, it is also possible to set an empty delta symbol.

Delta Inserting Using Custom Number Formatting

In dashboards, you can see delta symbols with different colors. Commonly the delta symbol uses to show the variance or difference between two numbers. Let’s see how to insert the delta symbol while doing a calculation.

1. A table is given with different product name and its MRP. The amount after sales with discount is also mentioned.

2. Find the difference amount sold and MRP by finding the difference between two numbers

3. Select the column variation and press Ctrl+1. This will open the format window. Select the custom from the category list. Select the format as general from the ‘type’ list paste a delta symbol along with general. Hit ‘OK’ button.

This will insert a delta symbol with the amounts.

4. Now both negative and positive values are specified with upwards delta symbol. We need to change this and want to show the negative values to downwards and positive values to up words. To do this, change the format again as below.

This will change the delta symbol in two ways.

5. To get this in two different colors use the format to mention the colors for two delta symbols.

The table will showcase the numbers in with different colors

Things to Remember

• Two types of delta symbols are used. Filled delta symbol and empty delta symbol.
• Char function can insert symbols to the worksheet using its character numbers.
• Auto-correction is the best option if delta symbol is using continuously.
• While using Alt+30 as shortcut use the numeric keyboard to get the number 30.

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This is a guide to Delta Symbol in Excel. Here we discuss How to Insert Delta Symbol to the Excel with examples and excel template. You can also go through our other suggested articles to learn more –

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