Word: Insert prime and double prime characters

Just as there’s a special character for a degree symbol, there are also special characters for prime and double prime symbols (used when referring to latitude and longitude especially). These are NOT the same characters as a single or double quote mark, though many people assume they are.

Use one of these methods to insert a proper prime or double prime symbol in Microsoft Word:

• If you have a separate number pad, then press Alt+8242 (press and hold the Alt key while you type 8242) for prime, or Alt+8243 for double prime.
• Go to the Insert tab > Symbol — the prime symbol is character code = 2032, Unicode (hex), and double prime is 2033.
• If you have Math AutoCorrect turned on, then type \prime<space> for prime, or \pprime<space> for double prime (to turn on Math AutoCorrect: File > Options > Proofing > AutoCorrect Options > Math AutoCorrect tab).
• Supposedly you can also type 2032, Alt+x or 2033, Alt+x but neither of those worked for me.

Update August 2020: Someone asked if there was a way to find a single apostrophe/quote mark immediately after a number and replace that apostrophe with the prime symbol, using wildcards. After quite a bit of searching and testing, I couldn’t find a way to do this. You can search for a unicode character in the Find (e.g. ^u8242), which is not what I wanted. But you can’t use that syntax in the Replace field, whether you’re doing a standard find/replace or a wildcard one.

The best solution I found was to insert a prime character into your Word document (using one of the methods above), then copy that character to the clipboard. For a wildcard find/replace, you’d then enter ([0-9])(‘) for the Find and \1^c for the Replace (the ^c is whatever is in the clipboard). The person asking the question tested that method and was very happy with the result.

[Link last checked August 2020]