widman  wrote  on Wed, 23 May 2007 14:25:01 -0700:

w> is there a way to place the ± symbol on the tool bar so you
w> can insert it into text without going to the symbols and
w> selecting it. (the alt code won't work - using a notebook)

Could you record a macro and place it on the bar? I've never
tried in Excel but I have done that sort of thing in Word and
even produced a button image for it. You could also auto-correct
something unlikely but easily remembered to ALT+ 0177.

James Silverton
Potomac, Maryland

E-mail, with obvious alterations:
not.jim.silverton.at.verizon.not

You could create a button and assign a macro to do it. But the macro cannot
fire if you are already editing a cell, Excel doesn't hand over control at
that point.

You can still use a notebook, usually you press the Fn key to get the numpad
equivalent

However you can also use insert.> symbols

Wed, 23 May 2007 14:25:01 -0700 from widman
<widman@discussions.microsoft.com>:

Try prssing Fn and Alt at the same time, then typing 0177 and
releasing Alt and Fn. It works for me.

Alternatively, you could install something like Autohotkeys and tell
it to change +- into ±.

(Come to think of it, can you set up Excel's Autocorrect to change +-
into ±?)

I've been using a freeware called "AllChars" for many years.

http://allchars.zwolnet.com/

For your request, the key sequence would be ...

Cntrl  >  +  >   -   =   ±

It works _everywhere_

HTH