If you are writing technical or mathematical content in Microsoft Word, is very likely to contain letters and Symbols Greeks. They are widely used in the fields of science and engineering. For this reason we will show you How To Make Greek Letters In Word.
The Greek alphabet has both uppercase and lowercase versions. All of the letters in the Greek alphabet find their use in science and mathematics. However, unlike Latin script which used 26 letters, Greek only has 24 letters.
How To Make Greek Letters In Word
There are four quick methods to Make Greek Letters In Word:
- Switch to the source “Symbol” and press the corresponding letter on the keyboard.
- Insert an equation using the equation block.
- Add rules of Auto correction.
- Assign a shortcut to Greek letters that you need to write.
Let's see the explanation of each of these methods.
1. Using the Symbol font
This method is very useful when you need to insert symbols rarely and it only works for Latin or Greek letters.
At any time when you type text in the Word document, you can switch to Symbol font and use the corresponding Latin letters to enter Greek letters:
- The letter a = α
- The letter b = β
- The letter d = δ
- The letter z = ζ
- The letter w = ω
And so on with almost all the letters on your keyboard. The procedure is simple.
- Press the “Ctrl + Shift + Q” keys to change your current font to the Symbol font.
- Use symbols like a normal font, for example, in the symbol font, the « keya» is equivalent to the Greek letter «α«, the keyboard button «b» is equivalent to the Greek letter «β", etc.
This method works for inserting only one letter. Therefore, if you want to insert multiple symbols, you must repeat these steps for each insertion.
After entering a letter using the Symbol font, the next character is entered using the previous font automatically. The symbol font only activates for a single character.
However, if you need to enter a lot of Greek characters, it is best to activate the symbol font permanently. To do this, you need to press the “Ctrl + Shift + Q” keys, twice.
If you press the “Ctrl + Shift + Q” keys twice, Word does not switch to the previous font and the Symbol font does not stop working after the first symbol entered. Therefore, you will need to change the current font and style later.
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2. Using equation blocks
This way is perfect if you don't need to worry about formatting and backward compatibility. Microsoft Office.
A recommended approach for physical sciences and mathematics, which require a lot of mathematics in the text with consistent fonts for all equations and symbols.
- In the paragraph where you want to insert the symbol, press the keys “Alt + Shift + 0” to insert the equation block.
- In the equation block without any additional effort, you can enter any letter you need by simply typing “\ + Name of the letter”:
- \ + alpha = α
- \ + beta = β
- \ + delta = δ
- … Etc.
And so on with each of the letters of the Greek alphabet.
3. Using automatic replacement
When you work with a lot of documents and often need to paste a special symbol, you probably don't want to insert an equation every time.
Microsoft Word offers a useful feature called Auto correction. The AutoCorrect options in Microsoft Word They propose two different ways to quickly add any special characters, or even large chunks of text:
- Using the options of Math self-correction.
- Using the function Replace text while you type from the AutoCorrect options.
Using Math AutoCorrect
With this method, you can benefit from the options of Math self-correction without inserting an equation. To turn AutoCorrect on or off for math symbols, do the following:
- Click on the “ tabArchive".
- Then select "Options”, in the left menu.
- In the dialog box "Word options”, click on the “Demo reel".
- Then click on the button “AutoCorrect Options".
- In the dialog box Auto correction, go to the tab Math self-correction.
- Select the option “Use Math AutoCorrect rules outside the mathematical regions"
- Then click on “Accept".
After clicking on Accept, you can use any of the symbol names listed and Microsoft Word will replace them with the appropriate symbols.
- \alpha = α
- \beta = β
- \delta = δ
If you do not need the latest written replacement, you can cancel it by clicking “Ctrl + Z".
Using the “Replace Text” Option
Using this method, you can find some sequence to replace with the Latin or Greek letter. For example, to replace some Greek letter with short names, it is possible to use:
- \a = α
- \b = β
- \d = δ
To define new short names for some Greek letters, do the following:
- Insert the symbol for which you want to define the short name, using the font Symbol and select it.
- Then go to the “ tabArchive".
- In "Archive”, click on “Options".
- In the dialog box Word options, click on “Demo reel".
- Then click on the button “AutoCorrect Options".
- Now select the “ tabAuto correction".
- Here, make sure that the option “Replace text as you type”, is selected.
- Insert the symbol selected in the first step into the “With".
- Then select "text format".
- In the countryside "Replace”, write the sequence to be replaced with the symbol.
- If this sequence is not yet used, click “Add".
Done, now you need to add autocorrect for each Greek letter you want to type.
4. Using a shortcut key
Microsoft Word provides a way to define the shortcut key for the most frequently used functions. So, you can assign a shortcut to insert the Greek letter you need:
- Click on the tab Insert.
- Then, in the group “Symbols”, click on the “Symbol”. If you use the character very frequently, you will find it in the “Symbol".
- Click on "More symbols".
- In the new box that opens, locate the field “Subset” and select the option “ from the drop-down listGreek and Coptic Symbols".
- Now, in the field “Source", Choose "symbol".
- Then choose the symbol you want to add.
- Now click on the button “Shortcut key".
- The “customize keyboard".
- In the countryside "Press new shortcut key”, type the key combination you want to use for the symbol or character.
- Then click on "Assign".
Be careful not to reassign shortcuts already assigned in Word. Make sure that after Assign, no Word functions are active. In any case, you can reassign any existing function in Word to a different key.
To close
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You can use any of the four methods presented in this post. Each of them has different advantages and levels of difficulty. We hope that all this information will be useful to you and that you can use Greek letters in your texts.
My name is Javier Chirinos and I am passionate about technology. Ever since I can remember, I have been interested in computers and video games, and that passion has turned into a job.
I have been publishing about technology and gadgets on the Internet for over 15 years, especially in mundobytes.com
I am also an expert in online marketing and communication and have knowledge in WordPress development.