How to insert alpha, beta, gamma, delta, and other Greek symbols in Word (2023)

To insert the alpha, beta, gamma and deltalettersin a Word document, you have different ways:

I.Using the Symbol font:

This method is very useful when you need to insert symbols rarely andit works only for Latin or Greek letters.

Anytime, when you type the text in the Word document, you can switch to the Symbolfont and use the corresponding Latin letters to enter Greek letters:

1. Click Ctrl+Shift+Q to switch your currentfont to the Symbol font.

2. Use symbols like normal font (e.g. in Symbolfont keyboard button "a" equals Greek letter "α", keyboard button "b"equals Greece letter "β",..., "l" -> "λ",..., "w" -> "ω", etc.):

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Note: This method works for inserting only one letter. Thus, if you want toinsert several symbols, you need to repeat these steps for each insertion.

After entering one letter using the Symbol font, the next character is entered usingthe previous font.

If you click Ctrl+Shift+Q twice, Word does not switch to the previous font, and theSymbol font doesn't stop to work after the first entered symbol. Thus, you will needto change the current font and style later.

II.Using the Equation:

This way is perfect if you don't need to care about the format and compatibilitywith previous versions of Microsoft Office (a recommended approach for physicalscience and mathematics, which require a lot of math in the text with consistentfonts for all equations and symbols):

1. In the paragraph where you want to insert thesymbol, click Alt+= to insert the equitation block:

2. In the equitation block without any additionalefforts, you can enter any letter that you need just by typing\+Name of the letter:

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Note: You can create a shorter name, see the point III.2.

III.Using auto-replace:

When you work with many documents and often need to paste one specialsymbol, you may not want to insert an equation each time. Microsoft Word offers ahelpful feature named AutoCorrect. The AutoCorrect options in MicrosoftWord propose two different ways to quickly add any special character, such as analpha, beta, gamma and deltaletter from the Greek alphabet, or evenlarge pieces of text:

• Using the Math AutoCorrect options,
• Using the Replace text as you type function of the AutoCorrectoptions.

III.1.Using AutoCorrect for Math:

Using this method, you can benefit the Math AutoCorrect options without inserting anequation. To turn on or turn off the AutoCorrect of the Math symbols, do thefollowing:

1. On the File tab, click Options:

2. In the Word Options dialog box, on theProofing tab, click the AutoCorrect Options... button:

3. In the AutoCorrect dialog box, on theMath AutoCorrect tab, select the Use Math AutoCorrect rules outside of the math regionsoption:

After clicking OK, you can use any of the listed Names of symbols andMicrosoft Word will replace them to the appropriate symbols:

Note: If you don't need the last replacement, click Ctrl+Z to cancel it.

III.2.Using Replace text:

Using this method, you can come up with some sequence to use for replacing it to theLatin or Greek letter. For example, to replace some Greek letter with not short names,it is possible to use:

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To define the new, short names to some Greek letters, do the following:

1. Insert the symbol for which you want to definethe short name, using the Symbol font and select it.

2. On the File tab, click Options.

3. In the Word Options dialog box, on theProofing tab, click the AutoCorrect Options... button.

4. In the AutoCorrect dialog box, on theAutoCorrect tab:

• Ensure that the Replace text as you type option is selected,
• The selected symbol has been inserted in the With field. If you use theFormatted text, select this radio button:

  

• In the Replace field, type the sequence that should be replaced to thesymbol,
• If such sequence doesn't used yet, click Add.

IV.Using a shortcut key:

Microsoft Word provides a way to define the shortcut key for the most often usedfunctions. Thus, you can assign a shortcut for inserting the alpha,beta, gamma or delta letter:

1. On the Insert tab, in the Symbols group,click the Symbol button:

Note: If you use the character very often, you will find it in the Symboldropdown list:

2. Click More Symbols....

3. On the Symbol dialog box:

• To insert the alpha, beta, gamma ordelta from the current font (if exist), from theSubset dropdown list, select the Greek and Coptic:

  

• To insert the alpha, beta, gamma or delta from the Symbol font, from theFont dropdown list, choose the Symbol font:

  

4. Choose the symbol and click the Shortcut Key...button to open the Customize Keyboard dialog box:

5. In the Press new shortcut key field, type the keycombination that you want to use for the symbol or character (e.g., for symbol δused Alt+D) and click Assign.

Note: Be careful, you can reassign the assigned already shortcuts in Word. Besure, that after Current assign to: there are no active Word functions. In any case,you can reassign any existing function in Word to a different key.

See also this tip in French:Comment insérer alpha, bêta, gamma, delta et autres symboles grecs dans Word.