Fastest way to type greek letters like α or β?

Question

I am working on a computer with only English keyboard, I have no admin rights to change the language settings in Windows, but I need to insert Greek letters in a text editor and other typing programs.

What would be the fastest way to type Greek letters?

So far I only see the option to copy and paste from websites like Wikipedia that list Greek letters. But that takes too much time.

Another option would be to use ALT-codes but then I had to learn all these codes by heart.

So if anyone has a smart idea, answer please. Thank you.

Answer 1

Solution with Autohotkey

To use Autohotkey is probably the fastest solution. It works globally in all Windows programs. You need this Autohotkey script: greekletters.ahk, it works like this:

After installing the script you simply activate ⇪ Capslock, then you type for instance the key a which turns immediately into α. As fast as it can be.

To get capitalized letters, activate ⇪ Capslock, then hold Shift and press the letter you need.

Solution with Google Docs

Máté Juhász gave a great answer, which works if you have installed Microsoft Word 2007 or higher.

For everybody who has not Microsoft Word available, you can use Google Docs as a workaround. There you specify the Automatic corrections, go to >Tools >Preferences then insert for instance:

The same autoreplacement I can do now with Notepad++ using the Fingertext plugin.

So "Autocorrect" (automatic replacements) is the way to go!

Thanks to all for your ideas.

Answer 2

In Microsoft Office you can add auto correct list items, e.g. to automatically replace (alfa) to α, so after typing the text it will be automatically replaced to the character. It's longer to type then Alt codes, but also easier to remember.

Update

Doing a bit of research I've realized that this solution is already implemented, you don't need to type again the whole alphabet, here you can find how it works in Word (from version 2007): https://support.office.com/en-za/article/Math-AutoCorrect-symbols-b8b463d9-f47d-45c4-a00f-9245c2b38843.
And way to get it working in other Office programs too: http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/office/wiki/office_2013_release-excel/how-to-use-math-autocorrect-in-excel/dadf030c-2ba3-4080-9383-3050705792cf

Answer 3

I don't know when this became available, but Windows 10 provides a shortcut to enter emoticons and also symbols like greek letters.

Press Windows + .

This will open a small window showing smilies.

Click on the Omega-Symbol Ω. This will switch to the symbol selection and show greek letters. Click on the letter you want to insert.

This might not be the fastest way to enter greek letters but it works in any application.

Answer 4

You can add Greek keyboard layout (it doesn't require Administrator privileges):

1. Open Control Panel.
2. In Clock, Language, and Region category, click the link Change keyboards and other input methods.
3. Click Change keyboards.
4. Click Add.
5. Scroll the list to Greek (Greece), expand the item, expand Keyboards item and select a keyboard layout you like.
   Click Preview to see the preview of the keyboard layout.
6. Click OK to add the selected keyboard layout.
7. Click OK to close Text Services and Input Languages dialog, and click OK to close Region and Language dialog.

Thes instructions are for Windows 7.

Then use Left Alt+Shift to switch between keyboard languages.

Answer 5

Try LaTeX. Install (you can install it to your users folder) TeXlive and TeXMaker. LaTeX is a typesetting program specifically for maths and stuff with non-latin symbols. It may be a bit overkill (depending on what you wanna do exactly) but it is worth learning this markup language.

You type plain textfiles with content like

\alpha_{i}

which would turn into an alpha with an underscore 'i'. It is very rich and makes practically everything look nice :-)

Answer 6

If you want to write whole modern greek words, you can try a "greeklish" to greek converter. (Greeklish is greek written with similar-looking or similar-sounding latin characters, for those who don't have greek characters on their keyboard or are lazy to press the key combination switch between languages)

http://services.innoetics.com/greeklish/Service_en.aspx

Answer 7

I use math auto correct option. To type α just type \alpha and then space. For more such shortcut for all greek symbols just see. Shortcut to type Greek symbols in MS Word

Answer 8

You can add letters like this by following this:

1. Make sure NumLock is on.
2. Hold Alt and write in a number according to this map: http://tools.oratory.com/altcodes.html
3. Release the Alt and your letter should come up.

Note This may not work on all word possessing applications however do try.

Also once you get use to it then you should be able to remember some of the letters and their number.

Good luck