Technical and Math Character Entry

Some technical "alt-character" shortcuts I find useful are below. I've memorized some favorites like • and Ω. List bullet symbol entry is particularly useful for lists in software that doesn't traditionally support them, such as within Excel cells or in basic text editors.

Another quick tip is to use "ALT =" in most Microsoft products (Word, OneNote) to quickly enter the "formula-entry" mode.

In this mode, most special characters can be entered using LaTeX syntax. Here's a decent cheat sheet for LaTeX codes for math symbols.

HOW TO:
Enter a character by holding "ALT" key and typing out the numeric (note leading zeros) on the keyboard Numpad.

Some alternative means for character entry:

• Copy-paste the characters from this webpage
• Windows "Character Map" program (on Windows 7+ search start-menu for Character Map)
• In many Microsoft products (Word, Outlook), Alt-"=" (no quotes) will start the equation editor
• Google-search a description of the character you want, copy and paste from search results

-----------------------------------
MY FAVORITES:

• | Alt-0149 | List Bullet

Ω | Alt-234 | Omega (uppercase) (Ohms)

σ | Alt-229 | Sigma (lowercase) (standard deviation)

µ | Alt-230 | Mu (lowercase) (mean)

± | Alt-0177 | Plus/Minus (bilateral tolerancing, uncertainty)

≈ | Alt-247 | Approximately equal to

° | Alt-0176 | Degrees

GENERAL

• | Alt-0149 | List Bullet

§ | Alt-0167 | Section symbol

↑ | Alt-24 | Up Arrow

↓ | Alt-25 | Down Arrow

→ | Alt-26 | Right Arrow

← | Alt-27 | Left Arrow

MATH SYMBOLS

± | Alt-0177 | Plus/Minus

÷ | Alt-0247 | Division

° | Alt-0176 | Degrees

≥ | Alt-242 | Greater than or equal to

≤ | Alt-243 | Less than or equal to

≈ | Alt-247 | Approximately equal to

× | Alt-0215 | Multiplication (alternate)

¬ | Alt-0172 | Boolean Algebra “Not”

√ | Alt-251 | Square Root

² | Alt-0178 | Squared

³ | Alt-0179 | Cubed

┴ | Alt-193 | Perpendicular

∩ | Alt-239 | Intersection

GREEK LETTERS

α | Alt-224 | Alpha (lowercase)

ß | Alt-225 | Beta (lowercase)

Γ | Alt-226 | Gamma (lowercase)

π | Alt-227 | Pi (lowercase)

Σ | Alt-228 | Sigma (uppercase)

σ | Alt-229 | Sigma (lowercase)

µ | Alt-230 | Mu (lowercase)

τ | Alt-231 | Tau (lowercase)

Φ | Alt-232 | Phi (uppercase)

Θ | Alt-233 | Theta (uppercase)

Ω | Alt-234 | Omega (uppercase)

δ | Alt-235 | Delta (lowercase)

φ | Alt-237 | Phi (lowercase)

ε | Alt-238 | Epsilon (lowercase)
-----------------------------------

ASSOCIATED LINKS
ASCII
Unicode
Greek Letters used in Math, Science, & Engineering