Greek Letters: How to Insert Alpha, Delta, Omicron in Excel

In Mathematics, many Greek letters have meanings. For example, the delta symbol, or the sigma character. Also, with nowadays naming the COVID-19 variants after Greek letters, you might need to use them in Excel. Here are 5 simple methods of how to add them to Excel cells and to use them in Excel charts – in Windows and Mac!

Method 1: Use the Symbol window to insert Greek letters

The “traditional” way to insert the sign showing the difference in Windows is through the Insert Symbol window:

1. On the Insert ribbon, click “Symbol” (the right-most button).
2. In the Symbol window, select “Unicode (hex)” in the from field.
3. Type the number of your desired Greek letter into the “Character code” field (here 0394 for delta Δ). You should now see the Greek character selected above.
4. Click on Insert to insert the symbol into the cell or chart.

This table has all the values you type into the “Character code” field.

Letter	Small Greek letter	Character code for small letter	Capital Greek letter	Character code value for capital letter
Alpha	α	03B1	Α	0391
Beta	β	03B2	Β	0392
Gamma	γ	03B3	Γ	0393
Delta	δ	03B4	Δ	0394
Epsilon	ε	03B5	Ε	0395
Zeta	ζ	03B6	Ζ	0396
Eta	η	03B7	Η	0397
Theta	θ	03B8	Θ	0398
Iota	ι	03B9	Ι	0399
Kappa	κ	03BA	Κ	039A
La(m)bda	λ	03BB	Λ	039B
Mu	μ	03BC	Μ	039C
Nu	ν	03BE	Ν	039D
Xi	ξ	03BF	Ξ	039E
Omicron	ο	03C0	Ο	039F
Pi	π	03C1	Π	03A0
Rho	ρ	03C2	Ρ	03A1
Sigma	σ	03C3	Σ	03A3
Tau	τ	03C4	Τ	03A4
Upsilon	υ	03C5	Υ	03A5
Phi	φ	03C6	Φ	03A6
Chi	χ	03C7	Χ	03A7
Psi	ψ	03C8	Ψ	03A8
Omega	ω	03C9	Ω	03A9

Method 2: Use Professor Excel Tools to insert Greek characters

The second method works similar to the first one: You select the Greek letter you want to insert from a list. But this time, we use Professor Excel Tools, our Excel add-in to boost your productivity.

1. On the Professor Excel ribbon, click on “Insert Symbol”.
2. Select “Greek Characters” and click on the letter you want to insert.
3. Click on “Insert”.

The advantages of this method: Selecting the category of Greek characters is very fast and you can bulk insert the characters to all selected cells.

Please download the free trial version of Professor Excel Tools here.

Method 3: Use the UNICHAR function in Excel

The third method is using the built-in UNICHAR function. Just type

=UNICHAR(927) 

into an Excel cell and it returns the Omicron letter. Please refer to the following table for all the other unicode numbers of Greek characters.

This method also works under MacOS.

Letter	Small Greek letter	UNICHAR small letter	Capital Greek letter	UNICHAR Capital Letter
Alpha	α	945	Α	913
Beta	β	946	Β	914
Gamma	γ	947	Γ	915
Delta	δ	948	Δ	916
Epsilon	ε	949	Ε	917
Zeta	ζ	950	Ζ	918
Eta	η	951	Η	919
Theta	θ	952	Θ	920
Iota	ι	953	Ι	921
Kappa	κ	954	Κ	922
La(m)bda	λ	955	Λ	923
Mu	μ	956	Μ	924
Nu	ν	957	Ν	925
Xi	ξ	958	Ξ	926
Omicron	ο	959	Ο	927
Pi	π	960	Π	928
Rho	ρ	961	Ρ	929
Sigma	σ	963	Σ	931
Tau	τ	964	Τ	932
Upsilon	υ	965	Υ	933
Phi	φ	966	Φ	934
Chi	χ	967	Χ	935
Psi	ψ	968	Ψ	936
Omega	ω	969	Ω	937

Method 4: Copy & paste

Probably not as beautiful, but it usually works: Alternatively, just copy and paste the Greek letters from one of the tables above.

This method also works under MacOS

Method 5: Insert Greek letters in MacOS

As said already, the method 3 and four above also work under MacOS.

This method

It’s almost the same in Mac OS as in Windows, but the window looks a bit different. Still, you have to go to the Insert ribbon and click on Symbol on the right-hand side:

1. On the Insert ribbon, click on Symbol (on the right-hand side).
2. In the Character Viewer, go to Mathematical Symbols.
3. Insert the ∆ by double-clicking on it.

Add the Greek characters to a chart

You want to show Greek characters on a chart? It works the same way as described above. The only difference: Insert a text field first.

In order to do this, select your chart. Then go to the Insert ribbon. On the right-hand side, click on the button “Text Box” and draw it onto the chart. Now, you can simply copy & paste or insert the Greek letter there.

IImage by PImage by Michelle Raponi from Pixabay