How do I type Greek?

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Level 1

61 points

How do I type Greek?

Maybe I am suffering a lapse here but I wonder, "How do I type characters in the Greek alphabet?" You know, [alpha], [beta], [delta], [gamma], ... [psi], [omega]. (I used brackets to mark what _should_ be single characters.)

In Pages, the Symbol font looks _just_ like, abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz. While I heard Rush Limbaugh's show from-today, I tested each of the ~100 [?] fonts, but I saw _no_ Greek. (I couldn't get Greek solidly by holding-down the [Option] key, either.)

iMac, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.4), 2.5 GHz Intel Core I5 P. & 4 GB M.

Posted on Aug 22, 2013 2:39 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

Tom Gewecke

Level 10

115,940 points

Aug 22, 2013 3:59 PM in response to Bob Novy

2 choices:

Do Edit > Special Characters and click on the gear wheel at the top left, select Customize and check the box for Greek. Double click or drag drop to input.

Go to system prefs/language & text/input sources and check the box for Greek, plus the box for Show Input Menu in Finder. Then select Greek from the "flag" menu at the top right of the screen and type.

Symbol fonts that produce Greek when you type Latin are obsolete junk and you should not use them if you happen to find one.

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Answer 2

Bob Novy Author

Level 1

61 points

Aug 23, 2013 12:20 PM in response to Tom Gewecke

Thank you Tom, in Scottsdale, AZ. I guess that I need to grow-used to this new way of typing in Greek, et al.

< Sigh! >

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Answer 3

2352

Level 1

9 points

Sep 2, 2013 9:39 AM in response to Bob Novy

It would be nice if you could re-assign the option+key (e.g. option + a = alpha), but I haven't found a way. What I have done instead is do as Tom said, then just map a keyboard shortcut to change between inputs (I'm using ctrl+space):

Setup keyboard shortcut: "system preferences->keyboard->input Sources->Language" then enable the "select previous input source" (last one on my list), change the shortcut as needed.

Though (as you might know?) for a few of them, you already have dedicated shortcuts (just not all the ones I need, but you might be lucky?):

Greek

16 ∂ Option-D (Delta) )

17 ∆ Option-J (Delta)

18 µ Option-M (Mu)

19 π Option-P (phi)

20 ß Option-S (beta

21 Ω Option-Z (Omega)

22 ∏ Option-Shift-P (phi)

Found here: http://modmyi.com/forums/mac-tips-tricks-mods/328131-100-mac-keyboard-shortcuts- creating-symbols.html)

Cheers,

W

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Answer 4

Tom Gewecke

Level 10

115,940 points

Sep 2, 2013 10:28 AM in response to 2352

2352 wrote:

It would be nice if you could re-assign the option+key (e.g. option + a = alpha), but I haven't found a way.

One way is to build a custom keyboard layout using

http://scripts.sil.org/ukelele

It's really very easy.

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Answer 5

Bob Novy Author

Level 1

61 points

Sep 11, 2013 8:19 AM in response to 2352

Thank you, Tom Gewecke out in far-from NC, Scottsdale, AZ. Still, I wonder why Apple no-longer provides a Proper Symbol font?

On my iMac with System OS X v10.8.4, what Apple calls Symbol is just Arabic (regular a-z & A-Z) in what looks like Helvetica font. What mis-advertising! I would Expect better from Apple than this. Apple has regressed, yes?

Still were I a skeptic, I would think that a Greek font is something that Apple plans to release in-the future, again. Upgrade = More Money! :-(

So I thank goodness that _I_ don't use Greek font, today. But I remember when I did.

In Graduate School, I relied on Troff, the word processor on the UNIX Operating System. Through more than 5-years of study at the University of Minnesota, I wrote my PhD thesis with Troff, finishing in 1990. :-)

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Answer 6

Tom Gewecke

Level 10

115,940 points

Sep 11, 2013 9:14 AM in response to Bob Novy

Bob Novy wrote:

Apple has regressed, yes?

No, Apple has progressed, and the other way is stuck in the 1990's. Everyone should be using Unicode, where Greek characters have their own code points. Fonts like the old Symbol which map Greek to Latin codepoints are obsolete and hopefully will disappear. Apple's Symbol font puts things where they are supposed to be under the agreed international standards.

It is really unfortunate that we have so much legacy data which was done the old way....Apple could provide a second "improper" Symbol font to help people deal with that, but has chosen not to.

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Answer 7

Bob Novy Author

Level 1

61 points

Oct 10, 2013 2:05 PM in response to Bob Novy

Thank you, Tom. (I need to change my method at typing.)

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