Inserting Symbols (e.g. greek letters) - earlier posts didn't help...

Posted by Conor Davies on October 30, 2001 10:42 AM

I'm on a roll now...
I'd like to insert the greek letter 'lamda' (lowercase) and other symbols into my cells, but I don't seem to be able to copy/paste them from the Character Map.
Any advice on how to do this?
Thanks in advance.
Conor Davies

Posted by Barrie Davidson on October 30, 2001 11:06 AM

Conor, when you are accessing the characters from the Character Map are you:

1. clicking on the Select button
2. then clicking on the Copy button
3. then going to Excel and clicking on the Paste button?

I just tried copying some characters and it worked okay for me.

BarrieBarrie Davidson

Posted by Eric on October 30, 2001 11:13 AM

It should work if you change the font to "Symbol" for the characters copied.

Posted by Conor Davies on October 30, 2001 11:14 AM

Hi Barrie,
Nope, I've just tried exactly that procedure again and all I get is a lowercase 'l'.
I'm in Font: Symbol, click on 'lamda', click Select, Click Copy, into Excel then Paste. No Joy!
In fact, experimenting with other Greek characters and I just get the English equivalents!
What am I doing wrong?
Thanks for your swift replies on these issues.
Conor

Posted by Gerry on October 30, 2001 11:17 AM

A couple of options:

When you select your symbol in the Character map you'll notice in the lower righthand corner the keystroke for that symbol. An example is the copyright symbol which equals ALT+0211. First format your cell(s) as symbol, then use the keystroke, making sure to use the numberpad. Hold down the ALT key while pressing then numbers then release it.

Another option is to select the text/letter in the formula bar, then change the font for just that text/letter. For example: lowercase p equals PI, so if you typed a string of text that needs to include the PI symbol, just type "p", then go back and select it in the formula bar and change the font to symbol.

Posted by Gerry on October 30, 2001 11:30 AM

What font are your cells formatted as?

Posted by Conor Davies on October 30, 2001 1:02 PM

Thanks very much, typing in English character then changing to 'Symbol' font did the trick.
Alas, there is no shortcut indicated for the greek characters.
Thanks again.
Conor