#Inequality math symbols on keyboard professional

Ideal for everything from numerical ranges (e.g. So-called because itвЂ™s the same length as a letter вЂnвЂ™, this is my most often-used shortcut, largely because I love a good n-dash. The symbols themselves usually look best in a serif font rather than a sans-serif font вЂ“ IвЂ™ve chosen Cambria here. They also avoid the problem of your symbols changing back to the Roman letters if you later decide to change the font used in your document! These ALT codes for the Greek letters most commonly used in scientific texts will ensure that theyвЂ™ll appear correctly in most common fonts. But Greek letters are now encoded in many common fonts, so you can achieve a more consistent appearance by using the following ALT codes to generate the symbol instead. Now that IвЂ™ve covered that technicality, here are my top symbols and their shortcuts: Greek lettersДЇor many years, the go-to method for getting Greek letters was to key the Roman letter, and then laboriously change the font to Symbol (вЂaвЂ™ for alpha, вЂbвЂ™ for beta, etc.). If youвЂ™re using a keyboard that doesnвЂ™t have a numberpad, then itвЂ™s still possible but just a bit more fiddly вЂ“ while holding the key marked with a coloured вЂFunctionвЂ™ or вЂfnвЂ™, press and release вЂNum lockвЂ™, and then use the keys that have numbers in the same colour. Most of the shortcuts IвЂ™ve listed below use the numberpad вЂ“ all you need to do is to ensure вЂNum lockвЂ™ is on, hold down вЂALTвЂ™, and then key the digits to get the symbol (or вЂglyphвЂ™ to use the correct terminology).

To help you get started, IвЂ™ve selected the symbols that I think are the most useful in scientific literature.

#Inequality math symbols on keyboard professional

Correct use of scientific symbols is essential to make your document look professional вЂ“ but do you ever wish you didnвЂ™t have to constantly scroll down through the Symbol palette looking for your chosen character? If this is a familiar frustration (and youвЂre working in a full-capability app such as Word) then itвЂ™s worth trying ALT codes instead.