How to Insert Alpha Symbol in Word or Excel (Windows & Mac)

This is a complete guide with several methods you can employ to be able to insert or type the Alpha Symbol or Sign (α) anywhere on your PC, like Microsoft Word/Excel/PowerPoint, whether you are using the Windows or on the Mac keyboard.

Without any wasting much time, let’s get to work.

Quick Guide for typing the Alpha symbol (α)

To type the Alpha Symbol anywhere on your PC or Laptop keyboard (like in Microsoft Word or Excel), press Ctrl + g, Ctrl + a shortcut for Mac. And if you are using Windows, simply press down the Alt key and type 224 using the numeric keypad on the right side of your keyboard.

However, to type this symbol in MS Word, just type 03B1, select it and then press Alt + X to get the Alpha sign.

The table below contains everything you need to know to be able to type this symbol on both Windows and Mac.

Name of Symbol	Alpha sign
Symbol Text	α
Symbol Alt Code	224
Shortcut for Windows	Alt + 224
Shortcut for Mac	Ctrl + g, Ctrl + a
Shortcut in Word-1	03B1, Alt+X

More into getting the Alpha Symbol

Whether you are using Windows or Mac, the above information is enough for you to write the Alpha sign into your Word/Excel document.

However, if you are not satisfied with this quick help, keep reading below as I will explain in detail, how to get the Alpha symbol or any other symbol anywhere on your Mac or Windows PC like in MS Word/Excel/PowerPoint.

As you may already know, there are several dual-purpose keys on the keyboard for both Windows and Mac. That is to say that there are symbols readily available as second keys on the keyboard. Just by pressing two or more keys simultaneously, you can easily insert such symbols into your work. For instance, pressing Shift + 7 keys give you the Ampersand (&) sign.

However, other symbols aren’t printed on the keyboard as second keys. This makes it difficult to type. One of these symbols is the Alpha symbol (α).

Typing becomes very difficult for you if you need to add some of these symbols regularly into your work.

But it doesn’t have to be difficult. Especially now that you are reading this step-by-step guide.

How to Insert Alpha symbol in Word/Excel

In the following sections, I will show you all the easy ways to type or insert this symbol (α) anywhere on your Windows or Mac PC (such as Word or Excel or PowerPoint).

In a couple of minutes, I’ll explain several methods you can use to get this (α) and any other symbol as and when the need arises.

As a quick guide, press down the Alt key and type 224 alt code on your numeric keypad. You can also press Ctrl + g, Ctrl + a on Mac.

However, without any further ado, below are the methods explained into details.

1. Alpha Symbol Shortcuts (Windows and Mac)

The Alpha Symbol Shortcut for Mac is Ctrl + g, Ctrl + a.

Windows has several shortcuts, some of which works only in Microsoft Word.

However, there’s a Windows shortcut for the Alpha Sign that works across all applications. It is the alt code shortcut which is Alt+224 (will be discussed in the next section).

The Alpha Symbol shortcut for Microsoft Word is 03B1, Alt X. This works in Microsoft Word Only.

To use this on Windows (for Word), obey the following instructions:

Place the insertion pointer in the right place.
Type 03B1 on your keyboard, then press Alt + X.

These steps will convert the code into the Alpha symbol at where you place the insertion pointer.

Below is a breakdown on how to use the Alpha symbol shortcut for Mac:

First of all, place the insertion pointer where you need to insert the symbol.
Now, using the Mac keyboard, Press Ctrl + g, Ctrl + a simultaneously.

This shortcut should insert the symbol for you on your Mac PC.

In the next section, I’ll show you how to use the Alpha Symbol Alt Code to type the symbol on your keyboard.

2. Using the Symbol Font type

Using the symbol font type, you can turn the a letter into the Alpha symbol with with some few mouse-clicks. To do so:

Place the insertion pointer where the symbol will be inserted.
Type the letter A or a.
Select the letter you just typed.
Under the Home tab, in the Font group, click the drop-down arrow on the font selector.
Scroll down and select the font type named Symbol.

The symbol font type will change the letter a into the Alpha symbol.

3. Alpha Symbol Alt Code (For Windows Windows)

The Alpha (α) Symbol Alt Code is 224 and 0177.

Every symbol in Word has a unique code that you can use to insert the symbol into your document. This code is well known as “Alt code”.

Below are the steps to type this symbol on your keyboard (using the Alt code provided above:

Press the num lock key to enable the numeric keypad. Use Fn key + NumLk keys to turn on Num Lock on laptops without the numeric keypad.
Press and hold the Alt key and type 224 using the numeric keypad.
After typing the Alt code (i.e. 224), release the [Alt] key you pressed down.

As soon as you release the Alt Key, the Alpha (α) symbol should appear in your document.

4. Copy and paste the Alpha symbol

Use the button below to copy and paste the Alpha symbol for your work.

My favorite method for inserting symbols is the copy and paste.

With this method, all you need to do is google the symbol you need to type, then copy it from one of the search results provided. Once you get the symbol into your document, you can always recopy and paste it as and when the need arises.

Use the button above to get this symbol on your clipboard.

There is another way to copy this and any other symbol on Windows. It involved using the Windows Character Map.

Obey the steps below to copy and paste any symbol using the character map.

Search for the Character map app by clicking on the Start button.
The Character map app will show up in the search results. Click on it to launch.

searching for character map to copy and paste symbols

After the Character Map window opens up, click to check the Advance View checkbox to expand the window for more advanced options.

Advanced view of the Character map dialog box

On the Advanced View section, type Alpha Sign in the search box.
The symbol you searched for (i.e. the Alpha symbol) will now appear on the Character map. Double click on it to select it. You’ll see that the symbol appears in the Characters to copy text box. This allows you to select and copy several symbols at the same time.

After selecting the symbol, you wish to copy, click on the Copy button.
Switch over to wherever you need the symbol, whether in MS Word, Excel, or PowerPoint, and press Ctrl + V to paste.

This is how you may copy and paste the Alpha sign using the Character Map on Windows.

5. Using Insert Symbol Dialog

This approach isn’t as straight forward as the shortcut methods. But it’s fairly simple.

And once you get the symbol into your document, you can always copy and paste it again as and when you need it in your work.

Below are the steps to insert the Alpha Sign in Word using the insert symbol dialog.

Go to the Insert tab.

On the Insert tab, click the Symbol button and choose More Symbols…

These few clicks will bring up the Symbol dialog box.

Locate the Symbol you want to insert.

To easily find the Alpha symbol on the Symbols window, look at the bottom right area of the dialog and type 03B1 in the Character Code box. The Alpha symbol you want to insert will be selected.

Once the symbol is selected, click on the Insert button.

Alternatively, double-clicking on the symbol will also insert the symbol into your document.

Click the Close button.

This is how you may insert a Alpha symbol in Word using the insert symbol dialog.

6. Word’s AutoCorrect for the Alpha Sign

You can also type the Alpha Symbol using the AutoCorrect feature in Word.

It is a feature in MS Word designed for correcting spelling mistakes like thsi to this.

Using this AutoCorrect Feature, you can assign an acronym shortcut to the Alpha Symbol (ALFASYM for example).

This way, whenever you type the text ALFASYM, Word will think that you actually wanted to type α and will convert it into the Alpha symbol for you automatically.

See illustration below:

What makes this method interesting is that you can assign your own custom shortcut or shortcode to the symbol and Word will automatically insert the symbol whenever you type the code.

Without further ado, below are the steps you can use to type Alpha symbol in Word using AutoCorrect.

Go to the Insert tab.

On the Insert tab, go to Symbol and then click More Symbols… The Symbol windows will appear.

Locate the Alpha symbol, then click to select it.
Click on the AutoCorrect… button to display the AutoCorrect window.
In the AutoCorrect dialog box, enter the following:

Replace: ALFASYM

With: α

Click Add, and then then hit the OK button.

Now, word will automatically insert the Alpha symbol into your document whenever you type ALFASYM.

However, below are some few things to note when you are using the AutoCorrect Method to insert the Alpha sign.

AutoCorrect is case sensitive. Meaning if you type alfasym (in lowercase), Word will not convert it into the Alpha sign unless you type ALFASYM (in uppercase).
If there is any text before or after the AutoCorrect text, Word will consider the AutoCorrect text as part of the text and hence will not convert it to the Alpha symbol. For example, XALFASYM will not get converted, but X ALFASYM will get converted to X α.