Unicode supports most of the world's languages, however not every application will support Unicode.
You can still get some Greek codes using ctrl-alt-del codes even in older applications as long as they use a font that contains them, and it doesnt have to be Unicode.
One universal way to get the off-keyboard characters in Windows is to use 'Character Map' which can be found at, Windows Accessories> Character Map.
I put a shortcut to Character Map on the lower task bar.
I can't remember exactly how, but I think you can add any of the Unicode character sets to the font libraries on your computer.
To use any character displayed by Character Map you simply click on the character, click on 'Select', and click on 'Copy'. The selected character will then be in your PC's clipboard so that you can paste the selected character into your document using Ctrl +'v'.
If you enable 'Advanced View' you can search for a particular character by name.
Most of the symbols on my keyboard are mangled because of my fingernails. But none of my keys show Greek alphabet letters. When I pressed Ctrl and v then instead of the Greek letter for Omega I got two words: (but not when typing here, it occurs in Paint writing as " "). Wait a minute, yesterday it typed the two words but today it does nothing.
Just now I downloaded the Greek keyboard into my Windows 10 but I do not know how to activate only a few symbols.
When I pressed Ctrl and v then instead of the Greek letter for Omega I got two words: (but not when typing here, it occurs in Paint writing as " "). Wait a minute, yesterday it typed the two words but today it does nothing.
There are many more ways to type and character of any language (e.g. Win8)
[win]+[r] (=run) charmap [enter] then click vertical on right down a few pages
or tick ADVANCED > in popup box Select >group by >scroll down>Greek<<
type sigma then search
but its much easier using the limited characters in the ETO toolbar
There are a few complications with using the numeric keypad to enter the character codes.
(1) You need to know the character code in advance
(2) On some PCs there is no separate keypad so the keypad is mapped on to some alpha keys on the right which makes the numeric keypad difficult to use
(3) There are two Alt keys, left and right, and on some PCs and they have different functions, my Lenovo T520 for example. I can't remember at the moment what the difference is, but you cannot use the right Alt key for entering character codes.
(4) Turning Num Lock on and off can be a bit convoluted on some PCs. On the Lenovo T520 laptop you have to press Fn and ScrLk and then there is no indication on the keyboard that number lock is enabled.
(It further complicates the issue that my T520 has a US keyboard and Win10 is configured for English UK.)
I would love to meet the people who design keyboards and man machine interfaces in general: they must have a sense of humor.
Smartphones are a complete nightmare in this respect and even my electric pump to inflate the automobile car tires has a convoluted sequence of button presses.
I usually go to Google and type in what I'm looking for ("theta symbol", "mu symbol", "omega symbol", etc). I then copy and paste wherever I need it. It has absolutely nothing to do with what keyboard you have.
I usually go to Google and type in what I'm looking for ("theta symbol", "mu symbol", "omega symbol", etc). I then copy and paste wherever I need it. It has absolutely nothing to do with what keyboard you have.
Let's admit spec that with the task at hand, also lot of patience and imagination.
Still working with crews/ships of any (almost) nationality you could mention, it is amazing to me, to see MS documents, and PCs in general going in two different languages (usually one is English of some kind). Just one for example, in Chinese you have options. Go figure.
Had Unicode existed many years before, this thread would not exist. And then, manufacturers so proud of their own "standards"...! They managed to ruin in style and quite early, one of the most standard things; the TAB.