How to Type in Greek in Microsoft Windows

This is a question that comes up quite often. Here is the answer.

How to Install the Greek keyboard layout in Microsoft Windows 10 or 11.

Follow the link above and select "Add a keyboard" for simple instructions on how to install the Greek keyboard in Windows 10 or 11.

How to Switch Keyboards between English and Greek

Use one of these methods to switch between using the English and the Greek keyboard layouts:

• Hold down the left "ALT" key and then press the left "Shift" key. The change in the "active keyboard layout" is shown by an icon on the right side of the taskbar at the bottom of your screen. EN indicates English and EL indicates Greek (Ελληνικά). 

• Alternatively, hold the Windows key and then repeatedly press the Spacebar to cycle through all your installed keyboards.

• You can also select the language abbreviation on the far right of the taskbar and then choose the language or input method you want to use.

Typing Accented Modern Greek Characters

To type accented Modern Greek characters, such as άέίόύ, first press the semicolon key ";" (which is a "dead" key in the Greek keyboard) and then press the vowel key that you would like to accent. E.g., the key ";" followed by the key "a" produces ά.

An interactive webpage that shows the complete layout of the Greek keyboard including dead keys is available here:

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/globalization/keyboards/kbdhe

Polytonic Keyboard for Ancient Greek

Typing in Ancient Greek requires extended keyboard and font support for all aspiration marks (pnevmata), accents (tonous), and other markings to produce text such as: ἐν τῷ Εὐαγγελίῳ.

In Windows these markings are provided by the "Greek Polytonic" keyboard whose layout and many dead keys are shown here:

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/globalization/keyboards/kbdhept

The "safest" font to use is the standard Windows font "Palatino Linotype". It was the first Unicode font to support the complete Ancient Greek character set.  Other Unicode fonts followed later (such as Times New Roman, Arial, etc.).

How to Type in Greek on Any Computer

Google Transliteration is a free transliteration service for many languages, including English to Greek:

https://www.google.com/intl/el/inputtools/try/

http://www.google.com/transliterate/Greek

Use it when you need to type only a few words in Greek (such as a student's name). It works even if the Greek keyboard is not installed on your computer or if you do not even use Windows.

At Google Transliteration, you type Greek words phonetically, using English characters. Google transliteration guesses the Greek word and writes it using the Greek alphabet. The change occurs every time you press the space bar.

Examples:

• You type: Se gnorizo apo tin kopsi tou spathiou tin tromeri.

• You get: Σε γνωρίζω από την κόψη του σπαθιού την τρομερή. 

• You type: Paulos Papaefthymiou

• You get: Παύλος Παπαευθυμίου.

Google's English-to-Greek Transliteration is quite accurate. If it makes a mistake, click on the wrong Greek word. Google Transliteration will offer alternative Greek words from which to choose.

As an added bonus, the Google Transliteration webpage includes a means of entering special (accented) Greek characters and an English-Greek Dictionary.

Using this service you can easily copy and paste a student's name in Greek from the Google Transliteration webpage to the Greek School Registration Form.