How to access Greek symbols on macOS from a basic keyboard without copy/paste?

I write mathematical computer code.

I frequently need Greek letters such as ø

My current workflow is terrible: hold down OPT and run my finger across the three rows of the keyboard:

œ∑´®†¥¨^øπ“‘«
åß∂ƒ©˙∆˚¬…æ
Ω≈ç√∫~µ≤≥÷

... And see if I can find what I'm hunting for.

Failing that, typing 'alpha Unicode' into Google hope for some symbol I can copy and paste.

I discovered that in system settings -> keyboard -> keyboard, I can "show keyboard and character viewers in menubar".

The character viewer looks like it will come to the rescue, but ... no Greek symbols! ARGH!

What can I do?

Solution 1:

In the top left-hand corner of the Character Viewer, there’s a gear icon. The first option is “Customise List…”.

This gives you a selectable list of all the character sets available in the sidebar. If you scroll down, you’ll find Greek as one of the options:

I don’t have a Mavericks machine to hand to check, but I’m fairly sure this feature existed before Yosemite.

Solution 2:

Here's the neatest trick I've found for easily getting the Greek letters when I need them. In System Preferences -> Keyboard -> Shortcuts I have Select the previous input source mapped to cmd-space:

and then in Input Sources I have my standard keyboard and the Greek keyboard:

Now whenever I hit cmd-space my keyboard switches over to Γρεεκ (or vice-versa):

The Greek letters map to the English letters in a much more rational way than what you get with holding option and hunting/pecking. The one caveat is that cmd-space is natively mapped as a shortcut for something else, but considering that I can't even remember what that something else is it wasn't very important.

Edit:

For completeness, it turns out that cmd-space is normally a shortcut that brings up a Spotlight search bar.

Solution 3:

An alternative - if you know the symbol is in the Opt keys somewhere but just cant remember

Show Keyboard Viewer, then if you hold Opt it will show you the alternatives. You can either complete from the keyboard or click with the mouse to insert at the current carat