How to Insert the Pi Symbol in Word

Pi (π) comes up a lot in math. Being closely tied to circles, it shows up in basically any equation involving the area or volume of circles and spheres, as well as when you measure angles in radians. If you're using the Office package to write some math, you may need to know how to get the pi symbol in Word. Fortunately, this is easily accomplished using the Symbols or Equation dialogues or alt codes.

You can insert a pi symbol into a Word document using the "Symbol" section of the upper ribbon in Word. Go to the "Insert" section and look to the far right "Symbols" group. You can use either the "Equation" or "Symbol" section to achieve your task, but unless you're writing out a full equation, the "Symbol" option is better.

Click "Symbol" and then go to "More Symbols" at the bottom of the drop-down menu. The window that pops up contains every symbol in Word's database, so choose "Greek and Coptic" from the "Subset" drop-down menu. From this point, search for "π" visually, or the capital version "Π" if you need it. Highlight the symbol and then click "Insert" to place it in your document at the cursor position.

The "Equation" option is slightly different, and the symbol is placed in an equation field in your document rather than as ordinary text. Go to "Equation" or press "Alt" and "=" together. In the "Symbols" group on the ribbon, click the "More" arrow and where it says "Basic Math" at the top. Go to "Greek Letters" and click either the upper or lower case pi to add it.

The closest thing you can get to a pi keyboard shortcut is an alt code. You need a number-pad on your keyboard to use this approach. Make sure num lock is on. Then, hold down "Alt" on your keyboard, type the code 227 and release "Alt" to produce the symbol. For capital pi, use the code 928 in the same way.

This alt code approach is a more difficult to use than the previous approach, but you can use it in other programs, including web browsers. If you want to enter a pi symbol in Excel or any other Office program, you can use the same approach or the "Symbols" dialogue there too.

The easiest method to insert the pi symbol in Word is to copy and paste it from text. Here are pi (π) and capital pi (Π). Highlight the text, right-click it and then choose "Copy" from the menu that appears (or press "Ctrl" + "C" together). Go to the location you want the pi symbol, right-click and choose "Paste" (or press "Ctrl" + "V").

This approach has benefits, but the downside is that whenever you need to write π in the future, you need to find the character somewhere again. Both of the previous approaches are much easier to repeat.