SYMBOLS: The Greek symbol for phi is actually varphi; there is no

[Alexander F. Mayer]

In MS Word there is the "Insert Symbol" feature. "Basic Greek" is a subset of
available characters. The symbol denoted "phi" is actually "varphi", which is
different. In geometry, one always uses "phi" NOT "varphi".

Here is an image showing the greek letters and in particular, this
distinction:

http://www.ri.cmu.edu/roboorg/computing/t1.gif

This is actually a huge error. One cannot properly reference "phi" in ones
text in MS Word because the symbol does not exist! Note that both "phi" and
varphi" are available in Equation Editor.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

The Greek characters included in fonts are intended for Greek text, not
math. The symbol you are calling "varphi" is merely a variant. Just as there
are two common forms of a in Roman characters, there are variant forms of
some Greek letters. The symbol you prefer can be found in Arial Unicode MS
at 03D5; interestingly, the same glyph in Lucida Sans Unicode is the variant
you don't want, while 03C6 (the same character you denigrate in "(normal
text)") is the phi you are looking for. Obviously, these vary by font. For
consistent results, therefore, you'd be well advised to use EE.