Symbols For Mac Keyboard Shortcuts

[ITEM]

01.03.2020

Symbols For Mac Keyboard Shortcuts

Mac keyboard symbol shortcuts

You can input more text symbols on Macintosh computers with the use of keyboard than you see painted on your keyboard.

The goal of the keyboard is to provide a way to enter IPA-based phonemic transcriptions, therefore some of the more arcane symbols used in “narrow” phonetic transcriptions (such as ɦ or ʍ) are not included. If you need this level of detail, use the full IPA keyboard. The Command key was formerly represented by an Apple logo. The Apple logo is one fo the few symbols here that can be easily typed with a typical keyboard layout: ⌥⇧K There is also a Fn modifier on modern Mac keyboards. Typically this isn't seen in keyboard shortcuts because it's only used to access keys F1 through F20.

Diacritical (accents, umlauts)

To type accent characters, like ñ Á á in Spanish language, experiment with [Option] key. Note, that [A] + [B] stands for holding both keys pressed down at the same time. Just Like you hold [Shift] and [A] to make UPCASE 'A' letter.

Characters	Sequence	Name
Áá Éé Íí Óó Úú	[Option] + [E] followed by [Your Vowel] + (optional) [Shift]	Acute letters
Àà Èè Ìì Òò Ùù	[Option] + [`] followed by [Your Vowel] + (optional) [Shift]	Grave accent
Ââ Êê Îî Ôô Ûû	[Option] + [I] followed by [Your Vowel] + (optional) [Shift]	Circumflex
Ää Ëë Ïï Öö Üü Ÿÿ	[Option] + [U] followed by [Your Vowel] + (optional) [Shift]	Umlaut
Ãã Ññ Õõ	[Option] + [N] followed by [Your Vowel] + (optional) [Shift]	Tilde

Several other diacritical letters are listed below in signs and symbols section because they're typed similarily to those.

Signs and symbols

System Preferences -> International

International' width=400 height=349>

You can use standard built-in applet called 'Keyboard viewer' to make things easier. It displays an on-screen keyboard layout which changes when you press modifier keys like [Option] and [Shift]. This layout is also different for different languages you select, so Keyboard Viewer can also help you see which key stands for what characters if you switch to a different language.

To enable Keyboard Viewer

Choose Apple menu ➢ System Preferences and click International.
Click Input Menu, then select the check-box next to Keyboard Viewer.
Select the 'on' check-box next to language whose keyboard layout you want to use.
Choose Show Keyboard Viewer from the Input menu on the right side of the menu bar (the one that looks like a flag).

Now, depending on the language you select, a flag will be in the menu bar. Whenever you want to type a special character, click the flag and select 'Show Keyboard Viewer'. When you press Shift and Option buttons, the on-screen keyboard will show up. And the good thing is, you don't have to keep a list of shortcut codes near you.

Keyboard shortcuts for symbols

While still using your own language, you can type symbols like '√ ∑ π ™ © æ £ ¢', etc. with your keyboard. Try pressing [Option] key, or [Option] + [Shift] combination with Keyboard Viewer open to see what else you need to press to make these special characters. For example, [Option] + [v] produces √.

Key	+ [Option]	+ [Option] + [Shift]	Key	+ [Option]	+ [Option] + [Shift]
A	å	Å	1	¡	⁄
B	∫	ı	2	™	€
C	ç	Ç	3	£	‹
D	∂	Î	4	¢	›
E	´	5	∞	ﬁ
F	ƒ	Ï	6	§	ﬂ
G	©	˝	7	¶	‡
H	˙	Ó	8	•	°
I	ˆ	9	ª	·
J	∆	Ô	0	º	‚
K	˚	Apple	`	`
L	¬	Ò	-	–	—
M	µ	Â	=	≠	±
N	˜	[	“	”
O	ø	Ø	]	‘	’
P	π	∏		«	»
Q	œ	Œ	/	÷	¿
R	®	‰	;	…	Ú
S	ß	Í	'	æ	Æ
T	†	ˇ	,	≤	¯
U	¨	.	≥	˘
V	√	◊
W	∑	„
X	≈	˛
Y	¥	Á
Z	Ω	¸

So, for example, Apple logo symbol can be typed on Macs by simultaneously holding [Option], [Shift] and [K] keys.

You can also check out Macintosh character set at Adobe.com for a very nice table of characters / inputs.

Apple Mac OS X Character Viewer Find out how you can access and use built-in Character Viewer app (previously called Character Palette) on Mac OS X to insert special text symbols like  characters from other languages and even emojis ☺. ☀ ☃ ♡ ℃ ℬℯ ℋℰℛℰ