typing special and accented characters
from MacCentre701

typing special and accented characters

In this article, we will tell you how to type correctly in Mac, and it's very easy. Similar to AntBlog701's How to type accented characters, we tell you how to type accented characters and special characters that's tenfold easier than doing so in Windows.

If you've been using Mac for a long time, you might have noticed that the tiny programme - Key Caps - has been missing since Mac OS X v.10.3 ‘Panther’. Without Key Caps, we can still get a layout of keyboard. There's something called “Keyboard Viewer”, accessible from your Input Menu as shown on the right.
If the option is not there, you can enable it from:
System Preferences | International | Input Menu | Keyboard Viewer.

Once select it, you will see something like:

And the trick to type and typeset beautifully and correctly is to use option key. The option key is the key located between control and command (‘CMD’) keys. Let's take a look at screenshots below:

pressing the option key

pressing the option and shift keys

Please note that screenshots used in this article are based on International US keyboard layout, there may be some variations in different regions. For example, UK keyboard has £ (pound) default to Shift + 3.

There are some words that have accented characters in it, such is Exposé, naïve, façade... etc. To type those accented characters is very easy, please follow this guide.

Letter with a specific diacritical mark.
Grave accent (`): option + `, then the letter
Acute accent (´): option + e, then the letter
Circumflex accent (ˆ): option + i, then the letter
Tilde accent (˜): option + n, then the letter
Umlaut accent (¨): option + u, then the letter
The letter “c” with a cedilla (ç): option + c.

Therefore,
If we want to type é as in Exposé, simply hold down option and press e, release both keys then type e again. You can open up TextEdit and give it a try.

There are also a few common special characters we'd like to mention.
The quotation marks, it's very easy to type “ and ” as well as ‘ and ’.
Commonly used symbols and currencies: ° (degree), © (copyright), ® (registered), ¢ (cent), £ (pound), € (euro), ¥ (yen)

The keys are:
option + [ for “ (open quote)
option + shift + [ for ” (closing quote)
option + ] for ‘ (open quote)
option + shift + ] for ’ (closing quote)
option + shift + 8 for ° (degree)
option + g for © (copyright)
option + r for ® (registered)
option + 4 for ¢ (cent)
option + 3 for £ (pound)
option + shift + 2 for € (euro)
option + y for ¥ (yen)

Of course, you don't have to remember those key, we list them to provide a complete reference. Once you type those accented characters and special characters often, you will remember them in no time, and it's very quick to look it up.

Just for some fun, the word “encyclopedia” (US English spelling) which should be spelt as “encyclopaedia” can be typeset as “encyclopædia”. Mac is smart and easy to use.

See also:
How to type accented characters (AntBlog701, 24th March 2004)

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