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[Antony]

In this article, I will tell you how to enter special symbols and accented characters easily and correctly in Mac. And the beauty of this method is, you don't need to change the input method (in English language). And it's a whole lot easier than doing so in Windows.

Two and a half years ago, there was a thread, Entering ASCII Character code using ALT + ### in similar topic. This thread can be served as an updated version.

This is based on typing special and accented characters article I posted in MacCentre701. This article is designed for users of International US English keyboards.


Before we start, it's a good idea to open up Keyboard Viewer

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, to type é as in Exposé, simply hold down option and press e, release both keys then type e again.

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: °, ©, ®, ¢, £, €, ¥

The keys are:
option + [ for “
option + shift + [ for ”
option + ] for ‘
option + shift + ] for ’
option + shift + 8 for °
option + g for ©
option + r for ®
option + 4 for ¢
option + 3 for £
option + shift + 2 for €
option + y for ¥


Of course, you don't have to remember those key, I 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”.

One conclusion: Mac is smart and easy to use.

For more information, please see typing special and accented characters.

(just in case you can't see the accents correctly in your browser or OS, there are the screenshots)


UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X; en-US; rv:1.8.1.1) Gecko/20061204 Firefox/2.0.0.1

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MozInfo701 | MacCentre701 | AntBlog701 | don't steal music.

[Pu7o]

No offense, but why is this in "General Computing and Tech" when it clearly only affects the Mac OS?

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X; en-US; rv:1.8.1.1) Gecko/20061215 BonEcho/2.0.0.1 Macfox/0.2

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Henceforth, you shall be known as... Darth Extremist.

[Antony]

Typing accented characters in Windows.

(for users of International US keyboard layout and English version of Windows)

Firstly, you will need to install another language locale (either French, Spanish, German, or Portuguese).

Then, to make life easier, it is recommended to switch the keyboard layout to US International.



To type accented characters, you will need to switch to languages that has accents.

Letter with a specific diacritical mark.
Grave accent (`): `, then the letter
Acute accent (´): ' (single quote mark), then the letter
Circumflex accent (ˆ): ^ (i.e. shift + 6), then the letter
Tilde accent (˜): ~ (i.e. shift + `), then the letter
Umlaut accent (¨): option + " (i.e. shift + '), then the letter
The letter “c” with a cedilla (ç): ' + c.

Please note, when typing under non-English language mode (e.g. in language with accents), some punctuation marks won't appear immediately under the later following it has typed. For example, the apostrophe in can’t will only appear after t is pressed.

It is also recommended to switch your language input back to English for the correct language information stored in your document. Although not visible, incorrect language information may result different typesetting/font usage and/or spelling/grammar checker not functioning correctly.

reference: http://depts.gallaudet.edu/forlang/Accented_Characters2004.html

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X; en-US; rv:1.8.1.1) Gecko/20061204 Firefox/2.0.0.1

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MozInfo701 | MacCentre701 | AntBlog701 | don't steal music.

[Antony]

[Mandrake]

In Windows one can also use the Character Map:-



With start -> run -> charmap then clicking ok.


Since Pu7o doesn't have moderator abilities in this forum, I'm moving this topic to General tech now.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.1.1) Gecko/20061204 Firefox/2.0.0.1

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[Antony]

[Don_HH2K]

[Don_HH2K]

It's worth noting that Microsoft Word 97 and higher can accept accents without the need to switch your keyboard locale, using Ctrl followed by the accent, followed by the letter.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.0 x64; en-US; rv:1.8.1) Gecko/20061030 BonEcho/2.0 (mmoy CE K8N-X02)

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[Antony]

[Don_HH2K]

[Antony]

[Don_HH2K]