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, [sdt=5129]Entering ASCII Character code using ALT + ###[/sdt] 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 “câ€
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