James / August 1, 2007
Reference for EVERY Character Key on a Mac
Ever wanted to type the copyright icon, or do an accent over an A without having to resort to some character palette? We have, and it takes time and is an effort. So we put together a series of help sheets that reference all of the characters that aren't listed on your keyboard, along with their shortcut keys to make your life easier.
Click on a preview image to view a full jpg.
Note: The "Alt" key on these sheets is the same as the "Option" key as some Mac users may put it. Why people were getting so upset about this I just don't know. Its not rocket science.
Get them all in one PDF [216kb]
There were so many, that to make the reference usable and readable we had to divide them into 3 sheets.
Last but not least, one more sheet.
We hope you find them useful.
Gernouille said,
August 1, 2007 at 10:02 pm ()
It's not the same on a French Canadien QWERTY keyboard :(
Michael said,
August 2, 2007 at 2:16 am ()
Kudos!
Finding these little glyphs is always a drag - even using pre-loaded Mac apps. We usually have to default to using Type -> Glyphs in InDesign.
Just saved us a ton of time from having to make these sheets ourselves -albeit, we would've taken a much more non-pretty route.
Vincent said,
August 2, 2007 at 11:11 pm ()
Oh! not available for AZERTY keyboard version. :(
Julian Schrader said,
August 3, 2007 at 11:29 am ()
[option] + [L] gives me an @ — I'm using a QWERTZ keyboard… (Germany)
Edgeoforever said,
August 5, 2007 at 2:12 pm ()
Thanks so much for doing this. There's still a mysterious glyph I wasn't able to find on your chart . Scholastic made it a part of a user name/password to access a video we made on the Knight bus.
You have something very close on your glyph chart - ˜O (doesn't quite come on top for me). The one I need though, has the little squigly line ON BOTTOM! Can you help?
George said,
August 7, 2007 at 4:18 pm ()
Should not that be DIPHTHONGS not dipthongs?
George
George said,
August 7, 2007 at 4:21 pm ()
iN THE LAST SHEET YOU REFER TO EPSILON and the letter is actually the Greek capital Sigma .... please correct this - it is truly important
george
frank gamble said,
August 8, 2007 at 6:11 am ()
very slick! thanks.
Guy said,
August 8, 2007 at 8:16 pm ()
Thank you
Auron said,
August 13, 2007 at 7:07 am ()
Thank you!
I have a mini binder dedicated to holding the reference pdf print outs I find on the web. This makes a great addition to my new mac laptop.
Keep up the great work!
-Auron
Julian Hebbrecht said,
August 18, 2007 at 12:24 am ()
When I type these characters in an email message on a Mac and send the message to a Windows user or someone with a different language keyboard what will come up at the other end? The same character?? Or some thing toatally different??
So these characteres are probably only to be used when printing out your text - not for email.
Randall Greenwald said,
August 22, 2007 at 5:24 pm ()
What about a broken pipe? I have a Filemaker Database that requires this for a password on a PC and I have not figured out how to enter it on the Mac.
Marco said,
August 22, 2007 at 6:29 pm ()
Hi,
Thanks for this clutch reference, but there's a problem with the all-in-one PDF. Namely, a 404 problem...
JOnn said,
August 22, 2007 at 6:34 pm ()
Apple is sooo cool and easy they do not ship a manual with their sweet computers. Amoongst these.
Aaron said,
August 22, 2007 at 6:36 pm ()
Doesn't work on german Keyboards ... :(
Where is the "tilde"-sign? I'm still searching ...
Dr. Drang said,
August 22, 2007 at 6:40 pm ()
The tradition on the Mac is to refer to the key as Option, not Alt.
And George is right, that's a capital sigma, not an epsilon. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sigma
MetaMommy said,
August 22, 2007 at 7:00 pm ()
Love this list.
One thing I noticed, though. You say:
Shift + Alt + 2 = ™ (trademark)
and
Shift + 2 = € (the Euro symbol)
When I tried them, however, they were reversed.
Thanks!!
King Henry said,
August 22, 2007 at 7:06 pm ()
Should not George (see posts from 8/7/07)
pull something from out his royal arse?
This is not a commercial product, and a Utility is intended to be something "of use."
Similarly, if a Comment is to be helpful, it might point out how to amend or fix the original in a constructive manner. Not by degrading the author of the utility's smarts.
It's a dandy, and a useful reference.
-the 8th
King Henry said,
August 22, 2007 at 7:22 pm ()
Posting 2 negative comments within the space of as many minutes is also a no-no.
But...maybe a Greek with a dipthong kicked George's dog.
abhik said,
August 22, 2007 at 7:23 pm ()
Thanks..
michael said,
August 22, 2007 at 7:52 pm ()
I use the "character palette" in the international menu... but still haven't find the square root... as an architect is always usefull... and m2 is really not very aesthetical?
Eliakim said,
August 22, 2007 at 7:56 pm ()
What's with the "alt" key?? I'm looking on my several different Macintosh computers and I have no "Alt" key at all. What I do have is an "Apple" or "Command" key, right next to the space-bar. If that's what you're talking about and this is something for Macintosh people, then this sheet should have the keyboard combinations that match the keyboards of "Macintosh keyboards"...
Soda Pop said,
August 22, 2007 at 8:15 pm ()
"Um, my Mac doesn't have an ALT key...." not very helpful to some.
echo said,
August 22, 2007 at 9:10 pm (Administrator)
Thanks for your feedback. The reference is for English keyboards only. Naturally keyboards designed for other languages that use other sybols, for example, the umlaut in German, will not have the same key combinations.
As for the incorrect entries, these should be amended to the correct key combinations as soon as our designer returns from his holiday :)
jessemoya said,
August 22, 2007 at 10:12 pm ()
Thanks so much!
One addition: the alt/option-shift-8 for the degrees symbol works, but so does option-0, which is shorter.
g said,
August 23, 2007 at 2:09 am ()
option-shift-? = Spanish inverted question mark
Abbie said,
August 23, 2007 at 3:09 am ()
Wow, this is awesome - thank you!
Karoly said,
August 23, 2007 at 7:01 am ()
First, many thanks for this valuable resource. My mother tongue, Hungarian, has these "double-acute" wovels that are a variations of ó and ú. I'd be curious to see if those are also possible with some key combinations. I had a FF add-on, but it stopped working for some reason.
Matthew FEdder said,
August 23, 2007 at 7:16 am ()
There is no such thing as an Alt key on a Mac! It is the Option key! Dude, get on the trolley! And you call yourself a Mac user.
Anyhow, what you really need to do is teach people how to use the Keyboard Viewer and Character Pallet. The easiest way to keep them handy is:
Go to System Preferences
Open the International preference pane
Check "Show input menu in menu bar"
This installs a new menu extra, with an option to Show Keyboard Viewer. Hold down Option or Option-Shift to see all the cool keys you have instant access to.
The Character Pallet gets you access to all of the tens of thousands (especially if you've installed lots of international fonts) of obscure symbols you probably had no idea you could easily use.
Matthew FEdder said,
August 23, 2007 at 7:20 am ()
OK this blog is lame. It won't translate my returns to HTML newlines, and it filters out all my HTML tags. You deserve to have worthless, illegible comments on your site.
lfkrebs said,
August 23, 2007 at 8:17 am ()
Thanks so much, this is very helpful. Here's an addition to the next revision I'd like to suggest: the Spanish inverted question mark, which should be Shift + Alt + /. Moreover, there is a typo on the last page: the florin sign is also used for pounds sterling. Instead, it should be this:
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pound_sign
Thanks again for this useful cheat sheet!
Jake said,
August 23, 2007 at 12:36 pm ()
@Aaron: On a german keyboard, use alt-n to get a tilde-character.
James Turnbull said,
August 23, 2007 at 3:32 pm ()
Good work! One small typo: the symbol for Pound Sterling (usually called just Pounds) is £ but in the sheets it's listed the same as Florin.
(There's no preview but hopefully above character entity will work for £)
Geoff said,
August 23, 2007 at 3:40 pm ()
I don't see anything in there for » and « characters... I believe the keys are apple + shift + ] and apple + ] respectively.
echo said,
August 23, 2007 at 5:43 pm (Administrator)
@ Matthew FEdder: Is that better? :)
Aaron said,
August 23, 2007 at 9:56 pm ()
This looks great.
I did notice that in the mathematical symbols you have the sigma ∑ listed as an epsilon E
Jason M said,
August 23, 2007 at 10:28 pm ()
Alt key on a Mac...
Go visit the Apple site... see the enlarged image of the new Mac keyboard... there it is.
Find an archive of Mac keyboards the last few years Alt keys have appeared on certain keyboards made by apple.
Since the original iMac I've seen them...
So please don't whine.
Fish said,
August 24, 2007 at 3:25 am ()
Thank you for generously making available something so useful to so many of us.
My apologies for the unpleasant remarks from a few, you do not deserve any of it.
Boatswilly said,
August 24, 2007 at 3:48 am ()
Thank you so very much. This will help my writing of articles for the groups on the Internet.
Boatswilly said,
August 24, 2007 at 3:49 am ()
In most cases, the Alt key is also the option key.
Robert M. said,
August 24, 2007 at 4:30 am ()
This is a great tool. I have found one omission though (how does one find an omission?). I see a reference to an acute accent --´ (opt., shift, e) but not a double acute accent -- ˝ (opt., shift, g). Still, this will be very useful.
Chris said,
August 24, 2007 at 4:41 am ()
Nice PDF.
alt == option-shift
Shift-alt is redundant. Alt without shift should be changed to option, if one wanted to be proper. Still a damn useful PDF.
Neil Anderson said,
August 24, 2007 at 4:09 pm ()
System Preferences > International > Input Menu tab. Click check boxes for Character Palette and Keyboard Viewer. Select your keyboard layout from the countries shown. Click check box for "Show input menu in menu bar." Character Palette and Keyboard Viewer are now available under your country flag icon in your menu bar. Press Option or Option-Shift to see symbols. Click to insert in your document. Common fractions are available under Character Palette > Digits. And square root is found in Character Palette > Math. √ Along with many others. :)
chppio said,
August 24, 2007 at 4:17 pm ()
This is very handy. Thanks for providing it!
Joe Clark said,
August 24, 2007 at 7:54 pm ()
Your listing isn’t just for “English” keyboards, of which there are at least two that are distributed to at least six different countries. (Quick: What keyboard does New Zealand use? Ireland?)
The “Alt” key is the Option key. Alt was printed on keycaps for us in e.g. VirtualPC. The Macintosh keystroke is Option, not Alt.
It is superfluous to suggest, as this page does, that you need a cheat sheet to type accented letters. On the U.S. English keyboard (misleadingly named; see ¶1), acute, grave, circumflex, dieresis, and tilde all follow predictable patterns, namely (Shift-)Option-e ` i u n, respectively. Trivial to learn, easy to type (I’ve been doing it for over 20 years).
Massimo said,
August 25, 2007 at 4:42 pm ()
Buddy, thank you.
I am afraid I fail to see the value of this, however.
Bringing up "Show Keyboard Viewer" from the keyboard menu allows all and sundry to find what they want.
If they want something real exotic, then only PopChar will do.
Thorir Bjornsson said,
August 26, 2007 at 7:29 pm ()
Very useful. Being an Icelander, I don't see "thorn"!
Chiao
Cíntia said,
August 26, 2007 at 11:51 pm ()
Hi,
Thanks a lot!
Just today i was trying to type some characters that don't appear on my mac keyboard.
Do you ever sleep?
Best regards my dear friend.
Michael said,
August 27, 2007 at 9:58 pm ()
Very useful! I will link to you on my blog.
Ian said,
August 28, 2007 at 2:05 pm ()
Matthew FEdder said,
August 23, 2007 @ 7:16 am
There is no such thing as an Alt key on a Mac! It is the Option key! Dude, get on the trolley! And you call yourself a Mac user.
So how come on my white wireless 3 year old mac keyboard, there is no option key, only an Alt key?
Next to the apple and noughts and crosses key...
Rick said,
August 28, 2007 at 8:33 pm ()
Great tool! Thanks for posting it!
Fred Campbell said,
September 3, 2007 at 10:06 am ()
That is great! Going to save me a load of time over the year. Thanks for all your hard work, which is going to make work a little easier.
Gabriel said,
September 11, 2007 at 7:10 pm ()
Actually most if not all of the characters generated by the Mac keyboard are ISO Latin-1 characters, and therefore a subset of Unicode, and therefore will display perfectly well on Windows and other systems--although they will need to be entered quite differently (there's nothing nearly as nice on the Win machine I use at work). So long as your email client is able to send non-ascii characters, you don't need to worry about these characters being borked by email or anything else.
Allen Watson said,
September 21, 2007 at 8:15 pm ()
If you enable the Character Palette (via the International System Prefs), you can find any character by its name just by typing the name at the bottom in the search box. E.g. "square root", "thorn", or "vertical" (to find variants of the "pipe" character).
A few people asked about using special characters in mail. It will work for sending to other Macs, but will get corrupted if sent to Windows, as Windows uses different character coding above the standard ASCII 128. It will also not display correctly on Windows if used in web pages. But for web pages, you can get a freeware program that will translate the special characters into HTML Entities, which display correctly on both operating systems.
Yong Hwee said,
September 22, 2007 at 9:22 am ()
This is great! Thanks!
crasshopper said,
September 27, 2007 at 4:39 pm ()
Thank you!
warmhart said,
September 27, 2007 at 9:53 pm ()
Just have become the owner of an Intel iMac, and this helps a lot, thank you so much.
Now I'm still looking for the so often needed Home and End keys that go so nicely with the well known 102 keys keyboard.
Richard George said,
October 11, 2007 at 5:38 pm ()
Thanks guys - this is a really useful resource and has just gained a proud place on my omnipresent USB key!
As for the alt-key kerfuffle - never expect any good deed to go unpunished :/ All my macs have it anyway.
Just don't hit the apple key instead, particularly when typing œ at the end of a huge great wiki edit like I did the other day!
jr0 said,
October 15, 2007 at 4:30 am ()
Thanks. I can use NeoOffice again, now that I can easily get an em dash out of it. (Why can't it replace -- with — anyway?)
Stasigr said,
October 29, 2007 at 10:13 am ()
Hello, very nice site, keep up good job!
Admin good, very good.
Nonym said,
November 5, 2007 at 3:23 pm ()
Thanks, it's very useful!
G.Rafics said,
January 5, 2008 at 7:07 pm ()
Thank you very much! These are a life saver.
"Real" Mac people know that the alt key and the option key are the same. If you use a Mac mini with a PC keyboard, this is a necessity. Those using KVM switches know this too. Apple has included both Alt and Option on the keyboard for over a decade. They even have a Help file for Windows switchers that identifies the keys.
Sorry that you were flamed, don't let that keep you from posting helpful articles. Ignore the trolls.
pressgang said,
January 29, 2008 at 3:42 pm ()
Any idea what the key stroke combination for unicode 0142 is? I can get indesign to type the right glyph (and "l" with a bar through it at a slight slant) hence I've got the unicode ref. But I'm trying to type this in Quark.
Thanks
pressgang said,
January 29, 2008 at 4:00 pm ()
Hey! I've just found a glyphs file in Quark!! Hooray.... But seriously, thanks for providing us with 'most' of the keystroke combinations that you'd ever need on a mac in the UK!!! Marvellous stuff.
EvilPlatypus said,
January 30, 2008 at 10:32 pm ()
Thank you ever so much!
Apple had to choose the weirdest key combinations possible and it's really horrid to have to try several combinations just to type one letter; this will save me a ton of time!
Dave said,
February 21, 2008 at 11:44 pm ()
Um.... No cheat sheets needed.Just go up to your menu bar and open the Keyboard Viewer.
"Huh?" you say?
Setting it up....
Goto System Preferences, International. Select the Input Menu tab. Check the checkbox labeled "Show Input Menu in Menu Bar". Now you should have a little flag on your menu bar.
Using. Go to the flag and select Show Keyboard Viewer. You will get a keyboard palette. Now press the option (alt) key and option-shft to see the alternate characters on the keyboard. You can even click the keyboard to enter those key strokes.
And for those of you who want even more, look at the Show Character Palette unfer the flag menu. Unicode? No problem. It's all in there.
Hope this helps.
Hans said,
February 29, 2008 at 2:07 pm ()
Thnx a mile. In Dutch we use a lot of ë, ï, ö which are a pain when using insert symbol. Now with alt U readily available.
Lance E Sloan said,
April 16, 2008 at 12:29 pm ()
What about these on a U.S. English keyboard:
Shift-Option-; 2 => ƨ
Shift-Option-; 3 => ɛ
I don't know what they are for, but I just noticed them today.
theJingster said,
May 28, 2008 at 4:09 am ()
i've been trying to find this for a while but there has been an occasion here and there where i need to enter the command key. you know, the one with the propellor/knot/fan/etc. i can find it in the character palette but i was wondering if there was a keyboard shortcut.
also, 10.5 allows the user to create their own keyboard shortcuts. is there a way to create a keyboard shortcut for special characters?
on a third note, how does one enter a unicode combination to insert a special character?
thanks
RD said,
May 31, 2008 at 7:50 pm ()
The Pounds Sterling character key combo is correct on your chart. However, the symbol you displayed on the chart is incorrect You show a 'florin' instead of the 'Pound' symbol.
Other than that, it's great!
Karen said,
June 5, 2008 at 8:48 pm ()
Sure wish you had a version of this for PCs. I'm having a hard time getting the "greater than or equal to" sign into a Quark 6.1 document and Character Map is no help. If anyone knows of a similar resource, please share.
mariano said,
June 12, 2008 at 5:41 am ()
Hi echo, better late than never.. but, do you know if there is an open question sign like the one used in spanish? You've included the open exclamation mark and i dont find the other one :S
many thanks in advance :)
JT said,
June 13, 2008 at 8:09 pm (Administrator)
Hi mariano, I'm one of the guys here at liquidicty who doesn't regularly use a mac, but I believe the shortcut you need is Shift + Option + /
And Karen, yeah, I think it would be a good idea for a PC version as well. We were originally going to do one to go along with this at the same time, but we appear to have forgotten...
Drew said,
June 28, 2008 at 3:54 pm ()
A shout out to the Liquidcity team: THANKS!! This is very cool AND very helpful.
Can I make a suggestion? I don't know how to do this and I suspect other's don't either. So maybe useful addition to the bottom of the reference sheet would be a quick explanation on how to make your own keyboard short cuts for these characters.
For instance, I'd like to be able to figure out how to short-cut-ize the interrobang. I can find it on the character palette easily enough, but a shortcut would be cool.
Again, many MANY thanks for a great help. Does it get any cooler than that‽
daza said,
July 20, 2008 at 12:34 am ()
Hi,great info but im looking for a P with a circle round it. Like the © it is a copyright symbol,but for artwork, does anyone know where it is please
evil_milk said,
August 3, 2008 at 4:20 am ()
This is nice, the alt option thing is easy to overlook- my daughter is trying to communicate with spanish speaking (typing) players on warcraft- very handy for her.
House Industry printed a mac and pc version of this on their instruction for installing their fonts maybe 15 years ago... If anyone has any interest, I'd be happy to scan mine and send it to you or posted somewhere.
d said,
August 28, 2008 at 3:48 pm ()
How do you make a heart?
dan said,
September 1, 2008 at 2:36 pm ()
Have a look at Keyboard Viewer!
http://codesnippets.joyent.com/posts/show/1638
whatnoaltkey said,
September 15, 2008 at 12:43 pm ()
I have an 8 year old iMac, a 1 year old Macbook and a one of the new metal ultra slim keyboards and all of mine have an alt key. Those who suggest 'getting on the trolley' are evidently off theirs....
Thanks for the useful character chart.
G said,
September 15, 2008 at 7:20 pm (Administrator)
@WhatNoAltKey exactly. I am the same - I have an old black "Pro" Apple Keyboard from an early G4 PowerMac and a new slim Apple Keyboard like you, as well as a G4 PowerBook- and all say Alt. What could be more clear than that eh?
Glad you like it!
George said,
September 30, 2008 at 6:58 am ()
You have truly answered an almost lifetime dream of mine today. Thank you so many times.
angela said,
October 12, 2008 at 2:36 am ()
THANK YOU!!
Peter said,
October 24, 2008 at 5:48 pm ()
I am trying to access the euro symbol. When I type alt and 2 I get the TM symbol and when shift + alt + 2 I get a short cut to desktop. Any ideas?
PAUL SOFFE said,
October 30, 2008 at 11:41 am ()
Peter - i know you asked the question a week ago, but just in case you are still scratching your head!! I think you will find you have the caps key on.With the caps on you press alt 2/@ you get ....™ Without caps you get €
Just to say the pdf here for all the symbols etc is BRILLIANT! Thank you guys
Paul
Kop said,
November 10, 2008 at 4:55 am ()
Just so you know, the "Epsilon" in sheet two is actually a capital Sigma. You should also make a note that on US keyboards at least, the Pound sign £ is alt-3, while the hash is shift-3. Other than that, great stuff!
James said,
November 10, 2008 at 9:12 pm (Administrator)
Ah good point thanks Kop. We'll update these character references one of these days and make changes as soon as we can.
Cheers.
Dan said,
November 26, 2008 at 7:52 pm ()
Very useful thanks! found what i needed in 5 secs.
Giqipnmx said,
December 13, 2008 at 6:58 pm ()
Thanks!,
Magnus said,
December 16, 2008 at 7:09 pm ()
When it comes to option vs. alt, I do not think I have seen the word "option" written on that key anywhere outside the US. I'm currently typing on an "international English" keyboard and it only says "alt", and my French keyboard says "alt" as well. I have typed on German and Swedish mac keyboards in the past, and I do not recall them saying "option" either.
Calling it the "alt" key makes much more sense, as it is understood by everyone.
terith said,
January 23, 2009 at 8:01 am ()
Thanks for this reference, great job categorizing, too. Cranky people, check your keyboards: Mac option keys say alt, too, on Mac laptops and standalone keyboards.
Baby said,
February 10, 2009 at 11:19 am ()
That is so amazing fo me! Thankms!
MacSoap said,
February 16, 2009 at 10:50 pm ()
why didn't you make it formatted as 8.5" x 11"?
instead you made it 8.33" x 12.5". the printing got all screwed up because of that. otherwise its good
Mark said,
March 26, 2009 at 3:13 am ()
Thank you!!!!!
May you bear many children
:D
Marc said,
June 3, 2009 at 4:17 pm ()
Thank you for this resource! I have been looking for an all-in-one chart like this for a little while. This is extremely helpful in that it's complete and well designed. Kudos.
David said,
June 4, 2009 at 11:38 am ()
Thank you! This will become a useful reference for my Macbook.
David
Trackbacks said,
July 4, 2009 at 12:46 am ()