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Level 1

6 points

Keyboard symbols

I have a pet peeve 🙂 I am truly wanting to learn about my Mac and when someone says use such and such key combination to do something they often use symbols to denote these keys. I assume that in the past these symbols have been on the keyboard of the Mac. They are NOT on my MacBook's keyboard other than the Apple and the Command symbol.

I finally found a graphic on the Internet somewhere that shows what people are referring to with these symbols. Why did Apple quit using these symbols (at least on my MacBook) and yet everyone keeps referring to symbols that no longer are on the keyboard?

TIA,
Linda

Mac OS X (10.5.3)

Posted on Jul 9, 2008 2:21 PM

25 replies

Jul 31, 2008 6:48 PM in response to Ricardo3j

Press Option e than press the e again to get the é symbol.
Option n then the n again - ñ
Option i then the i again - î
You get the idea.
To see the other symbols & their corresponding keys:
Go to System Preferences>International
Click on the Input Menu Tab
Check Keyboard Viewer.
A Flag will appear in your menu bar
Click on the flag & choose Keyboard viewer from the drop down menu.
Now you can view the symbols & Corresponding keys by pressing
the option key, Command key, Control key & combinations of the different modifier keys.

It would probably be easier to Bring up the International System preference>Input Menu & click on the
Question mark at the bottom. A help File will pop up with a couple of links that will give you the info that you are looking for.

Aug 5, 2008 6:02 PM in response to Tom Gewecke

Hi, Tom.

Thanks a lot, the Us international keyboard have finished my trouble. But I couldn't get the brazilian layout.

Thanks once again.

Aug 5, 2008 6:03 PM in response to Joe Salafia

Joe,

Thanks for your help, this finished my troubles.

Tom Gewecke

Level 10

115,952 points

Aug 6, 2008 3:18 AM in response to Ricardo3j

But I couldn't get the brazilian layout.

http://idisk.mac.com/thgewecke-Public/winbrazabnt12.keylayout

Aug 7, 2008 5:15 PM in response to Ricardo3j

your welcome.

gumsie

Level 4

2,179 points

Aug 30, 2008 9:01 AM in response to anmldr

Reviving this one as I'm after a symbol that I can't seem to find as well.

You know the Off symbol that is on the power switch of the Mac Pro, does anybody know if the system includes it?
If not can I somehow find a unicode ref and add it to the Character palette?

Tom Gewecke

Level 10

115,952 points

Aug 30, 2008 9:40 AM in response to gumsie

Can you link to a photo? Is it one of these?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_symbol

⌽ is Unicode 233D.

gumsie

Level 4

2,179 points

Aug 30, 2008 9:39 AM in response to Tom Gewecke

IEC 5009 is what I am after. Thanks. once I've found it is it possible to 'go behind the scenes' and modify the character palette?

Tom Gewecke

Level 10

115,952 points

Aug 30, 2008 9:48 AM in response to gumsie

I can't seem to find that one in Character Palette, and it may not exist in Unicode yet. If you find it, you just select it and do gearwheel > add to favorites.

gumsie

Level 4

2,179 points

Aug 30, 2008 9:50 AM in response to Tom Gewecke

Oh. Many thanks.

Keyboard symbols