Special Characters Shortcut

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Level 1

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Special Characters Shortcut

Is there way to input a special character in pages? That is, instead of going to the special characters window by going to "edit" then "special characters" then manually clicking on the character you want each time. Is there a way to just set it up so you can just hit "alt" "s" or something so it goes a bit quicker? I use a lot special characters in my grad school work and it would be nice just to hit a few buttons and input the characters I need, rather than having to click on them each time.

Macbook Pro, Mac OS X (10.5.8), iWork 9

Posted on Sep 20, 2009 7:12 PM

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Answer 1

Sep 20, 2009 7:28 PM in response to mdstanl

What are those characters? because chances are the keyboard combinations already exist. Or you may be able to get or create a keyboard to provide the shortcuts.

eg option s currently gets you ß on the USA keyboard and there are many combinations for accented characters.

You can also use the *PopChar X* utility to assist with finding and learning how to input special characters.

Peter

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Answer 2

mdstanl Author

Level 1

0 points

Sep 20, 2009 7:54 PM in response to mdstanl

OK, I found the characters that I need that are already assigned a shortcut by hitting "alt" and hitting the keys on my keyboard. Thank you. Is there any way to reassign the shortcuts. For instance I use the section sign "§" quite a bit when typing, the short cut for that is "alt" and "6" in Pages, can I reassign that character to say "alt" "s"?

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Answer 3

Sep 20, 2009 8:23 PM in response to mdstanl

There are keyboard editors but really why mess with it? This is not PCs where you patch a very bad OS to try and make it usable.

Most of the keys are reasonably mnemonic or have an association with the key where you find them. To top it off they are universal in OSX and you do not have to relearn them.

For example this is a brief guide to standard accents:

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=10213099&#10213099

The example you gave, the association is that the character resembles 2 6s entwined.

Peter

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Answer 4

Badunit

Level 7

25,442 points

Sep 20, 2009 8:33 PM in response to mdstanl

I agree with the comment about "why change it" when the key mappings are universal. Better to memorize the universal ones than make new ones.

You can add characters to your "favorites" in the special character window by clicking on the gear in the bottom left corner of the window. If you keep the special character window open and on the favorites tab, you can click to insert your most used special characters in your document them versus trying to remember which keys they are on.

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Answer 5

Sep 20, 2009 8:42 PM in response to Badunit

And *PopChar X* will help you to learn the keys.

You start by using *PopChar X* to locate them and as you do, you note what you key/s to get to them directly.

Really if Apple ever got something right, they did on this, way back in the '80s when intellectual giants roamed Silicon Valley and made Cupertino their home. 🙂

Peter

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Answer 6

Tom Gewecke

Level 10

115,806 points

Sep 21, 2009 4:18 AM in response to mdstanl

Is there any way to reassign the shortcuts. For instance I use the section sign "§" quite a bit when typing, the short cut for that is "alt" and "6" in Pages, can I reassign that character to say "alt" "s"?

The tool for making custom layouts to do what you want is Ukelele:

http://scripts.sil.org/cms/scripts/page.php?siteid=nrsi&itemid=ukelele

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