am I stupid in not knowing that you used. option 3 on a macbook pro to get

what you use depends on the keyboard-mapping selected.

BobTheFisherman is likely using U.S. which has the # as shift-3; Option -3 produces £

If you are using a U.K. layout, shift -3 produces £, and you need to use Option to get #

If you are using some other layout, keys will be different.

I like to use Keyboard Viewer to see exactly what keys are readily available:

Use the Keyboard Viewer on Mac - Apple Support

.

muffincat wrote:

Am I stupid in not knowing that Option + 3 was needed to get # on a MacBook Pro keyboard?

I use shift 3

#########

muffincat wrote:

Am I stupid in not knowing that Option + 3 was needed to get # on a MacBook Pro keyboard?

No. If you are used to a British windows keyboard, you expect to find # over at the right edge, and Apple's odd "British" input source putting it at Option 3 is definitely not intuitive.

muffincat wrote:

on my Macbook Pro there is 3, £ and # on the one key.

Interesting! Apple's keyboard reference doc doesn't show that yet. Do you also have 2, @, and € on one key?

Because you do not have a US keyboard. But there was no way for us to know that until you told us. Glad you got it worked out.