How to Input Apple Symbol Font Characters Into Documents?

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How to Input Apple Symbol Font Characters Into Documents?

There is a ton of stuff out there about inputting special characters into various documents, it all seems to be a bit dated.

Here's my situation:

I'm building a keyboard cheat sheet for an app.

I need the Apple keyboard characters, which I found in the Apple Symbols font. Font Book has a copy command, but the documentation says that this doesn't actually copy to the clipboard. And sure enough, when looking at the clipboard contents, the docs are correct.

Many sites recommend using Character Viewer. This works great for the stuff that's in Character Viewer, but I cannot find a way to load the Apple Symbol font into CV.

I'd like to input the Option command symbol, which has a number of gid4977 or 3741 into my Word document. But I can't figure this out.

I'm on MacOS 14.2.1 (23C71)

Posted on Mar 17, 2024 2:31 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

VikingOSX

Community+ 2024

Level 10

116,621 points

Mar 17, 2024 2:43 PM in response to JessikaElla

Launch the character viewer in MS Word (e.g. v16.83) with control+cmd+space. In the upper-left corner of that character viewer, you will see ⋯⃝ ˅ which you click. Select Customize the List… and select Technical Symbols.

Then, back in the left panel of character viewer, you click Technical Symbols and it has the Place of Interest ⌘ symbol on it. When in Word, you just double-click that ⌘ symbol and it will be inserted into Word at the current cursor location. Other Mac keyboard shortcut symbols are also located on the Technical Symbols panel.

It is always a good idea to key your version of macOS updated and macOS 14.2.1 is far from it. This can have an impact on how other applications built for macOS 14.4 behave.

Tested: macOS Sonoma 14.4.

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Answer 2

JessikaElla Author

Level 1

10 points

Mar 17, 2024 3:31 PM in response to VikingOSX

I don't know why, but I have a different icon then what you're showing in your post:

Clicking on that, selecting Customize the List and then selecting Technical Symbols, from there I was able to find the symbols I need for this specific situation. Thank you.

Also, after updating, same result, the icon you have isn't the one that I have. ??

Do you know how to use extended character sets? There are some others that I'd like to use, but I'm having zero success here.

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Answer 3

JessikaElla Author

Level 1

10 points

Mar 18, 2024 7:46 AM in response to Tom Gewecke

Looks different to me.

However, on my Windows PC, in Chrome, they do look the same.

Perhaps I was wrong to use the Apple fourm from a Mac and expect it to work correctly, eh?

To this point:

Tom Gewecke wrote:

What characters exactly do you need? If you go to customize list and check the box for Unicode, you will have access to every character that exists.

"I need the Apple keyboard characters." IE, the control, option, and command buttons. That wasn't exactly a clear request, ha!

Fortunately, I was able to get it rooted out with @VikingOSX's help.

Digging into the custom list, I was able to find the Unicode list. Thank you.

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Answer 4

Tom Gewecke

Level 10

118,322 points

Mar 17, 2024 9:34 PM in response to JessikaElla

JessikaElla wrote:

Also, after updating, same result, the icon you have isn't the one that I have. ??

He told you to look for the icon which is a circle with 3 dots inside. Your graphic with arrow seems to have exactly the same icon where it is pointing. What do you think is different on yours?

Do you know how to use extended character sets? There are some others that I'd like to use, but I'm having zero success here.

What characters exactly do you need? If you go to customize list and check the box for Unicode, you will have access to every character that exists.

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Answer 5

Tom Gewecke

Level 10

118,322 points

Mar 18, 2024 8:31 AM in response to JessikaElla

Looks different to me.

Yes, if you do not see this in VikingOSX's post earlier

I think there probably something wrong with your Mac browser or fonts.

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Answer 6

Mar 17, 2024 4:16 PM in response to JessikaElla

This doesn't directly answer your question but I have an app I use to insert characters PopChar I've found it to be a great help.

Hope this helps.

Paul

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