I looked this up on the web and most places say type "Option M" but this doesn't work for me. I have a MacBook Air 3.2 by the way. I have US Extended as the keyboard layout type. Maybe this has something to do with it not working?
MBA v 3.2, 256GB SSD, 2.13GHz, 4GB-OTHER, Other OS, 10.6.8
Option m makes µ on my keyboard.
Option m makes µ on my keyboard.
Option-m should work, but you can also type the letter "m" in a font like Times, then select the letter you just typed and select the Symbol font. It should change the letter to a greek "mu".
My OS has Keyviewer.app in Applications which lets me see which characters are accessible with various key combinations.
... I have US Extended as the keyboard layout type. Maybe this has something to do with it not working?
Yes. Option m works if your input source is US only - not "US Extended".
Changing it to "US Extended" prevents option m from working - it turns it into a key modifier in the same manner that option u is used to make an umlaut.
So change your input source to US. That will work.
Another option is to open the character viewer (also called "Special Characters" in the Edit menu of many apps). Add µ to your favorites. You can find it in the Unicode section under Latin - 1 Supplement, at least that's where it is under Lion. Then choose which one of the many variations of it you want to use and save it as a favorite. Keep the character viewer open and on favorites and you can click on the µ whenever you need it.
applecore_eater wrote:
I have US Extended as the keyboard layout type. Maybe this has something to do with it not working?
On the US Extended, ⌥M is the ogonek dead key. None of the Greek symbols available on the US keylayout are available on the US Extended.
You can use Keyboard Viewer to see a keylayout's input. You can set a keyboard shortcut to switch or cycle between keyboard layouts; this is the most effective way of using the keyboard if you require different inputs. See
<http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=Mac/10.6/en/27474.html>
steve626 wrote:
Option-m should work, but you can also type the letter "m" in a font like Times, then select the letter you just typed and select the Symbol font. It should change the letter to a greek "mu".
I would recommend that this solution be avoided, since modern computers normally use Unicode for greek and not the old legacy symbol encoding. When using the latter it is totally unpredictable whether someone else reading an eletronic version of your text will see m or mu. I don't think OS X currently even comes with a legacy Symbol font.
How do I type the Greek letter mu?
