this is driving me nuts. there has to be a simple answer, but i can't figure it out.
on my imac, the key combination to bring up the character viewer is option-command-t. on my macbook pro, it's control-command-space. both machines are running the same system (latest version of el capitan). it's a real pain because i use both machines regularly and i can NEVER remember which combination works on which machine. where is this combination set?
thanks.
control-command-space is the correct key sequence. What version of OS X are you using on your iMac? What application are you using when you are trying to access emojis?
I don't see where you can alter it--it seems to be a system-wide shortcut. My only guess would be that you created a shortcut for it in the App Shortcuts section of Keyboard System Preferences, Shortcuts. Those will override the default system shortcuts.
both machines are running 10.11.2. it can't be an app shortcut because it's system-wide. on the macbook, every single app, under edit menu, shows control-command space. on the imac, every single app shows option-command-T.
Sobeck wrote:
both machines are running 10.11.2. it can't be an app shortcut because it's system-wide.
App specific shortcuts can be System-Wide when you choose "All Application" as the Application.
a good point, and i was hopeful, but... that's not it. the only shortcut listed under "all applications" is shift-command-/ for showing the help menu. sigh.
Since we can't seem to figure out why, try making an All Applications shortcut for "Emoji & Symbols" set to ctrl-cmd-space.
Have you tried looking in another user account on that Mac? If it is not incorrectly set on another user account, we may still be able to sort it out.
Also, have you tried the Restore Defaults button? If you have a lot of changes, that may not be the best solution.
The user key equivalents are in .GlobalPreferences.plist which is hidden in your user Preferences folder.
You can see if it is set there by using this command in Terminal; scroll up and look for a section called NSUserKeyEquivalents:
defaults read -g
If you have that shortcut set in there, I would just edit the plist with TextWrangler or Xcode. But, then I don't know why it doesn't show up in Keyboard Shortcuts.
You can also delete the entire file and it will be rebuilt, but you will have to fix a lot of preferences you might have set.
If you only have a few user key equivalents set up in Keyboard Shortcuts, Apps, then you could use this command to delete the entire NSUserKeyEquivalents section from the plist with:
defaults delete -g NSUserKeyEquivalents
No matter how you change the file, Log out and then back into the account.
well now that's interesting. logged in with a different user account, and the key combination is as it should be. i'll try to set it for all applications in keyboard prefs, and if that doesn't work i'll go the terminal route.
Sobeck wrote:
well now that's interesting. logged in with a different user account, and the key combination is as it should be. i'll try to set it for all applications in keyboard prefs, and if that doesn't work i'll go the terminal route.
I guess that is what I would do, also, because as I stated, I don't know why it doesn't show up in System Preferences if it is actually in that plist. There may be some other place where they may be stored, but I don't know where that would be. Also, I did test that removing that preference entry, and that removed my shortcuts and restoring the file returned them.
Are you sure you don't have any third-party "hot-key" programs installed?
if i wasn't me, i'd think i was making this up.
setting a new global app user-defined combination did nothing at all. so i went into terminal, and found a key definition for emoji & symbols that read "@^ ". the space in there makes me think that this is the correct combination, not what i'm seeing, but i don't know that for sure. so i went into the plist file and just cut out the whole <key> section with that in there to see what would happen. here's where it gets weird.
after saving the plist file, logging out and logging back in, the key combination HAS changed. it used to be option-command-T rather than control-command-space. now it's control-command-T. ??????
next i'll try to fiddle with that portion of the plist rather than delete it.
Yeah, I think there is more to it. Not sure what, but I don't think it is just a mis-set preference. What you found in the plist is correct for the default combination.
Key combination to bring up emoji & symbols
