HT201749: Mac Basics: Font Book

Learn about Mac Basics: Font Book
appleby
Level 1 (16 points)
Mac OS X

Q: How do I know which keyboard stroke will give me which symbol from the repertoire of a font?

I am looking at the Symbols font in Font Book, I look at view/repertoire and see lots of symbols, but no clue how to type them.  can anyone help?

MacBook Pro, OS X El Capitan (10.11.3)

Posted on May 21, 2016 5:42 AM

by pinkstones,Apple recommended
pinkstones pinkstones
Level 5 (4,209 points)
Safari
A:

What symbols are you wanting to insert into your text?  If they're accented letters, all you need to do is hold down that key and a menu will pop up.  Press the number that corresponds to the accented letter you need.  If they're other symbols or emojis in general, press Control + Command + Space to bring up the Character Viewer.

 

Screen Shot 2016-05-21 at 8.45.51 AM.png

Posted on May 21, 2016 5:46 AM

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appleby

Q: How do I know which keyboard stroke will give me which symbol from the repertoire of a font?

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  • Helpful answers

  • by pinkstones,Apple recommended

    pinkstones pinkstones May 21, 2016 5:46 AM in response to appleby
    Level 5 (4,209 points)
    Safari
    May 21, 2016 5:46 AM in response to appleby

    What symbols are you wanting to insert into your text?  If they're accented letters, all you need to do is hold down that key and a menu will pop up.  Press the number that corresponds to the accented letter you need.  If they're other symbols or emojis in general, press Control + Command + Space to bring up the Character Viewer.

     

    Screen Shot 2016-05-21 at 8.45.51 AM.png

  • by appleby,Apple recommended

    appleby appleby May 23, 2016 8:32 AM in response to pinkstones
    Level 1 (16 points)
    Mac OS X
    May 23, 2016 8:32 AM in response to pinkstones

    Holding down the key to get an accented letter is great, I didn't know about that.  I was trying to type degrees F and degrees C, using the little circle for degrees.  I see it in font book, and I had to copy and paste the character.  I wanted to know what keystroke to use, maybe copy and paste is all there is.  I finally found this, which helped OS X El Capitan: Use the Character Viewer

    It says "Open the Character Viewer: In a document, choose Edit > Emoji & Symbols, or press Control-Command-Space."

    Neither worked for me (using Microsoft Word, an old version, maybe that's why).  Should it work in Word? Nor did it work in Mail.

    However, this really did help: "To open Keyboard preferences, choose Apple menu >  System Preferences, click Keyboard, then click Keyboard."  Then you see a check box for "Show keyboard, emoji, & symbol viewers in menu bar". Voila!

     

  • by pinkstones,Helpful

    pinkstones pinkstones May 23, 2016 8:33 AM in response to appleby
    Level 5 (4,209 points)
    Safari
    May 23, 2016 8:33 AM in response to appleby

    appleby wrote:

     

    Holding down the key to get an accented letter is great, I didn't know about that.  i was trying to type degrees F and degrees C, using the little circle for degrees.  I see it in font book, and I had to copy and paste the character.  I wanted to know what keystroke to use, maybe copy and paste is all there is.  There used to be a thing called character viewer for the keyboard, I don't see it in El Capitane.

     

    I showed you the character viewer in my response, and I told you the keyboard command to bring it up (Control + Command + Space).  However, to make the degree symbol, press Shift + Option + 8.

  • by appleby,

    appleby appleby May 23, 2016 8:35 AM in response to pinkstones
    Level 1 (16 points)
    Mac OS X
    May 23, 2016 8:35 AM in response to pinkstones

    Control-command-space brings up Spotlight...

  • by pinkstones,

    pinkstones pinkstones May 23, 2016 11:03 AM in response to appleby
    Level 5 (4,209 points)
    Safari
    May 23, 2016 11:03 AM in response to appleby

    No, it doesn't.  Command + Space brings up Spotlight. Control + Command + Space brings up the Character Viewer.