How can I type a command symbol?

Question

Level 1

7 points

How can I type a command symbol?

Quite a while back, one could open the keyboard viewer from the menu bar, choose a font, and see what characters were in it.

There must be something similar now, but the emoji, symbols, & keyboard viewers are rather simplistic. In Pages, there's no other way that I know of to find a character that isn't in any of those, such as the symbol for the Command key.

If I open one of the Adobe apps, I can use the Glyphs to get it, but there has to be some way to do it in Apple apps.

Help!

Thanks.

Mac Pro, OS X El Capitan (10.11.6)

Posted on Aug 30, 2017 12:54 PM

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Answer 1

VikingOSX

Level 10

123,024 points

Aug 30, 2017 5:22 PM in response to orcaslynn

The Place of Interest sign (aka command symbol) can be found in the Emoji's & Symbols panel by entering the word place in the search window. Double-click the ⌘ symbol to insert it at the current insertion point in your Pages document.

This is also a candidate for the text substitution in System Preferences : Keyboard panel : Text. Use some mnemonic in the Replace column, and use the above double-click to insert the symbol in the With column, followed by a return to set it. You will need Edit menu : Substitutions : Text Replacment menu item enabled.

With Pages v6.2, Apple has restored the Auto-Correction Symbol and Text replacement panel previously found in Pages '09 Preferences. You might consider this location for paragraph 2 instead of System Preferences.

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Answer 2

orcaslynn Author

Level 1

7 points

Aug 30, 2017 5:22 PM in response to VikingOSX

Well, I'll be danged. Who would have ever thought of that on their own? I did as you suggested and up popped the symbol I need.

I've been using Pages '09 because I liked it better than the newer versions, but I'd like to try 6.2; however, when I go to the App Store to update, the little circle just keeps spinning. After an hour, I gave up. Not sure what that's about—maybe it's because I'm on El Capitan.

Thanks for your help!

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Answer 3

Aug 30, 2017 2:59 PM in response to orcaslynn

What version of Pages?

Apple uses Unicode fonts which can have a huge variety of characters, but not all fonts do.

In Pages 6.2 you access those in Menu > Edit > Emoji & Symbols

Peter

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Answer 4

Aug 30, 2017 4:28 PM in response to VikingOSX

Viking,

The Emoji Panel is not coming up for me. Nothing happens when I try what I posted above.

OK at your end?

Peter

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Answer 5

VikingOSX

Level 10

123,024 points

Aug 30, 2017 5:34 PM in response to orcaslynn

You must have macOS Sierra installed before Pages v6.2 or later will download. I would continue to use Pages '09 as long as you can, as it still trumps Pages v5 and v6 features.

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Answer 6

VikingOSX

Level 10

123,024 points

Aug 30, 2017 5:29 PM in response to PeterBreis0807

Quit Pages, and relaunch it. Then try the Edit menu, or control+command+space to launch the Emoji & Symbols panel. No issues with this panel here on either El Capitan or Sierra.

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Answer 7

orcaslynn Author

Level 1

7 points

Aug 30, 2017 5:36 PM in response to VikingOSX

Thanks for the heads-up. Pages '09 does so much in the simplest way possible, so I guess I'll stick with it.

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