For obvious reasons European keyboard give more prominence to the Euro sign - it's found on the E key. But on UK and US keyboard layout the € is in a different location. Irish Keyboard Layouts for Mac OS X Prior to the release of Mac OS 10.2, Irish users of the Macintosh were obliged to choose between using the British keyboard layout shipped with the Mac OS, or to use one of the two keyboard layouts available specifically for Irish, namely, 'Gaeilge', developed by Michael Everson in early 1990, or 'Irish Accessories' developed by Mike Brady in late 1989.
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pieter,
you have no idea how much time & work you've saved me with this hint. i've been asking around for something like this for ages. thanks a lot!
Then let me tell you how to save even more time - Go to System Preferences -> Language & Text -> Input Sources and enable 'Keyboard & Character Viewer'.
Then - from the (global) menu in the upper right corner - choose 'Show Keyboard Viewer'.
Here you can hold down the modifier keys (CMD, ALT, SHIFT etc) and see what the resulting character is, eg how to type the 'degree' character (ALT-q).
PS.: I believe that this help have been available since Mac OS 8 or even 7.x - so nothing new here…
Might even have been System 6, around the time I started using Macs.
I am using a German keyboard and what you are explaining - accent + vowel - is the normal behaviour.
Good tip thanks!
Would be great if you can get the same behaviour with the other keyboards.
E.g. Edgeview 2 842 way. on my (European) keyboard Alt-2 should give the Euro sign (using e.g. Dutch layout),
with US-international-PC layout it goes back to the TM symbol.
Can't have it all I guess.
Just hold down alt+shift and press the € key and hey presto! the € sign appears
The special keys in this hint are showing up as black diamonds with question marks in them in the RSS feed. Also, the other one today about the faces in iPhoto shows
at every line break, though it looks like that is just because the author forgot to set the post mode as html.
Works for me - so the issue is probably a client side browser issue!
This is a provider issue. Not following standards.
Mac European Keyboard Layout Keyboard
FWIW, I see the same problems in the Safari feed page
No, it's a common text encoding problem. The feed presents itself as UTF-8, but the site content appears to be ISO Latin 1. One or the other should be changed by the powers that be. I'd suggest going with UTF-8 everywhere.
Yep, same here. Character set of the RSS feed is different to the page source, without any translation.
In Mac OS X however, if you set the keyboard layout to a language that has these letters (such as Spanish), you cannot use this trick; the only way of inputting these letters is the standard way supplied in Mac OS X (Option-e then e for é; Option-e, then i for í; etc.). I personally found this very annoying, and searched for quite a while on how to change this.
Unless I misunderstand you, that's not correct. For example, if you set the keyboard layout to Spanish, the key that is labeled as '[' on a US keyboard (to the right of the 'p') is the key that switches to diacritic mode. That key is easier for my fingers to reach than the backtick, so I prefer that method. On my US-labeled keyboard, the keystroke is [-e for é.
As others have mentioned, you can use the keyboard viewer (enabled in System Preferences > Language & Text > Input Sources) to see where the keys are in your current keyboard layout.
Another way for French using a standard American English keyboard. Not better, but different.
I used Ukelele to map the common ones to the same place as on a French keyboard. I'm a touch typist and know the English QWERTY keyboard, so switching to a French keyboard is 'impossible', but with an extended keyboard (needed because the common diacriticals in French use lowercase upper row of keys), for example, I mapped the 2 key to é. The downside is I have to switch to my special keyboard to type French and remember to use the numeric keyboard for numbers. To take it a bit further I mapped other diacriticals to unused upper row keys.
PS Everything shows up fine in the post, so the person with a problem may have some kind font change/corruption problem. Just a guess.
This makes things so much easier!
Would there be a way to get this for the Dvorak layout though??
PopChar from ergonis software is my favorite tool for this outside the Glyphs palette in Adobe InDesign.
OK, not free, $30 in fact, but very handy.
http://www.ergonis.com/products/popcharx/
Useful to know, but I never had any issue with the traditional Mac dead keys.
I've never heard of typing accented characters in Windows this way before. Looking around it seems this is the behavior of the 'US International' keyboard layout in windows, but not the 'US English' layout. So it makes sense that the 'US International - PC' layout on a Mac does the same thing.
Great tip in both cases.
On 10.5 and below, you can install Ranier Brockerhoff's US International keyboard layout: http://www.brockerhoff.net/usi/
It almost sounds like the keyboard Apple included in 10.6 is Brockerhoff's, but it's not quite clear from the text there.
Great hint but in French we loose the ability of using the apostrophe for elision. For example: le + oiseau = l'oiseau is no longer possible. Any work around?
Just type ' ' + space ' : l'oiseau (just typed this using the US-PC setting). No space shows up, it just sets the accent free.
Alternatively, if you are in Snow Leopard, you can set up global text substitutions in the Language > Text Pref Pane to map any combination of characters onto whatever character you would like.
I have tried these global text substitutions a while ago as well, but they are not as useful as the right keyboard layout. If I set up a rule that said that any ' I typed followed by an 'a' should be replaced with á, it only did so if I also typed a space afterwards. So then to type an accented letter I should type the keysequence previously defined, then space, then backspace and then I could continue typing the word. Not ideal.
Great hint, but watchout for Halloweén, err, Hallowe'en.
Good hint, but it doesn't work quite right for me with the umlaut using the double-quote ('). In order to use the double-quote followed by a vowel, I have to hold the shift-key down to get the double-quote which then places an umlaut over a capitalized vowel. How can I get it to work with lower case vowels?
Thanks
This is all about keyboard mappings, and doesn't work in New Zealand since the Maori (flat line above character, like the tilde but flat) accent does not exist as a normal type-able character, in fact neither does some of the other accents.
One other problem is using the quote (') character will cause problems with actually trying to insert quotes.
In the end the option key trick is actually better since you just treat it like a shift key.
I am Portuguese, and I have used several combinations of keyboards/layouts, and I don't see the point of this hint. My current MBP has a keyboard with the Portuguese layout, but.
In Mac OS X, you can choose any keyboard layout you want to use, regardless of the physical keyboard.
With the Portuguese, Spanish, or French layouts, you CAN input accented characters by pressing the accent and then the vowel.
Like á, é, í, ó, ú, à, ã, õ, è, whatever. I have just typed these using the Portuguese layout, by doing, er, what is impossible to do?!
Mind you, I actually prefer the US layout, and I use it most of the time, although obviously some keys input different characters from what is inscribed on them. Changing from one layout to another is just a quick selection from the menu bar. When using the US layout, then I use the alt-e, etc., combinations (actually, these go as far back as System 7, or earlier.)
I guess it all comes down to where you bought your MBP then. I am Dutch and have a Dutch physical keyboard, but I was really struggling with this for a while before I figured out how to enter them the fast way. I use Dutch, English and Spanish on a regular basis and I can assure you (just tried again) that on my keyboard, with the Dutch keyboard layout there is no single button I can press to get a little yellow character indicating that the next character I'll type will be accented.
You're right though about the Spanish/Portuguese layout: if I press [ in the Spanish layout I can immediately afterwards press that letter. However then I get an ñ on a key that says ; and :, and most symbols are in different places. So as I said in the hint itself, for me the US layout is brilliant but you have to see for yourself if it fits your needs.
Good hint.
My simple but stupid method was to write my text on my US keyboard, in American, then switch the keyboard to the French keyboard and go back and replace each vowel with its accented French equivalent from the French keyboard.
What the hint-giver forgot to mention is the ^ accent. It will work in the same way, but to get the ^ you have to use the shift key then type the vowel, same as for the umlaut in ü.
The ^ is even more difficult to get with the French keyboard.
ROO.BOOKAROO
On my keyboard to get the umlaut I need to type option + u. For example, ö is formed with option u + o.
Option ' gives æ
A terrific hint. I write in Irish and I need to use the acute accent all the time. Yours is a very elegant solution. Go raibh míle maith agat. Many thanks.
So here is an even easier way, System Preferences > Language & Text > Input Sources > check 'keyboard & character' viewer. This will enable the ability for you to press and hold down the letter you wish to accent and a popup with the various accented letters will appear that you can quickly select. (Works with Lion only)
If you're writing in a language other than English, you'll likely need to know how to include accent marks. You know, like voilà, olé, or über.
Fortunately, there are a couple easy ways to do this on a Mac. In this article, we'll go through the main methods so you can add accents to your text with ease.
The Press and Hold Accent Method on Mac
If you're not in a rush and you want to see all the common accent options at a glance, there's an easy way to do that.
Simply press and hold the key on which you'd like the accent to appear, and a number of options will come up above the letter, like this:
When you see the type of accent you'd like to add, just type that number and the accent will be added to the letter. You can also use the left and right arrow keys (and enter) to select which one you want.
So, for example, if you wanted the second option, above, you'd press and hold e, then press 2 (or press the right arrow key once and then enter).
This method works well if you don't mind the time it takes for that little accent menu to pop up. But it doesn't always include all accents in every language. And it does slow down your flow, especially if you're typing a whole article in another language. Whew, that's a lot of added time.
Fortunately, there's another common method that involves keyboard shortcuts. And gives you all the options, as well.
The Option Key Accent Method on Mac
The Option key helps you add all kinds of accent and diacritic marks to your text. Just press and hold the Option key (the same as the Alt key), then press the 'e' key, and then release them and press the letter key to which you'd like to add the accent.
For example, if you'd like to add an acute accent (´) to the letters a, e, i, o, or u, you'd press Option + e, and then the letter to which you'd like to add the accent. So, Option+e+a gets you á.
But what if you want a different sort of accent, like a grave or umlaut? Don't worry – there are option key combos for those, too (and more).
- Option + ` + letter = grave accent à, è, ì, ò, or ù (like this: Voilà)
- Option + i + letter = circumflex accent â, ê, î, ô, or û (like this: Crêpe)
- Option + n + letter = eñe character ñ, ã, or õ (like this: El Niño)
- Option + u + letter = umlaut accent ä, ë, ï, ö, or ü (like this: Über)
- Option + a or Shift + Option + A (for capital A) = å or Å
- Option + ' or Shift + Option + ' = æ or Æ (ligatured ae)
- Option + q or Shift + Option + Q (for capital letters) = œ or Œ
- Option + c or Shift + Option + C (for capital) = ç or Ç
- Option + o or Shift + Option + O (for capital) = ø or Ø
- Shift + Option + ? = ¿
- Option + 1 = ¡
- Option + 5 = ∞
Once you memorize these combinations, you can incorporate the keystrokes right into your typical typing flow. And you can always bookmark this article in case you forget :).
Bonus: Other Option Key combos on Mac
What if you need to type some math symbols? Or the symbol for the Euro currency? You'll need more than just accent options.
Well, did you know – your basic English-language keyboard is hiding all those special characters right in (almost) plain sight? http://pkvyvxf.xtgem.com/Blog/__xtblog_entry/19090584-per-second-1-4-60#xt_blog.
By holding the option key and pressing any of the letters/numbers/punctuation marks, you can create a completely different character than what's printed on your keyboard.
So how do you know what each key combo gets you? Don't worry – your Mac can tell you. It just takes a few steps to find that info.
Step 1: Go to System Preferences
Find the Apple icon in the upper left corner, and click it. Then select 'System Preferences' from the dropdown menu.
Select the Keyboard icon, and you'll see this box:
Make sure the 'Show keyboard and emoji viewers in menu bar' is checked (as it is in the image above).
Step 2: Click the keyboard icon in your top menu bar
Now you'll see a little keyboard icon in your top menu bar, next to your bluetooth and wifi symbols/icons. Click it, and select 'Show keyboard viewer'.
That will bring up an image of your keyboard as it's configured on your Mac:
Step 3: Press the Options key
Windows 10 Mac Keyboard Layout
Now, if you hold down the Options key, it'll show you what else all those keys can do, like this:
You can see the most common accent marks highlighted in orange above. Those are the keys that, when combined with the Option key, give you those accent marks (as you learned above). Cleanmymac download mac.
You'll also see all kinds of other useful symbols, like currency symbols, math symbols, and so on. So if you ever need a quick reminder about what keys to press when you need to write the Greek letter µ (miu), for example, just reference this chart.
How to Add Accents on Windows with the International Keyboard
If you want to use shortcuts to include accents and special characters without switching to an entirely different keyboard layout, you can enable the international keyboard.
First, press the Windows key, type 'Language', and click on 'Language Settings' to open the language menu:
Then under 'Preferred languages' click on 'English' and 'Options' to open the language options menu:
Under 'Keyboards', click the 'Add a keyboard' button and click on 'United States-International' to add the international keyboard to your system.
To enable the international keyboard, move your mouse down to the taskbar and click on 'ENG US', then click on 'ENG INTL':
Alternatively, hold down the Windows key and press Space to cycle through your installed keyboard layouts.
The main difference between the normal US keyboard layout and the international layout is that some keys work as a sort of 'accented character lock'.
For example, to type a single apostrophe (') with the international keyboard enabled, just type ' + Space. For a double quotation mark, just type ' + Space. And backticks work the same way with ` + Space.
With that out of the way, here's how to type some common accents with the Windows 10 international keyboard:
- ` + letter = grave accent à, è, ì, ò, or ù (like this: Voilà)
- ^ + letter = circumflex accent â, ê, î, ô, or û (like this: Crêpe)
- ~ + letter = eñe character ñ, ã, or õ (like this: El Niño)
- ' + letter = umlaut accent ä, ë, ï, ö, or ü (like this: Über)
- Right Alt+ w or Shift + Right Alt + W (for capital A) = å or Å
- Right Alt + z or Shift + Right Alt + Z = æ or Æ (ligatured ae)
- Right Alt + < or Shift + Right Alt + < (for capital) = ç or Ç
- Right Alt + l or Shift + Right Alt + L (for capital) = ø or Ø
- Right Alt + ? = ¿
- Right Alt + 1 = ¡
But you might have noticed that there's no shortcut to type œ, Œ, or ∞ with the international keyboard.
For that, let's take a quick look at another way to type accents, special characters, and symbols on Windows 10.
How to Add Accents on Windows with the Emoji Panel
The emoji panel makes it easy to scroll through all the available emoji and add one to a message. But you can also use the emoji panel to quickly add an accented or special character, too.
Use the shortcut Windows Key + . to open the emoji panel:
To add accents or special characters, press the symbols button at the top:
Then scroll through the menu and click on the accent or character you want:
Also, you can click around the different menus at the bottom for different types of symbols. For example, ∞ is in the 'Math symbols' section:
Ck2 change hair color. And that should be everything you need to know to type accents and other special characters on both Mac and Windows. Adiós!