

To enable these options, go to the "Language & Text" system preferences (called "International" in OS X 10.5 and below) and check the option to "Show Input menu in menu bar." Then in the list of input methods, check the options for the keyboard and Character Viewers (these are separate options in OS X prior to Snow Leopard). To make things easier, Apple includes a couple of system utilities that can help you when you need to use alternate characters: the first is the Keyboard Viewer and the second is the Character Viewer. The Input Menu can be configured to hold a number of input methods and have options to view the Character and Keyboard Viewers.
#How to use mac os characters trial
There are others available as well, but without knowing where they are, it would take trial and error to figure it out.

For instance, if you want to enter the degree symbol, you can use Shift-Option-8, or if you want a bullet symbol you can just press Option-8. In the past, many of these came from using special fonts (Wingdings or Dingbats) that contained these symbols as alternates to the standard alphanumeric characters, but these days fonts make use of the Unicode system and can include hundreds or thousands of available symbols.Īs with other PC systems, the Mac keyboard layout is a standard one for the most commonly accessed characters, but you can also quickly access other common characters by using modifier keys. Every now and then you may need to enter special characters and symbols when writing, which can be for relatively common tasks such as character accents or "degree" signs, but also for more obscure or specialized symbols.
