Best text expansion app for Mac
- Option Key Mac Keyboard
- Option Button On Keyboard
- Mac Keyboard Shortcuts Cheat Sheet
- Option Mac Keyboard
- Option Button On Mac Keyboard
Depending on which keyboard you have, it may be F12 or it may be Eject. Or it may be the power button (some keyboards allow the power button to act as the eject key). If you have one of the Late 2016 Macbook Pro w/Touch Bar models, I have no idea what key you would use, as that Mac does not have F-keys, nor eject. Feb 26, 2021 Or use Option-Command-R or Shift-Option-Command-R to start up from macOS Recovery over the Internet. MacOS Recovery installs different versions of macOS, depending on the key combination you use while starting up. If your Mac is using a firmware password, you're prompted to enter the password. Reset SMC: Shut down your Mac, and then press and hold the left-side Shift (⇧)—Control (⌃)—Option keys along with the Power (⎋) button, all at the same time, until the computer turns on. Now release the keys and then turn your Mac back on using the power button. Other keyboard shortcuts are available after your Mac has started up.
Whether you're new to Mac or have been using it for years, highly specialized things like shortcuts, special Mac symbols, and accented characters might result in a web investigation spiralling out of control.
If you've just recently switched from Windows, you should know that Macs don't really use alt codes to type special symbols. Instead, all of the most popular Unicode characters can be typed in right from the keyboard. Unfortunately, Apple could do a much better job of shining light at this functionality.
For example, if you want to get a copyright symbol on Windows (©), you need to type in Alt 0169 — whereas, a copyright symbol on Mac is just Option + G. Similarly, a degree symbol on Mac (º) is Option + Zero and a registered trademark symbol on Mac (™) is Option + 2.
Truth is there are many more like this and below we'll explore different ways of how to type copyright symbol on Mac or any special characters Macs allow, where to find Apple keyboard symbols, and whether there's an emoji keyboard on Mac.
What Are All The Mac Keyboard Symbols?
While a standard computer keyboard contains around 80 keys, you're able — in one way or another — use it to input all of the Unicode characters, of which there are about 130,000.
To start, simply explore how all the face-value characters change when you combine them with modifier keys — Control, Option, and Command. You can even combine multiple modifiers together as well. To see all Mac keyboard shortcuts symbols clearly, however, you need to turn on the full keyboard layout.
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Display all Mac keyboard symbols
Even if you've been using your Mac for a while, it's useful to look at all the possible keyboard combinations from time to time to refresh your memory and discover new ways of quickly inputting information.
Luckily, it's easy to show all Mac key symbols at once:
- Go to System Preferences ➙ Keyboard
- Check the box next to 'Show keyboard and emoji viewers in menu bar'
Now you can click on the language flag in your menu bar and choose Show Keyboard Viewer. The interactive display will appear, showing all the keyboard symbols and altering the view in real time when you use modifier keys.
Of course, even using all the modifier keys and combinations available, it's impossible to fit all the characters in such constrained amount of space. To see all Mac key symbols, you need to select Show Emoji & Symbols option from the same language flag menu, or use a shortcut Control + Cmd + Space.
Here, you'll see all kinds of categories on the left: Emoji, Arrows, Currency Symbols, etc. In the center are all the characters within a given category. And on the right you can pick a font variation of the same symbol.
To type in a TM symbol Macs use, for example:
- Open your word processor of choice
- Call the Mac symbols menu
- Navigate to Letterlike Symbols on the sidebar
- Double-click on ™ to paste it into your editor
How to create custom Mac keyboard shortcuts symbols
Option Key Mac Keyboard
With the Show Emoji & Symbols window, you have access to nearly all Unicode characters you'll ever need. However, if you need to use some special characters — such as a copyright symbol on Mac — rather frequently, it would be quite inconvenient to call up a menu and search for what you need every time. Of course, you can add the copyright symbol to your favorite characters, which will save you some time, but there's a much better way.
Wireless keyboard for mac desktop. Macs allow you to create shortcuts for all keyboard symbols to be able to easily type them in whenever you need. For example, to create a shortcut for the copyright symbol on Mac:
- Type in the © character into your editor as described above and copy it with Command + C
- Open System Preferences ➙ Keyboard
- Navigate to the Text tab
- Click the plus sign
- Paste your © symbol in the With column on the right
- Type in a desired key combination to trigger the copyright symbol on Mac in the Replace column on the left
Although this default shortcuts method works well for characters or emoji, it doesn't effectively translate into longer strings of text or paragraphs. If you want to, for instance, create a shortcut that outputs a sales email template, you'd need to use a little nifty tool called Rocket Typist.
Rocket Typist is a full-featured text expansion app created to minimize repetition in composing any form of text-based communication. It's essentially a small database of text snippets you'll use over and over again.
Starting with Rocket Typist is easy: use File ➙ New to create a new snippet, specify the abbreviation, fill out as much text (sentences or even paragraphs) as you need, and then use the abbreviation to expand text in any application.
How to switch between keyboard languages quickly
Sometimes, the Mac keyboard symbols you need are only available in another language — say, they could be Cyrillic-based. To access them, you'd need to enable another keyboard layout on your Mac.
Luckily, it's easy to do:
- Go to System Preferences ➙ Keyboard
- Navigate to Input Sources
- Click the plus sign
- Choose the language you need and press Add
Now, the second keyboard layout will be activated. Don't forget to check the box next to 'Show Input menu in menu bar' to see which layout is currently active. The standard shortcut to switch between layouts is Cmd + Space, but you can also change it to Caps Lock key in the Input Sources options.
Extra tip: typing emoji on iPhone is much easier if you add an emoji keyboard layout to your languages.
Special Characters: Type in various symbol variations
In some cases, you might just want to access a variation of the symbol that's already on your keyboard, such as an accented letter.
One way to do this is to find the character of your choice in the Keyboard Viewer, as described above. Another way is to use a keyboard shortcut. You can get an acute accent by typing Option + E and then the letter. Similarly, circumflex is Option + I, grave accent is Option + backquote, tilde is Option + N, and umlaut is Option + U.
A quicker option though is to simply press the key of the letter you want to modify and hold it for a second until a small menu appears. Then just choose a number that corresponds to the modification you seek.
Digitize complex math expressions
If your studies or line of work require the use of complex math, you might be spending too much time crafting LaTeX and MathML expressions by hand. But as with nearly everything else nowadays, there's an easier way.
MathKey is a Mac app specifically developed to write complex equations in academic papers and math documents. Instead of composing dozens of obscure symbols together, the app allows you to hand-write the equation using your trackpad (or mouse) and output perfect LaTeX or MathML, ready for publication.
Search for anything instantly
It's likely that you won't retain all the information provided here. But don't worry, the only thing you need to keep is a supercharged search that can take you right back to the answer you're looking for.
Lacona is an intelligent search for your Mac that contextually analyzes the query and outputs a range of possible solutions, whether it's launching a certain app, looking it up online, or performing a pre-defined action.
Any question about Mac keyboard shortcuts symbols — such as 'how to type copyright symbol on Mac?' — would be met with a guiding response. And all you have to do to start Lacona is press Option + Space.
So there are a lot of things your Mac is capable of that you might have not even considered before. With regards to symbols and characters, what you see on the keyboard is just a tiny slice compared to the total amount available. Using Mac symbols properly will enrich your communication, making it clear and efficient, especially if you get used to creating snippets with Rocket Typist, transferring math equations with MathKey, and keeping everything at the tips of your fingers with Lacona.
- Go to System Preferences ➙ Keyboard
- Check the box next to 'Show keyboard and emoji viewers in menu bar'
Now you can click on the language flag in your menu bar and choose Show Keyboard Viewer. The interactive display will appear, showing all the keyboard symbols and altering the view in real time when you use modifier keys.
Of course, even using all the modifier keys and combinations available, it's impossible to fit all the characters in such constrained amount of space. To see all Mac key symbols, you need to select Show Emoji & Symbols option from the same language flag menu, or use a shortcut Control + Cmd + Space.
Here, you'll see all kinds of categories on the left: Emoji, Arrows, Currency Symbols, etc. In the center are all the characters within a given category. And on the right you can pick a font variation of the same symbol.
To type in a TM symbol Macs use, for example:
- Open your word processor of choice
- Call the Mac symbols menu
- Navigate to Letterlike Symbols on the sidebar
- Double-click on ™ to paste it into your editor
How to create custom Mac keyboard shortcuts symbols
Option Key Mac Keyboard
With the Show Emoji & Symbols window, you have access to nearly all Unicode characters you'll ever need. However, if you need to use some special characters — such as a copyright symbol on Mac — rather frequently, it would be quite inconvenient to call up a menu and search for what you need every time. Of course, you can add the copyright symbol to your favorite characters, which will save you some time, but there's a much better way.
Wireless keyboard for mac desktop. Macs allow you to create shortcuts for all keyboard symbols to be able to easily type them in whenever you need. For example, to create a shortcut for the copyright symbol on Mac:
- Type in the © character into your editor as described above and copy it with Command + C
- Open System Preferences ➙ Keyboard
- Navigate to the Text tab
- Click the plus sign
- Paste your © symbol in the With column on the right
- Type in a desired key combination to trigger the copyright symbol on Mac in the Replace column on the left
Although this default shortcuts method works well for characters or emoji, it doesn't effectively translate into longer strings of text or paragraphs. If you want to, for instance, create a shortcut that outputs a sales email template, you'd need to use a little nifty tool called Rocket Typist.
Rocket Typist is a full-featured text expansion app created to minimize repetition in composing any form of text-based communication. It's essentially a small database of text snippets you'll use over and over again.
Starting with Rocket Typist is easy: use File ➙ New to create a new snippet, specify the abbreviation, fill out as much text (sentences or even paragraphs) as you need, and then use the abbreviation to expand text in any application.
How to switch between keyboard languages quickly
Sometimes, the Mac keyboard symbols you need are only available in another language — say, they could be Cyrillic-based. To access them, you'd need to enable another keyboard layout on your Mac.
Luckily, it's easy to do:
- Go to System Preferences ➙ Keyboard
- Navigate to Input Sources
- Click the plus sign
- Choose the language you need and press Add
Now, the second keyboard layout will be activated. Don't forget to check the box next to 'Show Input menu in menu bar' to see which layout is currently active. The standard shortcut to switch between layouts is Cmd + Space, but you can also change it to Caps Lock key in the Input Sources options.
Extra tip: typing emoji on iPhone is much easier if you add an emoji keyboard layout to your languages.
Special Characters: Type in various symbol variations
In some cases, you might just want to access a variation of the symbol that's already on your keyboard, such as an accented letter.
One way to do this is to find the character of your choice in the Keyboard Viewer, as described above. Another way is to use a keyboard shortcut. You can get an acute accent by typing Option + E and then the letter. Similarly, circumflex is Option + I, grave accent is Option + backquote, tilde is Option + N, and umlaut is Option + U.
A quicker option though is to simply press the key of the letter you want to modify and hold it for a second until a small menu appears. Then just choose a number that corresponds to the modification you seek.
Digitize complex math expressions
If your studies or line of work require the use of complex math, you might be spending too much time crafting LaTeX and MathML expressions by hand. But as with nearly everything else nowadays, there's an easier way.
MathKey is a Mac app specifically developed to write complex equations in academic papers and math documents. Instead of composing dozens of obscure symbols together, the app allows you to hand-write the equation using your trackpad (or mouse) and output perfect LaTeX or MathML, ready for publication.
Search for anything instantly
It's likely that you won't retain all the information provided here. But don't worry, the only thing you need to keep is a supercharged search that can take you right back to the answer you're looking for.
Lacona is an intelligent search for your Mac that contextually analyzes the query and outputs a range of possible solutions, whether it's launching a certain app, looking it up online, or performing a pre-defined action.
Any question about Mac keyboard shortcuts symbols — such as 'how to type copyright symbol on Mac?' — would be met with a guiding response. And all you have to do to start Lacona is press Option + Space.
So there are a lot of things your Mac is capable of that you might have not even considered before. With regards to symbols and characters, what you see on the keyboard is just a tiny slice compared to the total amount available. Using Mac symbols properly will enrich your communication, making it clear and efficient, especially if you get used to creating snippets with Rocket Typist, transferring math equations with MathKey, and keeping everything at the tips of your fingers with Lacona.
Best of all, the apps mentioned above are available to you on a free trial through Setapp, a platform of more than 150 specific Mac apps that are designed to make your days more productive and fun. Now you're ready to solve some equations!
Option Button On Keyboard
Meantime, prepare for all the awesome things you can do with Setapp.
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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?
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. Mozilla firefox for mac official website.
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
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).
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.
Mac Keyboard Shortcuts Cheat Sheet
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:
Option Mac Keyboard
Also, you can click around the different menus at the bottom for different types of symbols. For example, ∞ is in the 'Math symbols' section:
Option Button On Mac Keyboard
And that should be everything you need to know to type accents and other special characters on both Mac and Windows. Adiós!