Mac: To enable special characters you need to download a font with special characters, it’s very easy to access those additional characters with the Windows Character Map. While Macs have a similar native tool that ship with the OS, it’s a little harder to find.
The Mac equivalent to the Character Map is buried in the Mac Font Book, under the setting “Repertoire”. When you first open the Font Book, you’ll see all the basic characters available in any given font.
Whether you’re watermarking photos, writing an essay or hand-crafting a
cookbook, the following keyboard shortcuts are well worth memorizing:
The Mac equivalent to the Character Map is buried in the Mac Font Book, under the setting “Repertoire”. When you first open the Font Book, you’ll see all the basic characters available in any given font.
Keyboard shortcuts for Hidden special characters in Mac
- © Option-G
- ® Option-R
- ™ Option–2
- • Option–8
- ° Shift-Option–8
- € Shift-Option–2
- ¢ Option–4
- … Option-;
- “ Option-[
- ” Shift-Option-[
- ‘ Option-]
- ’ Shift-Option-]
Using keyboard viewer
If your special character needs extend beyond this short list, cozy on up to OS X’s Keyboard and Character Viewers. The Keyboard Viewer displays an onscreen representation of your Mac’s keyboard, and lets you insert a character into your text by clicking its key on a virtual keyboard. More importantly, you can access hidden characters by holding down your keyboard’s Shift and Option keys, separately or together.To summon the Keyboard Viewer, choose Show Keyboard Viewer from the Input menu in your Mac’s menu bar shown below. It looks like a tiny window with the Command key symbol on it or, if you’ve enabled multiple languages for your keyboard, it looks like a flag instead. If you don’t see it, head to System Preferences > Keyboard, and check “Show Keyboard & Character Viewers in menu bar.”
Recent versions of OS X provide an additional way to access the accented or alternate versions of a character while typing—hold down the letter’s key for a second and you’ll see a list of alternates appear in a popup menu. To use one of the alternates, either type the number that appears beneath it, or click the one you want. To dismiss the menu, either type a different character or press the Escape key. If no additional characters are available for the key you’re holding, the menu won’t appear. (This menu also doesn’t appear if Key Repeat is turned off in System Preferences > Keyboard.)
Here are the character alternates for the letter O.
Using the Character Viewer
But what if you need a hidden character that isn’t in the Keyboard Viewer? For example, Ⓟ is commonly used on audio records (it stands for sound recording copyright), but it doesn’t have a keyboard shortcut. In that case, launch the Character Viewer, or choose Characters from the Action (gear) menu at the upper-left of the Fonts palette (summoned in most apps by choosing Format > Font or by pressing Command-T). You can also summon the Character Viewer by choosing Edit > Emoji & Symbols, or pressing Ctrl-Command-Space, in apps such as Pages, Keynote, and TextEdit.![How to Access Special Characters & Hidden features in Mac Fonts (Updated) How to Access Special Characters & Hidden features in Mac Fonts (Updated)](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKvMM0iS3jZaznfGE7DnsPvGCaNVXATj3jbb3P3qzjQ1A23a7QZWbUp0kmEY0jb8cIWD6Mt43MIOjMzhVTd-hvt8vQ8ERGNf84R1drJz1HqIay6etaNUuVSX56VsFgOv_ZMcx-tgwKOG8/s320/creaticity-symbols-primary-100616184-large.png)
Here’s the Character Viewer set to view Emoji (top). Click the circled icon to access a mini version of the viewer (bottom).
Unfortunately, whereas you can use the Keyboard Viewer in all applications—it floats above almost everything—the Character Viewer is limited to apps that use Apple’s Fonts window, such as Pages, TextEdit, and Keynote. Adobe InDesign, Illustrator, and Photoshop have similar functions in the Glyphs panel, which is accessible by choosing Window > Glyphs or Window > Type & Tables > Glyphs (depending on which app you’re using). To open QuarkXPress’ Glyphs palette, choose Window > Glyphs. If you use Microsoft Word, you’re out of luck until they release Word 2016—then choose Edit > Special Characters. If you find yourself using these character-finding tools very often, save some time and sanity by investing in PopChar, a €30 utility (about $33 at this writing) from Ergonis that gracefully provides all the features discussed above and more, in any application.