MacOS character input
Inputing characters on MacOS. See also Unicode for MacOS keys.
US keyboard
The Keyboard Viewer can be very helpful to see how to type special characters.
| Character | Description | Template |
|---|---|---|
| ó Ó | Acute | Option+E, V |
| ô Ô | Circumflex | Option+I, V |
| ò Ò | Grave | Option+`, V |
| õ Õ | Tilde | Option+N, V only with "n,N,o,O,a,A" |
| ö Ö | Umlaut | Option+U, V |
| ¡ | Upside-down exclamation mark | Option+1 |
| ¿ | Upside-down question mark | Shift+Option+? |
| Ç,ç | French C cedilla (caps/lowercase) | Shift+Option+C Option+C |
| Œ,œ | OE ligature (caps/lowecase) | Shift+Option+Q Option+Q |
| ß | German Sharp/Double S | Option+S |
| ˚ | Degree symbol | Option+K |
| º, ª | Masculine, Feminine Ordinal Number (Spanish/Italian/Portuguese) | Option+0 Option+9 |
| Ø,ø | Nordic O slash (caps/lowercase) | Shift+Option+O Option+O |
| Å,å | Nordic A ring (caps/lowercase) | Shift+Option+A Option+A |
| Æ,æ | AE ligature (caps/lowercase) | Shift+Option+' (apostrophe key) Option+' |
« » |
Guillemets (Spanish/French quotation marks) | Option+\ Shift+Option+\ |
Note
The guillemets are marked literal to prevent Linter from converting them to American quotes.
ABC Extended
Here's how to type accents on a Mac using the ABC Extended keyboard. Less used today, since you can also look up the character using the Emoji and Symbols menu (Globe-E). Having the names is half the battle, though.
| ACCENT | SAMPLE | TEMPLATE | NOTES |
|---|---|---|---|
| Circumflex | Ŵ, ŵ | Option+6,X | Works with many letters including W.. Note difference from Option+I in U.S. Standard keyboard. |
| Accented Y | Ý, Ÿ | See Notes | Use Option+E for acute Y and Option+U for umlaut Y |
| Macron | Ō, ō | Option+A, X | Latin long mark, plus long Y (Ȳ) and long ash (Ǣ). Use Option+K,A if you need A-ring. |
| Breve | Ŏ, ŏ | Option+B, X | Short vowel mark |
| Arch (inverted Breve) | Ȏ, ȏ | Shift+Option+S, X | Appears over vowels |
| Nasal Vowel Tilde | Ẽ, ẽ | See Notes | Use Option+N to place a tilde over any vowel including E,I |
| Hacheck | Č, č | Option+V, X | Used in Czech and other languages |
| Cedilla/Cedille | Ş, ş | Option+C, X | Works with S and other letters as well as C |
| Polish Ogonek | Ą, ą | Option+M, X | Used in Polish for nasal vowels. Reverse of French cedille |
| A ring, U ring | Ů, ů | Option+K, X | U ring in Czech; A-ring in Scnadinavian languages |
| Hungarian Double Acute | Ő, ő | Option+J, X | Appears only over O,U |
| Double Grave | Ȍ, ȍ | Shift+Option+Y, X | Tone marker in some Slavic languages. Works with vowels plus R. |
| Strikethrough Bar | ł, ɨ | Option+L, X | Works with L,I,O |
| Subscript Dot | ṣ, ḍ | Option+X, X | Used to indicate retroflex consonants |
| Superscript Dot | ṡ, ḟ, | Option+W, X | Used in Polish and Old Irish. |
| Thorn | þ, Þ | Option+T Shift+Option+T |
Used in Icelandic and Old English |
| Eth | ð, Ð | Option+D Shift+Option+D |
Used in Icelandic and Old English |