non-standard characters

Where do I go in order to find out the key sequences for characters not on the keyboard e.g. my keyboard doesn't have the pound sign and I don't want to have to go to the "Show Character Viewer" every time I need it.

alt 3 £

5 Ways to Make Symbols on a Mac - wikiHow
Or you could print this out:
Typing Special Characters on a Macintosh Keyboard

£ comes up with Option 3 for those of us with Mac keyboards and no Alt key!

The standard (short) wireless Mac keyboard that comes with iMacs has both the words "option" and the word "alt" printed on the key.

chas_m said:

The standard (short) wireless Mac keyboard that comes with iMacs has both the words "option" and the word "alt" printed on the key.

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One of the reasons I love the US keyboard, and will try to avoid the UK one, if I can (both my MBP17 and MBA11 are US models), is those silly hieroglyphs, instead of a simple [option] or [control] (and the squashed to "lets see, if you can hit me" size [enter] key)

Apart from £ key which is easily reached, as suggested above, there are no advantages in having Mac UK keyboard: one of the main differences - ability to get @ without [shift] on the traditional UK layout, is not present on Mac UK keyboard. Also the large, inverted L-shaped enter key, was trimmed to ⅓ of its width, as I mentioned already...

chas_m said:

The standard (short) wireless Mac keyboard that comes with iMacs has both the words "option" and the word "alt" printed on the key.

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And the wired version (long keyboard with numeric keypad) of the Apple keyboard likewise has the same thing printed on the key.

louishen said:

alt 3 £

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Thanks for your answer - but actually when I said pound sign I meant #. I can't find a shortcut to it anywhere.

If it's an American keyboard it would be shift-3.

It's a UK keyboard

cradom said:

If it's an American keyboard it would be shift-3.

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I think we can safely exclude both the US and the UK keyboards: the # is on US keyboard, so the question wouldn't have risen, and it's called "hash sign" in the UK, hard to imagine someone calling it a "pound sign" over here

To the OP - please tell us what keyboard layout you're using, we'll be able to come up with appropriate shortcuts for your desired characters.

Ha-ha-ha ... assumption is the ... well, you know the rest LOL


Left [option] 3 is the answer then ... as in left ⌥ and [3]


Again, apologies for jumping to wrong conclusion

MBP17•David said:

I think we can safely exclude both the US and the UK keyboards: the # is on US keyboard, so the question wouldn't have risen, and it's called "hash sign" in the UK, hard to imagine someone calling it a "pound sign" over here

To the OP - please tell us what keyboard layout you're using, we'll be able to come up with appropriate shortcuts for your desired characters.

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You mean there are categories of keyboard layout as well as categories of keyboard?? More and more complicated. All I know is that it's a UK keyboard and no # to be seen anywhere.

Hm that simple? I didn't see that on any of the lists I waded through. Thanks much.

You can look at all three basic levels of characters (well, technically four, but all shift ones are actually on the keys anyway), if you click on [country flag] in menu, and then go to "Show Keyboard Viewer". You can then press [option] ( ⌥ on UK keyboard) and see the characters change. Next level can be reached by pressing [option] and [shift] together (⌥ and ⇧ on UK keyboard)

TimR said:

Hm that simple? I didn't see that on any of the lists I waded through. Thanks much.

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Not at all, glad I could help