[DM-MUG] How to type special characters, like Ł

[Bailey Ford]

I didn't remember the setting for US vs US Extended keyboard, so thanks for teaching me. I googled and found a great place that shows the differences in key mappings:

http://www.macfreek.nl/mindmaster/Mac_Keyboard_Layout

I'm glad there was a relatively easy way to type the characters that you needed, but sometimes the character you want just isn't typeable in the usual sense. For example, who can type "⇒" or "⌘" ? I thought I'd cover how to fix that up. There are four parts of the Mac operating system that are useful here. The Keyboard preference pane (1) has a little check box that will show the Keyboard and Character viewers in the menu bar. The Keyboard Viewer (2) shows a picture of the keyboard that you are using and, as you hold down modifier keys, show what each key will type. If you are a new user and have never seen this, it is pretty nifty. The keyboard viewer is hugely useful for figuring out what and how you can type. The Character viewer (3) shows everything under the sun – even the characters that can't be typed. You scroll around to find the character you want, then double-click and it will be pasted where you were typing. The Character viewer has a nice Favorites feature, so you don't have to go looking for your obscure character when you need it later. Lastly, if you find that you have some character or little snippet that you are typing frequently, check out the Language and Text preference pane (4). Under the Text tab, you will find a little area that does text substitution. You can make up some name for the weird character you need, and set it up so that the mac replaces that name for the symbol whenever you type it. For example, when I type 'cmdkey' I get ⌘. This works in lots of places, but isn't quite supported everywhere. It does work in the spotlight menu, so you can always just use it there and copy-paste into anything.

cheers,
b

On Aug 30, 2011, at 11:08 PM, Matthew Nuzum wrote:

> Thanks for the reply. I have the built in keyboard on my 13" MBP and also a standard PC keyboard plugged in via USB.
> 
> Doing what you said didn't work but I went into system preferences and changed my keyboard from US to US Extended. Now it does work. Do you think this will cause problems?
> 
> On Tue, Aug 30, 2011 at 10:47 PM, Stuart Thiessen <thiessenstuart at aol.com> wrote:
> If you use the US Extended keyboard, you can type ł with option+l l and then Ł using option+l L. 
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Stuart
> 
> On Aug 30, 2011, at 22:39 , Matthew Nuzum wrote:
> 
>> Hi, I have a friend who's name starts with the letter Ł. It's incredibly hard to type his name because I always have to find it, copy and paste the letter and then type the rest of his name.
>> 
>> Is there an easy way to type this with a standard US keyboard?
>> 
>> -- 
>> Matthew Nuzum
>> newz2000 on freenode, skype, linkedin and twitter
>> 
>> 
>> ♫ You're never fully dressed without a smile! ♫
>> 
>> 
>> 
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> -- 
> Matthew Nuzum
> newz2000 on freenode, skype, linkedin and twitter
> 
> 
> ♫ You're never fully dressed without a smile! ♫
> 
> 
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