Hold down a to type à á â ä æ ã å ā. Other vowels have similar options. Hold down c to type ç ć č. Hold down n to type ñ ń. Note that many letters do not have a popup menu. This popup menu will not appear if you have the Key Repeat slider set to Off in System Preferences → Keyboard. [2] X Research source
⌥ Option + p = π ⌥ Option + 3 = £ ⌥ Option + g = © ⌥ Option + 5 / 6 = § ⌥ Option + 7 = ¶ ⌥ Option + 0 = ° ⌥ Option + / = ÷ Check the end of this article for a full list of these keyboard shortcuts. Alternatively, follow the keyboard input instructions below to view an onscreen keyboard that displays these symbols.
⌥ Option + ⇧ Shift + 2 = € ⌥ Option + ⇧ Shift + / = ¿
If you want to keep the special characters window open as you type, click anywhere on your Desktop instead.
You can also open this menu with the keyboard shortcut ⌘ Command + Control + Space.
If you’re having trouble finding something, scroll up in the special characters popup to reveal a search bar. You can switch between this small view and a large view using the button in the top right corner. You may need to scroll up before this button appears.
On some older OS X versions, use the “Insert” button instead. The next time you use this menu, recently used symbols will appear in the first tab for easy access.
Keyboard (choose this if your OS X is up to date) International (for some old versions of OS X)[4] X Research source Language & Text (early versions of OS X)[5] X Research source
Click a category name in the left pane. Scroll through the middle pane to find the symbol you want. To see variations on the same symbol, click it and scroll through the right pane. Double-click a symbol to “type” it, drag-and-drop it to a text field, or right-click and select Copy Character Info. On older versions of OS X, click the Insert button instead.
You can drag the keyboard window anywhere on the screen. Resize it by click-and-dragging any of its corners.
For example, the English section may have a “U. S. Extended” keyboard. This unlocks even more symbols with the ⌥ Option trick described above. Some languages have an option to mimic a PC keyboard layout. This typically only changes the position of a few symbol keys. If you type on a non-English keyboard, a temporary switch to the standard English “U. S. " keyboard allows you to use our list of symbol shortcuts below.
You can also create a hotkey to cycle through keyboards. Search for “Shortcuts” in the System Preferences search bar and click the highlighted menu. Once you’re in the Shortcuts menu, select Input Sources on the left and check the box next to “Select the previous input source. "
