Wednesday, January 31, 2007

Sure, you Mac switchers already know about Mac OS X Keyboard Shortcuts, mostly using the ⌘ Command Key. If you're a typography geek like me, you'll want to explore all the useful characters (not commands) hidden behind the ⌥ Option Key.

⌥ + key produces this: … [ open double quote “ { close double quote ” ] open single quote ‘ } close single quote ’ - en-dash – _ em-dash — 2 trademark ™ r registered ® g copyright © ; ellipsis … / divide ÷ * degree ° R permille ‰ = not equals ≠ + plus minus ± 5 infinity ∞ 8 big bullet • ( small bullet ·

There are some more, but I don't find them as useful. The keys probably vary by keyboard type; I use the US keyboard (not US Extended, which doesn't seem very useful). The best way to learn these is to go into System Preferences → International → Input Menu → Show input menu in menubar. Then go to the input menu in the menubar (a country flag) → Keyboard Viewer. Also fun to play with is the Character Palette; it lets you put in lots more characters, like ☛☆☺⏏℻♪. Exactly why these characters even exist in Unicode, I'll never know.

The typography geek in me says that the ⌥ Option Key is the best thing about switching to the Mac. Sure, some of you get the AltGr key in Windows and Linux, but I never figured out how to make it work. On the Mac, the Option key works out of the box, even on the US keyboard.

Update [2009-05-09]: Recent versions of Linux/X11 can emulate the Mac keyboard setup. In Gnome, go to Preferences → Keyboard → Layouts, then Add the USA/Macintosh layout, Remove the USA layout. Then go to Layout Options and set both Windows keys to be “third level choosers”. The Windows key will then act like the Option key on the Mac.

Labels: howto, mac, typography