CharacterViewer
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Mac 101: Inserting or typing uncommon characters
As a Mac consultant, I'm often asked some pretty bizarre questions. One that I frequently hear is "How do I type <some special character> on my Mac?" A good example of this is people who want to type fractions that look like this -- ½ -- rather than like 1/2, or plop a character like an umbrella -- ☂ -- or a skull and crossbones -- ☠ -- in the middle of a sentence. It's actually quite easy to do this, although finding these uncommon characters isn't something that's readily apparent, especially to new Mac users. Follow along as I show you how to insert or type characters that won't be found on your keyboard.
TUAW Tip: Character building with Mac OS X
I've previously demonstrated how to use LaTeXiT to create and display complex math formulas and other symbols, and thank you readers for the additional recommendations! While providing a means to display almost every imaginable existing symbol or character, a LaTeX-based solution may prove too complex and unnecessary for some. For the less "mathletic," Mac OS X's built-in character viewer is one of the easier ways to display characters of all sorts. To enable the character viewer, open Mac OS X's System Preferences and select the "Language & Text" icon. Once there, click on the "Input Sources" tab and place a checkmark next to the "Keyboard & Character Viewer" box and "Show input menu in menu bar" box. The Keyboard & Character Viewer is now accessible on your menu bar. Now, displaying special characters on your document, email, or whatever it is you're working on is just a drag and drop away.
