Whether you have only switched from a PC to a Mac and have discovered that the " and @ keys aren't where you were expecting, or you are having to type some unusual characters or accents on your Mac keyboard, we are here to assist.

The location of the characters may depend on where you are based in the world: keyboard layout differs by country, with certain characters getting more than prominence on the keyboards of the people who use them more. You'll discover QWERTY keyboards for English speakers, while French speakers get a AZERTY keyboard, Germans get QWERTZ, for example.

American and U.k. keyboards have a number of surprising differences. Australians tend to utilize the American keyboard layout.

One other source of confusion is the fact that some Mac keyboards label the Alt central Pick while others telephone call the Selection key Alt (depending on your view point). This means that some guides you will read will talk near an Option or Alt central you lot can't see on your Mac. The key is one and the aforementioned. Encounter Where is the Choice fundamental.

Mac vs PC keyboard compared

How to type °$€@®©# £€¢™ and Æ

That's not a curtained swear word! Those are all symbols that y'all may observe yourself needing to blazon once again and again, and even so they are subconscious from view on your Mac keyboard. Don't worry though, we'll permit you know what you need to do to blazon them.

Before we begin, this is a handy overview of the hidden characters that you tin can blazon using Alt (the keys might be a scrap dissimilar if you aren't using a UK keyboard).

Mac keyboard shortcuts: Alt key

Æ

Nosotros'll start with this because it's was popularised by Elon Musk and Grimes when they named their child Æ A-12 Musk.

If you want to blazon Æ just printing and concur the A key. You'll encounter a range of options appear in a box - just select the 1 you want or press v.

€

For obvious reasons European keyboard give more than prominence to the Euro sign - it's found on the E key. But on UK and U.s.a. keyboard layout the € is in a different location. In fact the location of the € on a United kingdom Mac keyboard is dissimilar to its location on a Us keyboard, just to confuse matters!

On a UK keyboard to type € you lot should printing:

  • Alt/Choice-2 = €

On a US keyboard to type € you need to press:

  • Alt/Option-Shift-2 = €

#

This is another sign where typing information technology will depend on the keyboard. If yous are in the Great britain the hashtag sign shares the iii key with the pound sign (£) but on other state's keyboards the U.k. £ sign is plant else where (we'll become to that next).

On a Uk keyboard to type # you lot should press:

  • Alt/Option-iii = #

On a US keyboard to type # you demand only press:

  • Shift-3 = #

£

We'll mention the UK Pound sign hither for everyone who is using a not-Britain keyboard as information technology's location on a Uk keyboard is no mystery (ok - if you are still looking it's on the 3 key).

On a United states keyboard you demand to type £ y'all need to press:

  • Alt/Selection-3 = £

An easy way to remember how to type a # or £ depending on where you lot live is to note that both symbols are referred to every bit a pound sign. So if you see one or other on the key then pressing Alt/Choice volition result in the other key.

$ and ¢

$ is obvious, but what about ¢?

You'll find the ¢ on the 4 on both US and UK keyboards:

  • Alt/Choice-four = ¢

@

This @ key is a point of confusion for PC users coming to Mac keyboards because the " central and @ primal switch places.

On a Britain or Us keyboard you'll notice the @ fundamental on the ii cardinal and the " key will exist down on the right where the ' key is located. To us Mac users this layout makes more than sense, we can't imagine why the " and ' would be separated past an expanse of keyboard.

  • Shift-2 = @

© ® and ™

The various copyright and trademark signs can be usually used in certain lines of work. Luckily there is an easy way to type them on a Mac keyboard.

Y'all might think that logically the Copyright sign would be hidden on the C key, merely you'd be incorrect. The C key is the home of various accented Cs. If yous want to type a © yous need to press Alt/Pick and Thousand.

  • Alt/Choice-Thousand = ©

If you desire to type the Registered Trademark symbol less Option/Alt and R:

  • Alt/Option-R = ®

Equally for the ™ how you lot type depends on the keyboard:

On a UK keyboard to type ™ you should press:

  • Shift-Alt/Option-2 = ™

On a The states keyboard to type ™ you lot need to printing:

  • Alt/Option-2 = ™

Degrees

If it's getting hot where you are y'all might want to tell someone. IN which case a degree sign could be handy. Here's how to blazon a °

  • Shift-Alt/Pick–viii = °

You might wonder what circumstances would cause you to demand to type an Apple logo, simply with Apple naming a few products with the Apple symbol if might be that y'all need to type TV or Lookout. If y'all do, the central combination is every bit follows:

  • Shift-Alt/Option-One thousand

Read: How to blazon  on an iPhone.

A cheque marking or tick

This is a handy one - the V most looks like a tick or cheque mark, add an Option/Alt and that's what you get.

  • Option/Alt-V = √

Other keys

In that location are a few keys that are subconscious in plain sight. We'll mention them here simply in example you are struggling to find them:

~ (aka the Tilde sign) - Information technology's on the left by the Shift key
/ - on the correct by the Shift key
\ - on the right in a higher place the Shift key
| - press shift and \

Typing accents on a Mac keyboard

If you are trying to blazon accents on an English language keyboard if can be a flake daunting - if you are using a keyboard that'south designed for that language it will be considerably easier to type accents, for obvious reasons. To type an accented letter of the alphabet all you need to do is press and hold the relevant central. When you do then a bill of fare will announced with the various accented characters to choose from.

For case, if you press and hold the Eastward key so y'all will eventually see this menu pop upwards. You tin can choose the version with your pointer, or by pressing the corresponding number.

Type Accent Keys Mac Keyboard

You'll discover accents associated with the following keys: due east, y, u, i, o, a, s, 50, z, c, n.

Typing emoji on a Mac

You might think that emoji are restricted to iPhones and iPads, merely they aren't. It's possible to admission emoji on your Mac. When yous are using a word processor or similar program you can press Command-Control-Infinite to bring upwardly the Emoji pallet.

Read our guide to using Emoji on the Mac here.

Typing other characters on a Mac

You may recall the Character Viewer - a tool which yous could aggrandize to find various characters to be added to text documents. It predated Emoji and since Emoji arrived it seems to take been hidden away, but it's all the same in that location.

As above, press Control-Control-Space to bring up the Emoji pallet then click on the icon in the top right of the Emoji box to bring upwards the Grapheme Viewer. Here you'll observe more than Emoji: in that location are as well Arrows, other currency symbols, Maths Symbols, and more.

This is where y'all volition find currency symbols such as ¥ ¢ ₽ ₩ ₱ ₹ ﷼

Maths symbols such as 30 ∄ ℇ ℏ ≥ ≯ ∑ √ ∱≉

There are also some pictographs that predate emoji including all of these

Pictographs on the Mac

How to see subconscious characters on your keyboard

If you are curious to lean which characters are hidden underneath the keys on your keyboard you could utilize the Keyboard Viewer.

  1. To go the Keyboard Viewer to appear you first need to go to Arrangement Preferences and choose Keyboard.
  2. Then tick the box abreast Show keyboard and emoji viewers in carte du jour bar.
  3. Now you lot'll see an icon in the menu bar (it includes a Command icon). If you click on it, you will run into options to Show Emoji & Symbols and Bear witness Keyboard Viewer.
  4. Choose Show Keyboard Viewer.
  5. When you lot press the shift and option keys you will see the various options available to you. You can just click on the key as seen on the keyboard on screen.

A bonus is the fact that when you lot type with this keyboard viewer on view you will see various suggested autocomplete words that you night desire to utilize.

Keyboard Viewer Mac

If you notice yourself using dissimilar characters often you might like to endeavour an app like PopChar Ten from Ergonis. The app makes it actually easy to access the various characters that are available in the different fonts on your Mac. You tin buy it here for €29.99.

Wondering how to copy and paste on a Mac?