Accented Text in Mac OS X – Part 2

Posted by on November 19, 2011 No comments

It has been a week since I posted my first installment. This second installment about accented text on Mac OS X will simply summarize all the key codes I could find for the extended US keyboard layout. I did discover in the past week that there are a few key combinations that work with the default US keyboard layout. I will start off with those.

Dead Keys for Macintosh US Default Keyboard Layout

Use these key combinations to add accent marks to various characters. Keys in the combination should be pressed at the same time. These combinations work with the Macintosh default keyboard layout. In all cases the ALT key may be substituted for the OPTION key.
DescriptionKey CombinationExample
tildeOPTION + nã
graveOPTION + `à
acuteOPTION + eí
diaeresis or umlautOPTION + uë
circumflexOPTION + iû
cedilla (c)OPTION + cç

I did find some additional key combinations listed for the default layout however they did not work for me on OS X 10.5. Either they produced a result different from what was listed or they performed some other function. I will investigate further and update this article as I find reliable information on why this is the case.

Next we have the key combinations for the US extended keyboard layout. The extended layout has many more options and is definitely more flexible.

Dead Keys for Macintosh US Extended Keyboard Layout

Use these key combinations to add accent marks to various characters. Keys in the combination should be pressed at the same time. These combinations work with the Macintosh extended keyboard layout. In all cases the ALT key may be substituted for the OPTION key.

Accented Text in Mac OSX – Part 1

Posted by on November 12, 2011 No comments

As I’m sitting around this afternoon tweaking the look of this new blog, my wife hits me with the first question of the day. She needed to know how to put an accent on a letter on her blog. While I was sure it was possible on our Mac computers (or on Windows or Linux for that matter) I had never done it and did not know how.

I figured it was a good way to start writing myself if I simply share the solution I found, so here it is. I’ll add in a couple screen shots too to make it even easier. The procedure has been checked in OSX Leopard and Snow Leopard (10.5 and 10.6). I haven’t had a chance to check it in OSX Lion (10.7) yet but I suspect it will work without modification.

  1. Open System Preferences. The easiest way to find the System Preferences application is to look in the Apple menu on the top left.
  2. Select the International preferences. International preferences is at the top of the System Preferences pane.
    System preferences pane showing the location of the international settings icon
  3. Select Input Menu and scroll down the list of keyboard layouts until you reach the US layouts.
  4. There should be at least two US layouts, the regular US layout and the US Extended layout. Make sure the US Extended layout is checked. You can uncheck the US default layout or leave it checked. If you leave it checked you will be able to toggle between keyboard layouts using a shortcut menu in the menu bar.
  5. If you think you will regularly switch keyboard layouts you may want the check the Show input menu in menu bar box at the bottom of the preference pane. Checking that will show the keyboard layout currently active and it will allow you to open the Input Menu preference pane directly. If you have more than one keyboard layout active then you will also be able to toggle between the active layouts. The example image below only shows one active layout.
  6. Close the System Preferences pane when you are done adjusting the settings. You will now be able to use keyboard shortcuts to add accent marks to text at least if the application and font supports it. I have not run into anything in OS X Leopard or Snow Leopard that doesn’t support the extended character set but I certainly have not tested every available application.
I will be adding a part two to this article shortly to summarize the list of keyboard shortcuts available. In the mean time you can review this document on a Penn State web site that lists the shortcuts.

A New Start and an Invitation

Posted by on November 11, 2011 No comments

Welcome to my closet on the Internet, figuratively speaking. This is a tech’s closet, so really there’s no telling what I might unearth to share.

I’ve decided to start writing down the solutions to the various technical and computer questions I get asked. This is also a place to record the answers to questions I’m curious enough about to hunt down. The two sets of questions are definitely not the same but my hope is that the information will be useful to someone other than me. I have no intended direction for the writing and I will probably be surprised by the directions this takes in the future (If it takes off at all).

If you ever find anything here useful don’t hesitate to let me know. It might just motivate me to write more stuff. If you think you might have a computer question to stump me you are welcome to send me your questions as well. There is no guarantee I’ll answer a question. Writing this blog is done in my spare time mostly for my own enjoyment. If your question is an interesting one though I’m pretty likely to take a go at it.