How to Add Spe­cial Char­ac­ters in Apple Pages

Emojis and Add Spe­cial Char­ac­ters in Apple Pages. If you knew the right keys to press, Apple has long concealed this wealth of diacritical marks and other special characters as keyboard add-ons. Some third-party keyboards display these as reminders; we own a Matias Quiet Pro keyboard that has all the options printed on the keys.

But since I’ve been using touch typist for a long time, we hardly ever look at the keys, so it’s not very helpful. By going to the Keyboard system preferences pane and selecting Show Keyboard, Emoji, & Symbol Viewers in Menu Bar, you can also bring up Keyboard Viewer, which is the contemporary equivalent of Key Caps for old-timers. 

Then, using a strange little system menu bar item with a Command key inside of it, you can choose Keyboard Viewer. Keep Option, Shift, and Option-Shift pressed to preview the characters that are generated. Additionally, at the text-insertion point, you can click keys to add them to the running programme.

Steps to Add Spe­cial Char­ac­ters in Apple Pages

• Press and hold the letter on your keyboard that you want to add an accent to (works on iPhone/iPad too)
  • Click the special character you want or choose it with the associated number with your keyboard
  • The letter accent menu won’t show up if there aren’t any options available
  • Some apps may not support letter accents
• And you can use special character keyboard shortcuts
  • Open System Preferences > Keyboard > Input Sources
    • Press and hold option on the keyboard to see some of the special characters (e.g. option + p = π)
    • Press and hold option + shift on the keyboard to see more special characters (e.g. option + shift + k = )
    • Another way to use these is dead keys
    • Now you can start to memorize the keyboard shortcuts for these
  • You can also click the check at the bottom of Input Sources to add it to your menu bar for quick access, then choose Keyboard Viewer or Show Emoji & Symbols

FAQ

How do you type special characters?

Press and hold ALT while entering the character code to insert an ASCII character. For instance, type 0176 on the numeric keypad while holding down ALT to insert the degree (o) symbol. The numeric keypad, not the keyboard, must be used to enter numbers.

How do you put accents on letters on a Mac?

Press and hold a letter key on the keyboard, like a, in an app to bring up the accent menu. If a key doesn’t have any potential accent marks, the menu is not displayed. Choose a character from the menu, like á.

Where is Alt key on Mac?

On a Mac keyboard, the Alt Key is the third key from the left. The key won’t do anything if you press it on its own because it can’t execute a system command. However, when combined with other keys, you can quickly access hidden special characters and functions.

How do I get Symbols on my Mac?

In an app on your Mac, choose Edit > Emoji & Symbols to open the Character Viewer, or open it from the Input menu. (if available on the keyboard).