How to search and insert special characters in a text on Mac? macOS has always allowed you to insert various special characters into text using keyboard shortcuts; Unicode characters are supported, a coding system for writing texts that allows various symbols to be entered and displayed independently of the language, the IT platform (macOS, Windows, etc.) and the program used.
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For the symbols that are used more often (e.g. the ©, the euro €, the Greek pi π) just remember a few simple keyboard combinations (Alt-c for the copyright symbol, Alt-e for the symbol euro, Alt-p for the Greek pi symbol, Alt-r for the “registered trademark” symbol, etc.) but there are so many special characters and it is impossible to memorize the various keyboard shortcuts for recalling various symbols. useful characters (e.g. ½, ¼, ∇, etc.) and diacritical marks.
macOS offers a very easy way to call up special characters/symbols and insert e.g. mathematical symbols, Latin characters and pictograms into text. Here’s how:
With macOS 12 Monterey and earlier, invoke System Preferences > Keyboard and select “Show Keyboard menu in menu bar” in the Input Sources panel.
With macOS 13 Ventura and following, call up System Settings and from here “Keyboard” (on the left column); in the “Enter text2” section click on “Edit” (to the right of “Input Sources”) and select the option “Show Keyboard menu in menu bar”).
At this point, a dedicated icon appears in the macOS menu bar from which we can recall “Show keyboard viewer” or “Show Emoji and symbols”; selecting the first option a virtual keyboard appears on the screen, from which it is possible to insert the desired symbol (holding down Alt the symbols change) with a simple click in the exact position of the active program at that moment; By selecting the second option, a window appears from which we can locate, select and insert (within the program active at that moment), the desired symbol.
The window that appears by selecting “Show emoji and symbols” can be expanded by clicking on the small icon at the top right of the window: further options appear with: frequently used symbols, Latin characters, brackets, pictograms, punctuation, currency symbols, etc. It is interesting to note the possibility of performing searches: if we write, for example, “euro” in the dedicated field: dedicated symbols appear; if we write “copyright”, three dedicated characters appear, etc.
If you are looking for something even more advanced than what macOS offers as standard, a dedicated (commercial) utility is PopChar X.