Whether you have just 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 hither to assist.

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

American and United kingdom keyboards have a number of surprising differences. Australians tend to apply the American keyboard layout.

One other source of confusion is the fact that some Mac keyboards characterization the Alt key Option while others call the Option key Alt (depending on your view signal). This ways that some guides you will read will talk about an Option or Alt fundamental you can't see on your Mac. The fundamental is i and the same. See Where is the Option primal.

Mac vs PC keyboard compared

How to type °$€@®©# £€¢™ and Æ

That'south not a curtained swear word! Those are all symbols that you may find yourself needing to type again and once again, and yet they are hidden from view on your Mac keyboard. Don't worry though, we'll let you know what you demand to exercise to blazon them.

Before we begin, this is a handy overview of the subconscious characters that yous can type using Alt (the keys might be a bit different if you aren't using a United kingdom keyboard).

Mac keyboard shortcuts: Alt key

Æ

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

If y'all want to type Æ just press and hold the A central. You'll run across a range of options appear in a box - only select the one you want or printing 5.

€

For obvious reasons European keyboard give more prominence to the Euro sign - it'south constitute on the E key. Only on Uk and Usa keyboard layout the € is in a different location. In fact the location of the € on a UK Mac keyboard is different to its location on a United states keyboard, merely to confuse matters!

On a Great britain keyboard to type € yous should printing:

  • Alt/Option-ii = €

On a United states of america keyboard to type € you need to printing:

  • Alt/Option-Shift-two = €

#

This is another sign where typing it volition depend on the keyboard. If you are in the United kingdom the hashtag sign shares the 3 primal with the pound sign (£) but on other country's keyboards the UK £ sign is found else where (we'll get to that side by side).

On a UK keyboard to type # you should press:

  • Alt/Choice-iii = #

On a U.s.a. keyboard to type # you demand simply press:

  • Shift-3 = #

£

We'll mention the UK Pound sign here for everyone who is using a non-UK keyboard as it's location on a Britain keyboard is no mystery (ok - if you are still looking it's on the iii central).

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

  • Alt/Option-3 = £

An piece of cake mode to remember how to type a # or £ depending on where y'all live is to note that both symbols are referred to as a pound sign. Then if you lot encounter 1 or other on the primal and so pressing Alt/Option volition result in the other key.

$ and ¢

$ is obvious, only what near ¢?

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

  • Alt/Option-4 = ¢

@

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

On a UK or US keyboard you'll detect the @ central on the 2 key and the " fundamental will be down on the right where the ' key is located. To us Mac users this layout makes more sense, we can't imagine why the " and ' would be separated by an expanse of keyboard.

  • Shift-2 = @

© ® and ™

The diverse copyright and trademark signs can exist usually used in sure lines of work. Luckily there is an like shooting fish in a barrel way to type them on a Mac keyboard.

You might recollect that logically the Copyright sign would exist subconscious on the C key, just you'd exist wrong. The C key is the domicile of diverse absolute Cs. If you desire to type a © you demand to press Alt/Option and G.

  • Alt/Option-G = ©

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

  • Alt/Pick-R = ®

As for the ™ how you type depends on the keyboard:

On a Great britain keyboard to type ™ you should printing:

  • Shift-Alt/Option-2 = ™

On a Us keyboard to type ™ you need to press:

  • Alt/Option-2 = ™

Degrees

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

  • Shift-Alt/Pick–viii = °

You might wonder what circumstances would cause you to need to blazon an Apple logo, but with Apple naming a few products with the Apple symbol if might exist that you need to type TV or Watch. If you do, the primal combination is as follows:

  • Shift-Alt/Selection-Thou

Read: How to type  on an iPhone.

A check mark or tick

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

  • Option/Alt-5 = √

Other keys

There are a few keys that are hidden in plain sight. We'll mention them here simply in case you are struggling to find them:

~ (aka the Tilde sign) - Information technology'due south on the left by the Shift key
/ - on the right by the Shift key
\ - on the right to a higher place the Shift key
| - printing shift and \

Typing accents on a Mac keyboard

If you are trying to type accents on an English keyboard if can exist a fleck daunting - if y'all 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 all you need to do is press and hold the relevant central. When you practice so a menu will appear with the various absolute characters to choose from.

For instance, if you press and hold the East key then y'all will eventually encounter this card popular up. You tin choose the version with your pointer, or by pressing the corresponding number.

Type Accent Keys Mac Keyboard

Y'all'll find accents associated with the post-obit keys: e, y, u, i, o, a, s, fifty, z, c, n.

Typing emoji on a Mac

You might think that emoji are restricted to iPhones and iPads, but they aren't. It's possible to access emoji on your Mac. When you are using a word processor or similar program you can press Control-Command-Space to bring upward 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 y'all could expand to find various characters to be added to text documents. It predated Emoji and since Emoji arrived it seems to have been hidden away, but it'due south nevertheless at that place.

As in a higher place, press Command-Command-Infinite to bring up the Emoji pallet then click on the icon in the top correct of the Emoji box to bring up the Character Viewer. Here y'all'll find more than Emoji: there are also Arrows, other currency symbols, Maths Symbols, and more.

This is where yous volition find currency symbols such every bit ¥ ¢ ₽ ₩ ₱ ₹ ﷼

Maths symbols such every bit xxx ∄ 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 use the Keyboard Viewer.

  1. To get the Keyboard Viewer to appear you lot outset need to go to Arrangement Preferences and choose Keyboard.
  2. Then tick the box beside Show keyboard and emoji viewers in carte bar.
  3. Now you'll see an icon in the menu bar (it includes a Command icon). If yous click on it, you lot will run across options to Show Emoji & Symbols and Bear witness Keyboard Viewer.
  4. Cull Show Keyboard Viewer.
  5. When y'all press the shift and pick keys you will see the various options available to y'all. You lot tin can merely click on the cardinal every bit seen on the keyboard on screen.

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

Keyboard Viewer Mac

If yous find yourself using unlike characters often y'all might like to effort an app similar PopChar X from Ergonis. The app makes it really easy to access the diverse characters that are available in the unlike fonts on your Mac. You can purchase it hither for €29.99.

Wondering how to copy and paste on a Mac?