Keyboard and Character Palette options [was Re: Typing special characters]
Hi Lindsay, Simon has answered your question about some Unicode combinations. For non-English languages, it is possible to deal with the issue of typing special characters by switching to another input language keyboard. Alternatively, for accents and more common special characters, using the Option key in combination with the Control, Command, and Shift keys give many of the necessary characters. If I need to type special characters as part of names, I'll use the Option key method to generate accents: acute accent - Option-e grave accent - Option-accent sign (on an Engish input keyboard, this is the leftmost key below escape and above tab) circumflex accent - Option-i diaeresis - Option-u tilde - Option-n This group are dead keys. You need to type the accented letter after the Option+letter combination, so to type an e with an acute accent you press the Option+e keys, release, and then type the letter e. If your press Return without typing a letter, you simply get the accent mark. Other accents that are closely associated with particular letters are not dead keys; pressing the two key combination generates the special character: German eszett or sharp ess - Option-s Nordic slashed o - Option-o C with cedilla - Option-c oe ligature - Option-q For other special characters, the Mac provides a tool called the Character Palette. Although I use this, it is far less convenient than using modified keyboard inputs, so this was the incentive for figuring out ways to type common symbols without reverting to the Character Palette. What you would have to do to use the Character Palette is to open TextEdit and go to the Edit menu on the menu bar (VO-M, press E, and arrow down) and press s p quickly or use your arrow keys to navigate to the Special Characters menu option. I can describe how to use this, but I really think there may be better options, because the problem that I find using the Character Palette is that it's overkill -- there are too many options to easily use this mode for regular text entry. You don't just get the main IPA phonetic symbols, but absolutely every accented variety mingled into the same table that you have to navigate through. Your best shot is to go through and figure out the ones you'll really want, and save them as favorites, but you could just about use your web site and copy the characters into a personalized text file. (I assume you are going to: http://ipa.typeit.org/ to Type IPA symbols online.) A better alternative solution is to look for an input keyboard devised for IPA entry. I'm not a linguistics major, but my first reaction is that nobody who wanted to work efficiently with phonetic character input on a Mac would use the Character Palette on a regular basis. So I ran a Google search on Mac IPA keyboard, and sure enough there are pages that encode special IPA keyboards for the Mac. There are software tools that allow you to customize and add keyboards to your Mac. Then you can switch keyboards just as though you were switching to a different input language keyboard on your menu bar, and even define a shortcut sequence to use your alternate keyboard. Here's a page called IPA SIL keyboards for Mac OS X: http://scripts.sil.org/cms/SCRIPTs/page.php?site_id=nrsiitem_id=ipa-sil_keyboard I would take a look at this web page and the top level home page for links on using IPA fonts, and then try installing this keyboard. (Apparently, documentation on how to install the keyboard is included with the download files). There's also a site called: Using IPA fonts with Mac OS X: The Comprehensive Guide http://linguisticmystic.com/2007/03/08/using-ipa-fonts-with-mac-os-x-the-comprehensive-guide/ that came up as the second item on my Google Search. This looks like a good starting point for general information on using IPA fonts on the Mac, where you can go to get them (including the first linked site), how you install things, etc. Finally, as another alternative, you can try using TeX (through the TeXShop software interface), as Justin suggested. This word processor will certainly handle any special characters you throw at it -- it is multi-lingual, multi-platform, and accessible on the Mac, and linguistics folks are one of the groups that end up using this to handle the special characters. The main drawback is that there's a steep learning curve. Unless you're working in a field where this commonly used and perhaps even required for publishing professional papers, it's hard to get started and find answers for your special uses. Most fields will have specialized style files and packages that make using TeX simple for people using similar templates. What's hard is starting from scratch with no local expertise to draw upon. The installation and setup of the software isn't hard. HTH. Cheers, Esther Lindsay Yazzolino wrote: Hi Simon
Re: Typing special characters
Lindsay You should consider asking your linguistics teachers what they know about LaTeX and unicode. J On Sep 18, 2009, at 2:35 PM, Lindsay Yazzolino wrote: Hi, I am currently taking a linguistics course, and am wondering if it is possible to type Unicode characters using the Mac. Much of the coursework involves typing IPA symbols, and up until I have been using what I call the cheater method (copying and pasting symbols from a table online). I would much prefer to be able to type these symbols myself for the sake of efficiency and practicality, and would appreciate any input any of you may have. Thanks. Lindsay --~--~-~--~~~---~--~~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups MacVisionaries group. To post to this group, send email to macvisionaries@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to macvisionaries+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries?hl=en -~--~~~~--~~--~--~---
Typing special characters
Hi, I am currently taking a linguistics course, and am wondering if it is possible to type Unicode characters using the Mac. Much of the coursework involves typing IPA symbols, and up until I have been using what I call the cheater method (copying and pasting symbols from a table online). I would much prefer to be able to type these symbols myself for the sake of efficiency and practicality, and would appreciate any input any of you may have. Thanks. Lindsay --~--~-~--~~~---~--~~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups MacVisionaries group. To post to this group, send email to macvisionaries@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to macvisionaries+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries?hl=en -~--~~~~--~~--~--~---
Re: Typing special characters
Hi Lindsay, I have always been interested in the topic of special characters on account of my passion for foreign languages. I am going to paste some tips from Mac users on this list wiht the hope that it will help you. See below. I want to apologise for not ecknowledging the individual contributions to what I'm pasting below but I do not keep these personal details on file. Our list has got several members who are absolutely expert in a number of languages and they will I am sure happy to help further. Please remember that mac operating system has many keyboard layouts available which you can make active and then switch to them by using shortcut keys. This might be your answer. Forgive me if I am not understanding your needs here. With best wishes, Simon I'm starting a new thread, but this is also in response to Matt's question about the character palette window. This is a list of key combinations you can use to type special symbols on a regular Mac keyboard with the option key. It should work on any of Apple's English language input keyboards, except the default currency symbols are different for British keyboards (as noted). To compose similar lists for keyboards in other languages, open TextEdit, hold down the option key, and try out various combinations of Shift, Command, and Fn while you press keys on your keyboard. This is a by-product of figuring out ways to type accents for other languages -- both with and without changing input language keyboards. It's not an exhaustive list. This was assembled using a U.S. English input (laptop) keyboard, so all numbers are typed on the top row keys of the keyboard (no numpad entries). Using these combinations, you can type in TextEdit and Mail and largely avoid having to use the character palette window. Special Symbols and Characters on the regular Mac Keyboard Categories: 1. Currency Symbols 2. Trademark and Copyright Symbols 3. Apple Symbol 4. Math and Greek Character Symbols 5. Copyediting, typesetting, and miscellaneous symbols 6. Punctuation marks: right and left quotation marks for English and other languages; inverted punctuation marks for Spanish Each entry gives the symbol followed by the descriptive name and the keyboard combination to press for the symbol. Additional comments about context for symbol usage may follow (in parentheses). Currency Symbols (in addition to $ = Shift+4) ¢ centsOption+4 £ poundOption+3 (on a British keyboard Option+3 is # -- the number or hash sign that is Shift+3 on U.S. keyboards, while Shift+3 is the pound sign) ¥ yen Option+y € Euro Option+Shift+2 (on a British keyboard this is Option+2) Trademark and Copyright Symbols © copyrightOption+g ® registered Option+r ™ trademark Option+2 Apple Symbol appleOption+Shift+K Math and Greek Character Symbols ± plus-or-minusOption+Shift+Equals (Shift+Equals is plus) µ micro sign Option+m (Greek letter mu), units of microns π pi Option+p (Greek letter pi) √ square root Option+v ÷ divided by Option+/ (slash is key to left of right-hand shift key) · middle dot Option+Shift+9 (sign for multiplication) ≈ almost equals Option+x ≠ not equals Option+= (equals is key to right of delete key) ∞ infinityOption+5 ≤ less than or equal Option+comma (Shift+comma is the less than sign) ≥ greater than or equal Option+period (Shift+period is greater than) Å Angstrom sign Option+Shift+a (units of Angstroms) ∑ summation sign Option+w ° degree sign Option+Shift+8 ∂ partial differentialOption+d (calculus) ∫ integralOption+b (calculus) Copyediting, typesetting, and miscellaneous symbols ‡ double dagger Option+Shift+7 (used for footnotes) ¶ pilcrow signOption+7 (marks paragraphs) § section signOption+6 (marks sections) • bullet sign Option+8 (marks list items) Punctuation marks: right and left quotation marks for English and other languages; inverted punctuation marks for Spanish ‘ left single quotation mark Option+right bracket ’ right single quotation mark Option+Shift+right bracket “ left double quotation mark Option+left bracket ” right double quotation mark Option+Shift+left bracket « left pointing double angle quotation mark Option+backslash » right pointing double angle quotation mark Option+Shift+backslash ‹ single left pointing angle quotation mark Option+Shift+3 › single right pointing angle quotation mark Option+Shift+4 ¡ inverted exclamation mark Option+1 ¿ inverted question mark Option+Shift+slash (Shift+/ is question mark) … ellipsis Option+semi-colon On 18 Sep 2009, at 22:35, Lindsay Yazzolino wrote: Hi, I am currently taking a linguistics course, and am wondering if it is possible to type Unicode characters using the Mac. Much
Re: Typing special characters
Hi Simon and List, Thank you for the information. The reason I asked about the Unicode values is that I have a table with the IPA symbols and their Unicode equivalents. With a PC, I know that typing Unicode characters is possible, and because many of these symbols are not commonly used in other languages, it would be very nice to be able to quickly type them. Thanks. On 9/18/09, Simon Cavendish simon.cavend...@googlemail.com wrote: Hi Lindsay, I have always been interested in the topic of special characters on account of my passion for foreign languages. I am going to paste some tips from Mac users on this list wiht the hope that it will help you. See below. I want to apologise for not ecknowledging the individual contributions to what I'm pasting below but I do not keep these personal details on file. Our list has got several members who are absolutely expert in a number of languages and they will I am sure happy to help further. Please remember that mac operating system has many keyboard layouts available which you can make active and then switch to them by using shortcut keys. This might be your answer. Forgive me if I am not understanding your needs here. With best wishes, Simon I'm starting a new thread, but this is also in response to Matt's question about the character palette window. This is a list of key combinations you can use to type special symbols on a regular Mac keyboard with the option key. It should work on any of Apple's English language input keyboards, except the default currency symbols are different for British keyboards (as noted). To compose similar lists for keyboards in other languages, open TextEdit, hold down the option key, and try out various combinations of Shift, Command, and Fn while you press keys on your keyboard. This is a by-product of figuring out ways to type accents for other languages -- both with and without changing input language keyboards. It's not an exhaustive list. This was assembled using a U.S. English input (laptop) keyboard, so all numbers are typed on the top row keys of the keyboard (no numpad entries). Using these combinations, you can type in TextEdit and Mail and largely avoid having to use the character palette window. Special Symbols and Characters on the regular Mac Keyboard Categories: 1. Currency Symbols 2. Trademark and Copyright Symbols 3. Apple Symbol 4. Math and Greek Character Symbols 5. Copyediting, typesetting, and miscellaneous symbols 6. Punctuation marks: right and left quotation marks for English and other languages; inverted punctuation marks for Spanish Each entry gives the symbol followed by the descriptive name and the keyboard combination to press for the symbol. Additional comments about context for symbol usage may follow (in parentheses). Currency Symbols (in addition to $ = Shift+4) ¢ cents Option+4 £ pound Option+3 (on a British keyboard Option+3 is # -- the number or hash sign that is Shift+3 on U.S. keyboards, while Shift+3 is the pound sign) ¥ yenOption+y € Euro Option+Shift+2 (on a British keyboard this is Option+2) Trademark and Copyright Symbols © copyright Option+g ® registered Option+r ™ trademark Option+2 Apple Symbol apple Option+Shift+K Math and Greek Character Symbols ± plus-or-minus Option+Shift+Equals (Shift+Equals is plus) µ micro sign Option+m (Greek letter mu), units of microns π piOption+p (Greek letter pi) √ square root Option+v ÷ divided byOption+/ (slash is key to left of right-hand shift key) · middle dotOption+Shift+9 (sign for multiplication) ≈ almost equals Option+x ≠ not equalsOption+= (equals is key to right of delete key) ∞ infinity Option+5 ≤ less than or equalOption+comma (Shift+comma is the less than sign) ≥ greater than or equal Option+period (Shift+period is greater than) Å Angstrom sign Option+Shift+a (units of Angstroms) ∑ summation sign Option+w ° degree sign Option+Shift+8 ∂ partial differential Option+d (calculus) ∫ integral Option+b (calculus) Copyediting, typesetting, and miscellaneous symbols ‡ double dagger Option+Shift+7 (used for footnotes) ¶ pilcrow sign Option+7 (marks paragraphs) § section sign Option+6 (marks sections) • bullet sign Option+8 (marks list items) Punctuation marks: right and left quotation marks for English and other languages; inverted punctuation marks for Spanish ‘ left single quotation markOption+right bracket ’ right single quotation mark Option+Shift+right bracket “ left double quotation markOption+left bracket ” right double quotation mark Option+Shift+left bracket « left pointing double angle quotation mark Option+backslash » right pointing
