10.5: Restore a missing Character Palette

Dec 06, '07 07:30:00AM

Contributed by: Giorgio Piras

For some unknown reason, the international data caches can get corrupted and prevent Character Palette and Keyboard Viewer from appearing on the Input tab of the International System Preferences pane. This also breaks the Special Characters entry in the Edit menu of many applications, including the Finder, Safari, and Text Edit.

If this happens to you, go to System/Library/Caches folder and trash the following files (don't worry, they will be re-created when you restart your Mac):

You will be asked for an administrator ID and password, as you're deleting system-owned files. If you don't have an administrator ID and password, ask the system manager in your office. After you authorize the action, the files will be trashed. Now restart your Mac.

Open System Preferences, open the International pane, and click the Input menu. You will find that the Character Palette and Keyboard Viewer items are once again present with their chechboxes. Click the two checkboxes. Be sure to also check Show The Keyboard Menu In The Menu Bar at the bottom of the pane. Exit System Preferences.

The Edit » Special Characters menu item in applications that have this item will also now work as expected, and will open the Character Palette when selected.

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