Another way to enter special characters

Feb 18, '11 07:30:00AM

Contributed by: traisjames

Today I saw a hint on using AppleScript and Automator to enter special symbols into a document.

That is fine if you need only a few special symbols, but I am a meteorology student, and almost every equation has almost every Greek symbol. Apple allows software re-mapping of keys, which you can do by hand, but there is also an application for doing that.

A freeware program called Ukelele gives you the option to do whatever you wish to your keyboard. All you have to do is click on a key on the screen then use the special characters window to enter in whatever symbol you want. It's tedious but once completed you don't have to change it again.

Unless you change the US keyboard, it is best to make a new keyboard, which you can then switch between in the menu bar as long as you check 'Show Input menu in menu bar' in System Preferences » Language & Text. You will need to go there anyway to enable your new keyboard.

Using this process I was able to set my keyboard so that when the caps lock is on, instead of yelling, it uses the Greek keyboard map for both lower and upper case. If the caps lock is on and I hold the option key down, then I get English layout. If caps lock is off but I hold down the option key, I get special math symbols I normally use such as ° ƒ × ∫ ∬ ∆ π, including an occasional important Greek letter. You are not limited to just one symbol though, you can have a key print off word or a string, though there seems to be a limit of 19 characters.

[crarko adds: I tested this, and it works as described. As a Mathematics major a long time ago in a galaxy far, far, away I remember the joys of trying to print all sorts of special characters longhand. I always felt badly for the poor people trying to grade those papers, although I later was one of them myself.]

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