Ask Dave Taylor
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Linkedin
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Home
  • Videos
  • Most Popular
  • Top Categories
  • Books
  • About Dave
  • Ask Me
  • > Donate <
  • Home
  • Mac & MacOS Help
  • Easy Way to Type Diacritics and Special Characters on a Mac?

Easy Way to Type Diacritics and Special Characters on a Mac?

June 29, 2020 / Dave Taylor / Mac & MacOS Help / No Comments

I work with a lot of companies in different parts of the EU and am baffled about how to easily type in people’s names and related on my Mac. I know that Option-n “n” gets me the tilde on an “n” but I don’t want to remember a dozen option key sequences! Help!

Every computer operating system has that same challenge understanding multiple languages. If you were using your Mac in Spanish with a Spanish keyboard, then an enye would be easy and would be a key on your keyboard. Señor would be a breeze to type. But need an acute or grave accent, want to add a cedilla or umlaut or even use an eszett and it’s quite a bit more complicated. Which sidesteps the way more complex issue of non-Latin languages like Russian, Chinese or Thai.

But let’s focus on the languages of the nations that comprise the European Union so we don’t go too far into the weeds! 🙂

You are correct that the MacOS X system supports typing in specific option key sequences which will then apply a diacritic to the subsequent character typed if it makes sense – so option-n n gets you an eñe character – but that’s a pain. Instead, you can try something that I believe is relatively new in MacOS: Push and hold down a character on the keyboard and select from the pop-up list of diacritic variations that appear in a pop-up!

For example, I want to type in the city Sáo Paolo. So here I am in Pages, poised to type the “á”:

macos x - type diacritic accent grave - demo

Oops, already typed in the “a”, but now I want to back up and type the letter again, but this time I’m going to push and hold down that ‘a’ key for a second or two. A tiny window pops up:

macos x - type diacritic accent grave - a diacriticals

Did you know there were that many variations on the letter ‘a’ in various languages? You can click on the correct variation, but what’s more cool is that you can also just type the corresponding number too, so ‘2’ turns that ‘a’ into the correct character!

This works with the ‘n’ key too:

macos x - type diacritic accent grave - enye eñe n

And, of course, also with the eszsett in German too, by holding down the ‘s’ key:

eszett type character german mac keyboard english

If you’re typing French and need to use the cedilla, that’s covered too, with the ‘c’ key:

french cedille type in mac macos

Once you realize this feature exists on the Mac, you’ll never look back and you’ll be proud of how polylingual you are with your typing, getting every accent and diacritic correct, whether you’re in email, a text message or a more formal document:

mac text, lots of diacritics special characters typed in

And those more complex character sets like Russian’s Cyrillic? You can start by adding a keyboard for that language in the “Keyboard” System Preferences. Start by clicking on the “+” on the lower left and you can choose Cyrillic from the many (many!) options shown:

macos x add cyrillic russian keyboard language

As you can see in the lower right, it completely remaps your English language keyboard for all the Cyrillic letters, which you can then switch to as needed.

Languages like Arabic, Thai and Chinese are more complicated and beyond the scope of this piece. Doable, but complicated!

Pro Tip: I’ve been writing about the Mac system since way before it was running something called Mac OS 9. Please check out my extensive Mac Help with tons of useful tutorials while you’re here. Thanks!

Let’s Stay In Touch!

Never miss a single article, review or tutorial here on AskDaveTaylor, sign up for my fun weekly newsletter!
Name: 
Your email address:*
Please enter all required fields
Correct invalid entries
No spam, ever. Promise. Powered by FeedBlitz
Please choose a color:
Starbucks coffee cup I do have a lot to say, and questions of my own for that matter, but first I'd like to say thank you, Dave, for all your helpful information by buying you a cup of coffee!
accents, diacrtiics, language support, mac french, mac german, mac keyboard, mac language support, mac spanish, special characters

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Search

Recent Posts

  • How Can I Easily Create My Own Playlist on Spotify?
  • How Can I Prevent Remote Access to my Windows PC?
  • The Easy Way to Add Contacts to my New Android Phone?
  • How Can I Hide or Report An Offensive Advert on Facebook?
  • Switch “Paste” & “Paste and Match Style” Keyboard Shortcuts on MacOS?

On Our YouTube Channel

AUKEY Omnia 100W + Minima 20W Power Chargers -- DEMO & REVIEW

Roborock S6 MaxV Robot Vacuum Cleaner -- DEMO & REVIEW

Categories

  • AdSense, AdWords, and PPC Help (106)
  • Amazon Echo & Kindle Help (79)
  • Amazon, eBay, and Online Shopping Help, (157)
  • Android Help (160)
  • Apple Watch Help (49)
  • Articles, Tutorials, and Reviews (327)
  • Business Advice (192)
  • Computer & Internet Basics (721)
  • d) None of the Above (160)
  • Facebook Help (365)
  • Google, Chrome & Gmail Help (157)
  • HTML & Web Page Design (244)
  • Instagram Help (44)
  • iPad Help (137)
  • iPhone & iOS Help (571)
  • iPod & MP3 Player Help (173)
  • LinkedIn Help (79)
  • Linux Help (149)
  • Linux Shell Script Programming (86)
  • Mac & MacOS Help (833)
  • Most Popular (10)
  • Outlook & Office 365 Help (10)
  • PayPal Help (68)
  • Pinterest Help (53)
  • Reddit Help (12)
  • SEO & Marketing (80)
  • Spam, Scams & Security (84)
  • Trade Show News & Updates (23)
  • Twitter Help (212)
  • Video Game Tips (66)
  • Web Site Traffic Tips (62)
  • Windows 10 Help (831)
  • Wordpress Help (201)
  • Writing and Publishing (72)
  • YouTube Help (43)
  • YouTube Video Reviews (159)
  • Zoom, Skype & Video Chat Help (42)

Archives

Social Connections:

Ask Dave Taylor


Follow Me on Pinterest
Follow me on Twitter
Follow me on LinkedIn
Follow me on Instagram


AskDaveTaylor on Facebook



microsoft insider mvp


This web site is for the purpose of disseminating information for educational purposes, free of charge, for the benefit of all visitors. We take great care to provide quality information. However, we do not guarantee, and accept no legal liability whatsoever arising from or connected to, the accuracy, reliability, currency or completeness of any material contained on this site or on any linked site. Further, please note that by submitting a question or comment you're agreeing to our terms of service, which are: you relinquish any subsequent rights of ownership to your material by submitting it on this site. Our lawyer says "Thanks for your cooperation."
© 2020 by Dave Taylor. "Ask Dave Taylor®" is a registered trademark of Intuitive Systems, LLC.
Privacy Policy - Terms and Conditions - Accessibility Policy