Special characters
Add some personality to your typing with emoji and more
Go further >>> With careful planning, OS X’s text replacement system is hugely useful, but it has drawbacks – notably, some shortcuts taking time to become active (sometimes requiring an app restart), and limitations to formatting and content. If you feel restricted, try TypeIt4Me (£14.99, ettoresoftware.com), which enables images, advanced formatting, markup and macros, with better tools for managing snippets. autocorrect >>> Under Text in the Keyboard preferences pane are options for activating spelling correction (which defaults to automatic by language). In many apps, you may have to manually turn on spelling correction: go to Edit > Spelling and Grammar, and activate the relevant options (Check Spelling While Typing and Correct Spelling Automatically). character viewers >>> These tips explore OS X’s character viewers, which make it easier to find all sorts of exotic glyphs to insert into any text.In System Preferences > Keyboard > Input Sources, turn on “Show input menu in menu bar” to add an icon you can click to open the Emoji & Symbols window or the Keyboard Viewer. Favorites >>> If there are symbols you want faster access to, you have two options. First, those you use often are collected under Frequently Used (this can be cleared). Or build a favorites list: select any symbol and click Add to Favorites. This may seem like more work, but it’s beneficial with the pop-over version of this window. Emoji & Symbols >>> Choose Show Emoji & Symbols from the menu bar icon. The Characters window is displayed as a floating window belonging to the app you opened it from (several instances can exist, each from a different app and in different places on the screen). Select a category to filter the list, or use Search to find one, such as “phone” emoji or the letter “eth”). Pop-over >>> If you click the button in the top right corner of the Characters window, it collapses into a simpler form, with a search field at the top, then frequently used and favorite symbols. Access categories by clicking icons at the foot of the window. You can access this windows from many apps using
≈+ç+ Space.