How to Add Special Characters on Mac and Other Cheats

There may be times when you want to add special characters while writing a report or creating an invoice, or during a random chat on Mac. macOS supports all types of special characters, but they are hidden in the operating system. Apple has added a variety of arrows, bullets, currency symbols, Latin words, math symbols, punctuation, and more. Better still, macOS also lets you search for fonts from settings and add them as favorites for easy access.

I mostly use different currency symbols when talking to clients and writing budget proposals for them. Students will also appreciate the inclusion of a menu of degrees sign, Celsius, Fahrenheit and more symbols. Most math symbols are already integrated into the keyboard. Still, the symbols menu continues with the addition of special math characters such as subset, increment, integral extension, addition, division, and more.

In this article, we will talk about how to add special characters on Mac and other tricks for the keyboard. We’ll also talk about how you can create shortcut words to apply special characters in macOS. Useful when you use certain characters more often. Lets start.

Use Edit Menu

macOS offers a standard menu bar at the top for all apps. It doesn’t matter which app you are currently using, the top file is File, Edit, View, Format, Note, etc. the menu remains standard at the top.

Follow the steps below to add special characters on macOS.

Stage 1: When you want to add a special character, you can go to the Edit menu.

Step 2: Scroll down to Emoji & Symbols. Tap on it and it will open the Emoji & Symbols menu.

Stage 3: By default, it will open the Emoji menu. Double tap the emoji icon to add them and there are two ways to add them for special characters.

You can use the sub-menu, which is arranged regularly with different emoji menus and character styles, as you wish. Better still, you can tap on the emoji section in the upper right corner and open the detailed menu of emoji and symbols.

It is neatly divided into Emoji, Arrows, Bullets, Currency Symbols, Latin words, Math Symbols and more. I’m sure you’ll find what you’re looking for.

There are hundreds of special characters and symbols. Sometimes it can be very difficult for the user to find the perfect symbol they are looking for.

Apple has added several ways to easily access the most used special characters. On Mac, you can view the Favorites menu from the Character Viewer to see the symbols you use the most. Users can select a symbol and select the ‘Add to Favorites’ menu from the side menu. This option will create a separate Favorites menu in the sidebar and emoji menu.

From the Character Viewer menu, you can use the search bar to find the special character you are looking for. It works flawlessly. For example, you can simply type ‘Euro’ in the search bar and it will come back with results for Latin words (Hey, useful if you’re learning a new language) as well as the Euro currency and European country flags. I mostly use the search bar as it’s quick and efficient compared to navigating through most sections of the Character Viewer menu.

Use Keyboard Shortcuts

You don’t have to go to Edit > Emoji & Symbols every time to use the menu. You can easily master the ‘Control + Command + Space’ keyboard shortcut to open the Emoji and Symbol menu.

Keyword alphabetic keys also work as a great way to add special characters on Mac. Use S, E, I, N, etc. to reveal the drop-down menu with numbers and symbols. You can long press the keys.

You can also memorize some keyboard shortcuts to quickly insert some special characters while typing. Below are some examples of such keyboard shortcuts.

Option + R = Registered Mark (®)

Option + P = Pie symbol (π)

Option + W = Addition Sign (∑)

Option + G = Copyright symbol (©)

And more!

Customize Keyboard Text

I always use this. I’ve created a text shortcut for some of my most used special characters and symbols.

On a Mac, open the System Preference menu and go to the Keyboard > Text menu. By default, you will see ‘omw’ for I’m On My Way! to express. You can use the same menu to convert text to a symbol or special character.

Tap on the ‘+’ icon below and type in the modified expression. I added a word ‘Degree’ here and set the system to replace it with the degree symbol. So the next time I wanted to add the ° symbol, I would type the word degree and the system would replace it with the symbol. You can create many short phrases to replace them with symbols and special characters.

Color Your Text With Special Characters

Adding a special character to Mac is quick and easy. You can always master the keyboard shortcuts to add these symbols on the go. My favorite is to create a text shortcut so it doesn’t break the typing flow.

Next: You can also add Special Characters while working in Google Docs. Read the post below to learn how to add them to Google Docs.