special characters on mac keyboards

Posted:
in General Discussion edited January 2014
hi there,



i am currently running linux and windows on my machines. the thought of switching to apple has been around for quite some time now and i'm finally willing to buy an iBook for a start.



here's my question: where are such special characters as {, [, or even a simple backslash on macintosh keyboards?? i was quite surprised when i learned that these characters are missing, especially since i'm a heavy LaTeX user and therefore need them more than often.



there certainly must be some sort of explanation i guess?



thanks in advance!

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 5
    Quote:

    Originally posted by dotcommunist



    here's my question: where are such special characters as {, [, or even a simple backslash on macintosh keyboards??



    there certainly must be some sort of explanation i guess?



    thanks in advance!




    They are right next to the "p" (on a QWERTY keyboard).



    From left to right:

    Lower case is "[", upper case is "{"

    Lower case is "]", upper case is "}"

    Lower case is "\\", upper case is "|"
  • Reply 2 of 5
    oh really?



    i live in europe and bought a Mac QWERTZ keyboard which kind of sucks anyway (@ symbol ist tricky to type, as well as some other things that p*** me off).



    so i could just buy an iBook with QWERTY layout and i'll have those symbols? if so, great (but i'm really wondering why the hell they don't have them on the european keyboards...)



    thanks!
  • Reply 3 of 5
    Quote:

    Originally posted by dotcommunist

    oh really?



    i live in europe and bought a Mac QWERTZ keyboard which kind of sucks anyway (@ symbol ist tricky to type, as well as some other things that p*** me off).



    so i could just buy an iBook with QWERTY layout and i'll have those symbols? if so, great (but i'm really wondering why the hell they don't have them on the european keyboards...)



    thanks!




    I can't stand the European keyboard, expecially the size and shape of the "return" key. My sister's husband has a laptop with a European keyboard. When I visit her I'll look at the European keyboard on his 17" PowerBook.



    This is the layout on my iBook:



    Lower case



    ` 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 - = delete

    tab q w e r t y u i o p [ ] \\

    capslock a s d f g h j k l ; ' return

    shift z x c v b n m , . / shift



    Upper case



    ~ ! @ # $ % ^ & * ( ) _ +

    Q W E R T Y U I O P { } |

    A S D F G H J K L : "

    Z X C V B N M < > ?

  • Reply 4 of 5
    thanks a lot, you just cleared my path to getting started with a mac



    and i gotta get rid of that german keyboard asap... i don't see any reason why apple europe made the QWERTZ layout even worse by throwing characters out that are essential for people that actually work with their machines, i.e. do scripting and other stuff.
  • Reply 5 of 5
    progmacprogmac Posts: 1,850member
    not sure if this is relevent, but if you hold option+shift, you can get tons of characters. here is option+shift+every key on the keyboard



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