Anything like Key Caps in Tiger???

dave marshdave marsh
Posted:
in macOS edited January 2014
One of the utilities I used a lot in MacOS 9 was Key Caps. It was a convenient way to find that elusive symbol/character by simply selecting the font, then alternately pressing the command, shift, option keys in various combinations to find out which key combination gave you what you wanted.



Now we have the Font Book, but it doesn't have this feature. For example, I needed the heart symbol for a database update this weekend. I could see it was in Zapf Dingbats, but I had to go into Word, select the font, then start pressing all the keys in various combinations to find the heart symbol.



Can anyone identify a tool in MacOS X that has this MacOS 9 Key Caps functionality?

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 6
    kickahakickaha Posts: 8,760member
    Yup, it's been there all along, just buried:



    /System/Library/Components/KeyboardViewer.component/Contents/SharedSupport/KeyboardViewerServer



    Make an alias of that named KeyCaps and plop it wherever you wish.
  • Reply 2 of 6
    juha otusjuha otus Posts: 41member
    This works in older OSX:s too:



    Open System Preferences -> International -> Input Menu



    Then check Keyboard Viewer and/or Characher Palette.



    Voilá! Now you can open and close the keyboard viewer any time you want trough the Input menu. The Character Palette is better for finding rarely used symbols.
  • Reply 3 of 6
    kickahakickaha Posts: 8,760member
    Yup, I agree. I forgot about that, since the majority of the questions along this line in the last few years have been prefaced with "I hate the Input Menu...". Thanks for adding the obvious way.
  • Reply 4 of 6
    dave marshdave marsh Posts: 349member
    Thanks, I had forgotten about the International menu!
  • Reply 5 of 6
    placeboplacebo Posts: 5,767member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Juha Otus

    This works in older OSX:s too:



    Open System Preferences -> International -> Input Menu



    Then check Keyboard Viewer and/or Characher Palette.



    Voilá! Now you can open and close the keyboard viewer any time you want trough the Input menu. The Character Palette is better for finding rarely used symbols.



    An easier way:

  • Reply 6 of 6
    dave marshdave marsh Posts: 349member
    I didn't know about the Special Characters... item in the Finder Edit menu. Thanks.



    Does anyone know how to figure out the font/keyboard combination (option/control/shift) for symbols? The Character Pallet lets me insert the symbol directly, and seems to identify the font it comes from. However, when I switch over to the Keyboard Viewer and select the identified font, I can't find any combination that generates the symbol. In the above case, I was trying to insert a heart symbol into a database record. The Character Pallet said it was in Apple Symbols, but the Keyboard Viewer didn't display it. I eventually found it, by hit and miss (I thought it was in Zapf Dingbats, but I can't find it now), but now I've forgotten the font/keyboard combination and thought there must be a better way.
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