How to Type Special Characters on Mac: Symbols and Accents

You need a euro sign or an accented name, but the symbol isn’t printed on your keyboard. To type special characters on Mac, start with Character Viewer for an occasional symbol.

If you want a shortcut you’ll use often, Keyboard Viewer shows the keys for your active layout.

TL;DR

Use Character Viewer to search and insert symbols, emoji, and accents.

• Open it with Control-Command-Space or Edit > Emoji & Symbols.
• For keyboard-layout characters, open Keyboard Viewer from the Input menu.
• Hold Option or Shift to see available key combinations.

The settings paths below follow Apple’s macOS 27 documentation. Older releases may arrange Keyboard settings differently.

Your selected input source, such as ABC, U.S., or British, matters more to symbol positions than whether you’re using a MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, or desktop Mac.

Insert a symbol with Character Viewer

Character Viewer lets you choose a character without memorizing its keyboard position. Use it for currency signs, accented letters, math symbols, or emoji, especially when a shortcut from another keyboard layout produces the wrong character.

1. Click in the document, message, or text field where the symbol should appear.
2. Choose Edit > Emoji & Symbols. You can also press Control-Command-Space. Apple’s current guide also documents Fn-E or Globe-E on keyboards with that key.
3. Use the viewer’s search field or browse its categories to find the character. If you only see a compact picker, use its upper-right control to expand it.
4. Click the character to insert it. In the expanded Character Viewer, double-click it instead.
5. Check the result in your actual text, including whether an uppercase or lowercase letter was inserted.

The Character Viewer instructions distinguish the compact and expanded views. If the keyboard shortcut is intercepted by an app or has been changed, use the app’s Edit menu where available.

The Mac keyboard shortcuts reference also lists Control-Command-Space for the viewer.

Character Viewer and Keyboard Viewer have different purposes. The first inserts characters from a collection. The second shows what your current keyboard layout can produce, including characters behind Option and Shift.

Copy a common character or look for it by name

If you need a character once, you can select it from the table, copy it with Command-C, and paste it into your text with Command-V.

The names help you identify what you’re looking for in Character Viewer. They aren’t a promise that every app uses the same search wording.

Character	What to look for	Check before using it
€	Euro sign	Use the currency sign rather than a similar-looking letter.
£	Pound sign	Its key position depends on the input source.
$	Dollar sign	Keep the currency context clear in the surrounding text.
@	At sign	Verify the result when entering an address.
#	Number sign or hash	Check your active layout before relying on a printed key.
©	Copyright sign	Copy the symbol itself if you don’t need a recurring shortcut.
®   ™	Registered sign and trademark sign	These are different characters.
Æ   æ	Uppercase and lowercase AE	Choose the case the word requires.
°	Degree sign	Use the degree sign rather than a superscript zero.
×   ÷   ±	Multiplication, division, and plus-minus signs	Choose the mathematical character your expression needs.
√   ∞   ≠	Square root, infinity, and not equal to	For a formatted equation, your app may also have an equation editor.

For frequent use, find the key combination with Keyboard Viewer rather than memorizing an unlabelled shortcut table. That keeps the instruction tied to the layout you’re actually using.

Find the right keys with Keyboard Viewer

A keyboard layout, called an input source in macOS, decides which characters the keys produce.

The printed keycaps may differ from the selected source, particularly on an external keyboard or a Mac set up for another country.

1. Open Apple menu > System Settings > Keyboard.
2. Under Text Input, click Edit and turn on Show Input menu in menu bar if it isn’t already available.
3. Open the Input menu in the menu bar and check the selected source. Choose Show Keyboard Viewer.
4. Hold Shift, then Option, then both together. Watch the onscreen labels change.
5. When you see the character you need, use the matching physical key with those modifiers, or click its onscreen key. Check the output in your text.

The Keyboard Viewer procedure applies to the selected source. If the character doesn’t appear there, use Character Viewer instead. Don’t keep adding modifier keys at random or change several keyboard settings to obtain one symbol.

ABC, U.S., and British layouts

Inspect the map for your active input source in Keyboard Viewer: ABC, U.S., or British, for example. A shortcut from one layout may produce a different character on another.

This matters for symbols such as £, €, #, and @. You don’t need to switch to a different country’s layout just to insert one of them.

Character Viewer provides another route while you keep the layout you normally use.

If you deliberately change the input source for a comparison, note the original and switch back afterward. Otherwise, the next password, address, or document may contain different characters from the ones you expected.

Type accents with a held letter or a key sequence

For an occasional accented letter, press and hold its base letter in the app where you’re writing. If that letter has available accents and the app supports the feature, an accent menu appears.

1. Press and hold a letter, such as a.
2. Click the accented character you want, or press the number shown beneath it.
3. You can also move through the choices with the arrow keys and press Space to select one.

If no menu appears, the key may have no accent choices, or the app may not support accent entry this way. Use Character Viewer for the letter instead.

Don’t assume holding A will always offer Æ, since the available choices are conditional.

For repeated accented typing, a dead key enters an accent before the letter. With the ABC keyboard layout, for example, press Option-N, release the keys, then press a to enter ã.

This is a sequence, rather than holding every key at once.

The accent-entry instructions give that ABC example. Keyboard Viewer outlines available dead keys in orange when you hold the relevant modifier. Check there before applying the example to another layout.

Add or switch input sources when you write in another language

Adding an input source is useful when you regularly write in another language. It’s more work than you need for a single euro sign. Keep your existing source available so you can return to it.

1. Open System Settings > Keyboard > Text Input > Edit.
2. Use the add control, search for the language, and select the input source you need.
3. Click Add, then choose that source from the Input menu when you want to use it.
4. Open Keyboard Viewer to check the new layout. Choose your original source again when you’re finished.

The input-source guide also lets you preview a source in Text Input settings. Select it in the sidebar and hold Option, Shift, or both to inspect its character map before using it.

Make the Globe key open emoji and symbols

A single press of Fn or Globe doesn’t always open the symbol picker. That key can be assigned another action, including changing the input source. You can choose the behavior you want in Keyboard settings.

1. Open System Settings > Keyboard.
2. Find the Press fn key to or Press Globe key to pop-up menu, depending on the keyboard.
3. Choose Show Emoji & Symbols, then press the key and check the result in a text field.

This changes what that key does, so choose another method if you depend on its current action. The Keyboard settings reference separates this control from Text Input settings.

It opens Character Viewer, rather than an onscreen keyboard layout.

Keep quotes and other punctuation in the form you need

If a straight quote becomes a curly quote after you type it, check smart punctuation before blaming the keyboard layout. Smart quotes convert straight quotation marks into typographical ones in supported apps.

For the system setting, open System Settings > Keyboard > Text Input > Edit and review Use smart quotes and dashes. Choose the setting your work needs.

Some apps also provide Edit > Substitutions controls, and these features aren’t available in every app.

The text and punctuation settings explain the available conversions. For text that must keep exact punctuation, check the final characters in the destination app rather than assuming a matching visual shape is enough.

After inserting a symbol, verify the character, its case, and its position before continuing. The menu paths and conditional shortcuts here were checked against Apple’s macOS documentation in October 2026.

Frequently asked questions

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