:mblsha-o-rama

Unfortunately not all Mac users are aware that they possess very powerful shortcut mechanism, available in all native applications that allows to enter cool symbols with little effort — just a single keystroke!

These shortcuts could have been reproduced on other platforms, such as Microsoft Windows or Linux, but they would clash with many Alt-Whatever shortcuts that are already present in many applications. They have some sort of equivalent in face of Win-Something shortcuts (the Option “⌥” key that’s used to enter these shortcuts is located at the same place as Win key on Windows keyboards), but Win-shortcuts are commonly used for doing desktop-wide things, like controlling music player, IM application or hiding windows.

Note: In order to maximally enjoy this post, please either view it on a Mac, get this image (501KB), or use Safari Test.

UPDATE: Added information how to change keyboard layout, and how to access rarely used symbols you don’t want to memorize.

UPDATE2: Matej Cepl informed me that on X11 there’s Compose key which could help in typing diacritics and some other symbols.

¥£$, it’s true — it’s possible to enter lots of symbols, but how to get a list shortcuts in order to memorize them easily? The answer is that you don’t have to actually memorize them, as there’s the Keyboard Viewer palette that allows you to see the actual symbol that would be inserted into active text input area.

How to activate it? Open System Preferences → International → Input Menu and check the Keyboard Viewer. After that, you should be able to enable it using only two mouse clicks (input menu in the menu bar should be updated at this point):

Keyboard Viewer is shown on-screen (using the PowerBook keyboard layout):

Press a single ⌥ key, and you can instantly type diacritics and umlauts, as well some greek symbols and trademarks©®™:

Add one more, for it to be ⌥⇧, and there’s more goodness: the Apple logo, €uro sign, em dash (—), and more:

There’s no need to type “--” instead of “—” anymore!

And all this beauty is not limited to English keyboard layout, Russians have this power too:

It’s possible to type rich-formatted texts without using any complex word processors or third-party applications, just type it anywhere, and get the common typographic symbols you’re used to:

— «Нормально, Григорий?»
— «Отлично, Константин!»

If you want to re-map some keys on your current layout, or you want to completely customize it, you may find Ukelele (freeware) useful. Another very cool use of it is the ability to view the layout of different keyboards, including the arrangement of keys — I was very curios how old Mac keyboards looked and acted.

And in the case you have some symbols you use very rarely and don’t want to memorize, you may find the PopChar X (shareware) utility easier to use.

PS: And for Russian speakers who doesn’t possess the Mac yet (or want to convert existing texts with minimum of effort), there’s a wonderful Typograf tool, always available online on Art. Lebedev Studio site.