Macintosh / Apple - How to Select Language Specific Characters
Opening and Using the Emoji and Symbols Menu
This article will detail the process of opening and using the special characters that are available by default on Apple computers. The special characters include letters that are necessary when typing in languages such as Spanish, German, and French. In addition, the article will also detail how to set up a "Favorites" list for quick and easy access to frequently used special characters.
1. Open the System Preferences using the gear symbol, pictured below, which should be along the bottom of the Desktop of your computer.
2. In this menu, click on the Keyboard icon to open up the specific keyboard settings we will need in order to access the special character list.
3. In this new window, click on the box in front of "Show keyboard and emoji viewers in menu bar". The box will turn blue with a white check mark, as shown in the image below, when this step is completed. After ensuring that the box is blue with the white check mark, this window can safely be closed by clicking the red circle in the upper left-hand corner.
4. In the top right hand corner of the whole computer screen, in the gray bar, there should now be a new symbol as pictured below. Click on this new symbol to display three options, and select Show Emoji & Symbols. This will then bring up a new window.
5. This new window will be divided into four main sections. The list on the right displays the category of symbols that will display in the middle section, while the two sections on the right hand side display additional information about a selected symbol. In order to make this window easier to navigate, click on the Gear in the top left hand corner as highlighted below, then select Customize List (highlighted by red rectangle).
6. In the center section, there should now be displayed a list of various different categories containing sets of symbols. Uncheck all boxes except the following: Latin, Letterlike Symbols, Punctuation, and Punctuation - All. After unchecking all but these four, click done at the bottom of the small window.
7. The left hand side should now display only those four categories. In order to find each individual symbol that you will need, select Latin, which will display the Latin-based symbols in the center section of the screen. From here, locate the special character you would like to insert into your document and double-click the symbol. This will insert the character at the point where your cursor is in the document.