How to: Special character keyboard shortcuts in OS X

[MacBytes]

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Category: Tips and How To's
Link: How to: Special character keyboard shortcuts in OS X (http://www.macbytes.com/link.php?sid=20101215120648)
Description:: There are perhaps two and a half ways to access or type special characters in Mac OS X. The first is to hunt and peck for the symbol you need using the Special Character Viewer (System Preferences > Keyboard > …

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[LPZ]

So how do I type the name of the band Spın̈al Tap? ;)

[furi0usbee]

Yeah... um... Edit > Special Characters...

[LPZ]

Yeah... um... Edit > Special Characters...

Is there an n with an umlaut there?

[jiminaus]

There is no precomposed n with umlaut (also known as diaeresis) in Unicode. However all the diacritics are available in a combining form which can be used to compose any combination of letter and diacritic.

To access these combining form:

Bring up the Characters window with Edit > Special Characters...
Drop-down the view menu and change it to All Characters.
Expand the disclosure triangle next to European Scripts.
Click on Diacritics.


To use these combining forms:

Insert the base letter either through the Characters windows or typing the letter.
Insert the diacritic. The diacritic will appear above or below the previous letter, not next to it.


So to type Spın̈al Tap (using the names of the characters from Unicode).

Latin Capital Letter S
Latin Small Letter P
Latin Small Letter Dotless I
Latin Small Letter N
Combining Diaeresis
Latin Small Letter A
Latin Small Letter L
Space
Latin Capital Letter T
Latin Small Letter A
Latin Small Letter P