alt+3 hash problem

[higgdpi]

Hello all
try as i might i cannot work out how to get the hash key to show on my mac.
I know it's supposed to be alt+3 and i've checked and checked all other keyboard shortcuts for conflicts and cannot find any. I've tried deleting the com.apple.keyboard prefs file but to no avail. I've also tried creating a new user on this mac... and whilst the hash character does appear, I need it to work on my administators login, not this extra user.

Can ANYone help? I'm going nuts here... it's hard to code with no hash key...

 

[miles01110]

Are you talking about this hash sign: # ??

Try Shift + 3. That's how it is on the US Keyboard layout. If you have a different layout tell us what you are working with.

 

[higgdpi]

d'oh sorry, I'm in the UK so on a british layout (shift+3 gives me a £ sign)
yep that's the sign

 

[miles01110]

It appears to be on the tilde key on the right hand side.

 

[firestarter]

It appears to be on the tilde key on the right hand side.

That isn't a UK Apple keyboard.

On my UK Mac keyboard it's Alt-3 #.

If you go to 'Keyboard' in system preferences, are your modifier keys set to what they should be? You could try restoring defaults.

Are there any shortcuts set up that might affect this? Again, try restoring to default.

Also try the 'Language and Text' control panel. Check that your Input Source is British.

If none of that works, you could try using the Symbol substitution pane of 'Language & Text' to replace say '§' or '±' with '#'. Personally, I've never used '§' so it might be cool to reclaim that key anyway!!

 

[higgdpi]

i think that's a pc keyboard...
my @ key is shift+2 and the tilde key is next to the z, the hash key in the diagram is \ (or | with shift) in my keyboard

 

[Phil A.]

Is this in OS X, Bootcamped Windows or a Virtual machine? Also, is it an Apple Keyboard (and is it bluetooth or wired?)

What does alt-3 give you? On my iMac, it's definitely alt-3 for the # sign.

If you switch to a US Keyboard (System preferences, language and text, Input Sources), it should swap around the # and £ (i.e. shift+3 gives you # and alt-3 gives you £): Does it?

 

[higgdpi]

Yes, OSX with wired apple keyboard. I tried a bluetooth keyboard and got the same results.
hmm, interesting... switching to a US layout does give me the hash with shift+3 but now won't give me the pound sign with alt+3. I just get no input at all, no other character, no space, just as if i'm not pressing anything.
sometimes in quarkxpress when i'm using the text cursor, it flickers between the text cursor and a hand icon until i press the alt key once and then it settles for being a text cursor...
I guess worse case scenario i could keep switching keyboard layouts, but it's not ideal...

 

[Phil A.]

Yes, OSX with wired apple keyboard. I tried a bluetooth keyboard and got the same results.
hmm, interesting... switching to a US layout does give me the hash with shift+3 but now won't give me the pound sign with alt+3. I just get no input at all, no other character, no space, just as if i'm not pressing anything.
sometimes in quarkxpress when i'm using the text cursor, it flickers between the text cursor and a hand icon until i press the alt key once and then it settles for being a text cursor...
I guess worse case scenario i could keep switching keyboard layouts, but it's not ideal...

Have you tried both alt keys? Also, does alt+other keys give you anything?
For example, alt-5 should give you ∞, alt-g is © and alt-v is √

 

[higgdpi]

Are there any shortcuts set up that might affect this? Again, try restoring to default.

Also try the 'Language and Text' control panel. Check that your Input Source is British.

If none of that works, you could try using the Symbol substitution pane of 'Language & Text' to replace say '§' or '±' with '#'. Personally, I've never used '§' so it might be cool to reclaim that key anyway!!

hahah yes, i've tried all this already i'm afraid. restored to default and tried the replacement thing but that just doesn't work at all (none of them work)

Have you tried both alt keys? Also, does alt+other keys give you anything?
For example, alt-5 should give you ∞, alt-g is © and alt-v is √

yes both keys are the same and all the other alt keys seem to be fine... except the one i actually need ∞©√ç

 

[Phil A.]

Very weird!
Is it possible that you've got a program running that's re-purposing (and therefore disabling) the alt-3 combination as a hotkey?

 

[higgdpi]

oops sorry ergdegdeg, I forgot about the multiquote thing

Yeah, that was my first thought.. but I've tried looking for other programmes and conflicting shortcuts and can't find anything. I haven't installed anything new recently either. I'm baffled!
I'm currently running Smultron, quark, photoshop, mail and firefox and none of those are conflicting, but then i can't get it to work straight after start up when i only have text edit running...
As i say, it DOES work on a secondary user on this mac though... so it can't be fully fudged, it must be something i've done wrong somewhere...

 

[higgdpi]

Anyone any other ideas?
I'm pretending I'm american at the moment so the hash key works but i can't type about money cos i now don't have a pound sign key

 

[johanvee]

I had exactly the same problem, which I've now fixed after a couple of tries. I can't say whether it was just my last effort or a combination of all of these steps that did it.

I tried resetting all keyboard & language settings to English (UK) or British. No change.
I tried restarting the computer. No change.
I tried logging in as another user. That worked.
I logged back in as me. That didn't work.
I then disabled Spaces. That worked!
I re-enabled Spaces. It still worked!

I think I might've set up a keyboard shortcut conflict when I was messing around with Spaces a few weeks ago. By resetting all shortcuts, disabling Spaces and then re-enabling it, it appears to have cured the problem.

Good luck.

 

[dv1988]

If you go to system preferences > Language and text > input sources. You should be able to add more types of keyboards, e.g. US layout keyboards etc etc whereby your hash key is shift + 3.

 

[DaBr]

I'm using a Macbook Air and stumbled on this solution: Shift + fn + 3. Hope this helps.