David Lowry

Charmap for Mac OS X

April 16, 2008 by dave | 5 Comments

Thumbs up to Dean Allen @ textism.com for pointing out something I found once but ever since have been looking for.

Character Palette

Ever since moving from Windows to Mac OS X Tiger I’ve been missing the simplicity of the Character Map application (type ‘charmap’ in your Start -> Run dialogue). It’s not quite so easy to get to on the mac, which I think should probably be addressed, even searching for ‘character palette’ in Spotlight doesn’t throw it up.

Click on the flag, and select 'Character Palette' As Dean (founder of my webhost Textdrive, now called Joyent) pointed out the Palette can be found by clicking the Keyboard Language icon (the flag beside the clock) and selecting ‘Character Palette.’

  • Vanessa

    thank you so much, ive been looking for a characters thing for ages!!!!!!!!!!!

  • Tadd

    First, THANKS David! :-) For others: Note that “Character Palette” might not initially appear in the flag’s menu. You have to turn it on! Click on “Open International…” and check the box for “Character Palette.” (“Keyboard Viewer” could be kind of helpful too.)

  • Dutch

    You’re the highest hit in Google for this topic, grats!

    As a recent pseudo-switcher (I still use my PC) I use the ALT/OPTION-COMMAND-T triple key sequence to bring up the Character Palette. Pretty neat.

  • julien

    @Dutch: Thanks a load, great shortcut

  • http://www.mike-irving.co.uk/portfolio/mobile-apps/ Mike Irving Apps

    Brilliant… need a funny icon for a button and I’m pleasantly surprised that this exists afterall.