Hi Catherine, If you simply need to type an apostrophe, then the quickest way to enable you to do that is to use your Mac's facility for keyboard substitution. This will let you continue to use your Maltron keyboard, but give you access to the apostrophe character when you type some other string. Here's how to do this. I'm going to set up a shortcut so that the 2-letter combination ";l" when typed together, with no space between the semi-colon and the "l", will be substituted with an apostrophe character. So the substitution will use the two character groups: ;l ' (that's semi-colon+l, a space separator, and the apostrophe character, so you can copy and paste). You should choose a convenient key or key combination that is easy for you to type on your Maltron keyboard in place of the semi-colon+l that I use in my example. Those two keys are next to each other on the Mac keyboard, and it's unlikely that you'll type a semi-colon+another letter without an intervening space in regular usage.
I think the following instructions will minimize the number of keystrokes, but you'll have to use sticky keys. I'll assume that you have the TextEdit application open. Before you start the steps below, use Command+C to copy the apostrophe character to your clipboard so you are ready to paste it in. Here is the apostrophe character again on a line by itself: ' 1. Control+F2 to move to the menu bar 2. Press "e" to move to the "Edit" menu 3. Down arrow into the "Edit" menu 4. Press "s u" to move to "Substitutions" 5. Right arrow to the "Show Substitutions" submenu option, then press "return" 6. In the "Substitutions" window, right arrow through, and make sure that the "Text Replacement" box is checked. Continue to right arrow to the "Text Preferences" button and press it (with your up+down arrow keys if QuickNav is on, or with VO-Space). If your keyboard is set up so that you can use NumPad commander and this is turned on, I think you can also press the "5" key. 7. You'll be on the "Text" pane of the "Language & Text" preferences. Right arrow in the pane. The first entry in the pane should be a check box for "Use symbol and text substitution" that should be checked by default. If it isn't already checked, check this box. Then continue to right arrow to the "Add button" 8. Press the "Add" button to append an entry to the "Substitutions" table 9. Type the letters you want to use for substituting (e.g.,semi-colon+l, in the above example) 10. Press tab, then type or paste the character you want substituted. Here is where you can press Command+v to paste in the apostrophe symbol. Then press "return" 11. Press Command+w to close the "Text Preferences" window 12. Press Command+w to close the "Substitutions" window You should now be able to type the letter combination you selected, and have it replaced with an apostrophe. You'll have to type your letter combination and then press space for the substitution to be made. This means that you'll have to press the left arrow key or the delete key to move back. HTH. Cheers, Esther On Apr 13, 2013, at 9:29 PM, Catherine Turner wrote: > Hello Esther, > > Wow, thank you muchly for your comprehensive reply here. I'm sure > there'll be something in here to help me. I'll have a play with these > things but in the meantime If I explain further my problem maybe > you'll have an idea... > > Basically my keyboard, a Maltron right handed keyboard, is really > designed for Windows but seems to work largely in a usable way under > Mac except I just cannot find a way of typing an apostrophe. I'm sure > there are going to be other things I can't type but so far I've just > discovered I can't ttype an apostrophe. Of course I could press the > apostrophe on the Macbook keyboard itself but a) it's a little > difficult for me to do this and b) it'd be more productive for me not > to take my hand off my Maltron keyboard. So I figured I could enter > it by doing the unicode thing. I have now got this to work. It > turned out that I misunderstood the layout of the languages and > checkboxes in the list of languages in the system preferences, somehow > I was ticking the checkbox associated with the language after the one > I wanted. (A fairly basic mistake, I am still learning <smile> ) So > now in the extras menu I have an item for unicode entry, and if I > select that I can then hold down the Option key, type 0027, let go of > Option and I have an apostrophe. > > But now that I've read your post there must be a quicker way I reckon. > I suppose the easiest to set up would be have an apostrophe in a file > and paste it in. But I'm very interested in setting up a string I > could type and have it replaced with an apostrophe. So maybe I should > look at the text substitution feature. This would be better than the > current situation, but I did also read somewhere about a program > called Ukelele which allows you to remap your keyboard. I'm not sure > how accessible this would be and it doesn't sound particularly easy > but I may give it a go... > > Thanks, I will read your post several times more and figure out a way > forwards :-) > > Catherine > >> >> On 13 Apr 2013, at 09:19, Catherine Turner wrote: >> >>> Hi, >>> >>> Has anyone ever entered characters by entering the unicode numbers? >>> To cut a long story short I have a need to do this and cannot get it >>> to work. I found some instructions about it and think I followed them >>> properly,and now I am suppose to be able to hold down the option key >>> and enter the required unicode numbers which should result in the >>> corresponding character being entered. What seems to be happening is >>> I hold down the option key and start typing numbers but it seems to >>> accept the very first digit which I enter without waiting for the >>> others, no matter how fast I type, and I am typing pretty quickly. >>> >>> What complicates matters, and is the reason I have the need for this >>> in the first place, is I am using a special keyboard adapted for one >>> handed typing and I am also using sticky keys. However I have tried >>> on the Macbook keyboard itself and with sticky keys switched off and >>> it does not seem to make a difference. I wonder if anyone has any >>> ideas? And if I cannot get this to work, is there a way I can put >>> certain characters somewhere in the menu so I can select them from >>> there when I need them? >>> >>> Thanks, >>> Catherine <--- Mac Access At Mac Access Dot Net ---> To reply to this post, please address your message to [email protected] You can find an archive of all messages posted to the Mac-Access forum at either the list's own dedicated web archive: <http://mail.tft-bbs.co.uk/pipermail/mac-access/index.html> or at the public Mail Archive: <http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/>. Subscribe to the list's RSS feed from: <http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.xml> As the Mac Access Dot Net administrators, we do our very best to ensure that the Mac-Access E-Mal list remains malware, spyware, Trojan, virus and worm-free. However, this should in no way replace your own security strategy. We assume neither liability nor responsibility should something unpredictable happen. 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