shownotes_MCM20110531

In OS X
  Beyond the standard characters in OS X there are many symbols, greek letters, math symbols, and dingbats you can type, but it can be confusing on how to actually type them.
  OS X has some built in tools that can help.
  We can also learn some keyboard shortcuts for the more common ones we might need.
Accented characters
  Or diacritical marks. Marks that appear above or below a letter, or in some other position and indicate which sound to give to a letter unit
  Use the option key and the press the key for the mark you want to use, then type the character you want the mark on
    Option+e will give you an accent mark
    Option+i a circumflex mark
    Option+n a tilde
    Option+u a trema (umlaut)
    Option + ` a grave mark
More 'options'
  It can be hard to remember what marks are hidden behind what keys on the keyboard
  You can enable the Keyboard viewer to help.
  System Preferences --> Language & Text --> Input Sources tab
  Check on the Keyboard & Character Viewer. Adds a menubar item
  Click that and select Show Keyboard Viewer.
  Hold the option key down and you'll see the diacritical mark keys highlighted in orange
  You also notice the keys change to show other common symbols and characters you may use on a regular basis
  Some common ones I find useful:
    These will vary based on your language settings, but of r my US keyboard.
    Ellipsis: Option + ;
    Bullet: Option + 8
    Cents: Option + 4 (Option+ 3 for £ and Option+Shift+2 for Euro)
    "Smart quotes": Option+[ and Option+Shift+[ (double) and Option+] and Option+Shift+] (single)
    Option+2 for trademark and Option+G for copyright.
    Option+Shift+8 or Option+k for degrees
    Option+Shift+K for the Apple logo.
  Math symbols too
    Option+= for "not equal"
    Option+< or Option+> for less than or equal and greater than and equal
    Option+v for square root and Option+5 for infinity
Symbols galore
  Using the 'Character Viewer' you can gain access to just about every symbol, character, and dingbat under the sun
  Once you enabled the menu bar item as described before just choose "Show Character Viewer' to display the palette
  They are divided into categories like Math, Arrows, currency symbols, miscellaneous, etc.
  It will also show you font collections containing those symbols.
  With the insertion point in your document you can double-click the character from the viewer to insert it into your document
    You can also drag the character from the palette or click the 'Insert' button at the bottom.
    Clicking the 'Cog' options icon at the lower left you can build out the 'Favorites' tab with common characters you may use.
  If you don't like having the Keyboard & Character viewer in the menu bar you can also access the Character Viewer via the 'Edit' menu in most applications
    Edit-->Show Special Characters…
Using OS X's text replacement
  System Preferences --> Language & Text --> Text tab
  Turn on Symbol and text substitution by checking the ones you want in the list.
  Typing '( c )' will substitute the copyright symbol. 1/4 can substitute the quarter symbol. Does seem to work in all apps.
  This tab also lets you change the default settings for smart quote replacement.
Software to help
  Text Expander accented character clipping group. Automatically add the right marks for "crème brûlée"
  PopChar X offers a more advanced version of Apple's built in Character Viewer Palette
In iOS
  Several enhancements you can turn on to make typing quicker in iOS
    Settings-->General-->Keyboard
    Turn on "Auto-capitalization", "Auto-correction", "Check spelling", "Enable Caps Lock" and "'.' Shortcut.
    Cap Locks allows you to double-tap the shift key to enable a caps lock
    The "." shortcut allows you to double tap the spacebar to quickly insert a period and space.
    Auto-correct will automatically add punctuation to words like "can't"
  Shortcuts
    Several keys have alternate characters.
      Click and hold on a key to see it's alternate options.
      Slide your finger up to choose the character you want and then release.
      Slide finger off a key to cancel typing it.
    Some have defaults you can access by simply flicking upward on the key. Exclamation --> single quote, Question mark --> Double-quotes.
  Dot com
    In Safari holding the .com key will offer alternative endings. In Mail addresses it's the "." key.
    .net, .edu, .org, .us
  Emoji
    The Japanese iOS has support for more expressive graphical icons called 'Emoji'
    You can find apps to enable tis on the App Store. Launch the app can reboot the device
    General-->Keyboards-->International. Add Keyboard and select 'Emoji'
    Now you will have a 'globe' icon on the keyboard
    Tap the globe to toggle to the 'Emoji' keyboard
    Systems will need to have support for the Emoji unicode font to see that characters.
    Supposedly OS X 10.7 Lion has Apple's Emoji font support in Font Book