Circumflex u - Mac

[Dave2002]

Today I wanted to type a circumflex u - like this û. Normally using Mac OS X I switch keyboards and find a language which has the appropriate accented symbol - but somewhat to my surprise French did not seem to work - did I miss something? After a bit of searching I found that to get a circumflex in macos the key i+alt (option key) followed by one of a,e,i,o,u gives the base character with a hat on.

An arcane bit of keyboard knowledge which clearly I was unaware of before.

[Nick Armstrong]

Today I wanted to type a circumflex u - like this û. Normally using Mac OS X I switch keyboards and find a language which has the appropriate accented symbol - but somewhat to my surprise French did not seem to work - did I miss something? After a bit of searching I found that to get a circumflex in macos the key i+alt (option key) followed by one of a,e,i,o,u gives the base character with a hat on.

An arcane bit of keyboard knowledge which clearly I was unaware of before.

On mine it's hold alt then hit 'i' - then the character you want to ^

Likewise:

alt+ 'u' gives you ¨

alt plus 'e' gives you ´

Oddly for ` there is a dedicated key: alt + `

[french frank]

An arcane bit of keyboard knowledge which clearly I was unaware of before.

Yep, well-used by me. Though ŷ and ŵ, I think, have to be accessed via Emoji & Symbols (Favourites) - unless anyone knows better.

[Alain Maréchal]

The Mac user in this household tells me you need to select US International keyboard, shift 6 (to indicate a ^), and type u. I cannot guarantee the accuracy of this, but it is worth trying.

In spite of the recent orthographic reform it is still essential to distinguish between du with and without the hat.

[HighlandDougie]

With a Mac (or iPhone/iPad), if you keep your finger pressed down on the character which you want to "accent" (whether acute, circumflex, umlaut .....), a little pop-up appears and you simply choose the appropriate one. Simples! Much easier than clunky key combinations.

[Pabmusic]

With a Mac (or iPhone/iPad), if you keep your finger pressed down on the character which you want to "accent" (whether acute, circumflex, umlaut .....), a little pop-up appears and you simply choose the appropriate one. Simples! Much easier than clunky key combinations.

Indeed. Discovering this feature was one of those 'moments' for me.

[LMcD]

û = Alt 0251?

[french frank]

û = Alt 0251?

º€∞¡

[Bryn]

º€∞¡

û with a proper circumflex friendly OS.

[french frank]

û with a proper circumflex friendly OS.

Looks like 4-5 keystrokes to me. I prefer alt + i + whichever letter you want the ^ on

[Pabmusic]

Looks like 4-5 keystrokes to me. I prefer alt + i + whichever letter you want the ^ on

And I (as HighlandDougie pointed out) used one keystroke and a slide to get û.

[french frank]

And I (as HighlandDougie pointed out) used one keystroke and a slide to get û.

Yes, I did try that and I prefer the other way which only uses the keyboard. Though I can see there are less usual diacritics available - but not ŷ or ŵ.

[Pabmusic]

Yes, I did try that and I prefer the other way which only uses the keyboard. Though I can see there are less usual diacritics available - but not ŷ or ŵ.

You're right - but then ( as my mother would have said) you can't have everything. (Even as a child I found her answer less than satisfying.)

[Dave2002]

With a Mac (or iPhone/iPad), if you keep your finger pressed down on the character which you want to "accent" (whether acute, circumflex, umlaut .....), a little pop-up appears and you simply choose the appropriate one. Simples! Much easier than clunky key combinations.

Thanks for this. I knew this should work on iPads and iPhones - but I did not know it would work on Macs - perhaps because my fingers don't stay on keys for long.

Checking it seems that on my UK keyboard the following letter characters all have pop up menus - a e i o u y --- c l n s z
and the capitalised versions too - A E I O U Y --- C L N S Z

It probably is easier, as you indicate. The only issue I might have is discerning which of the "accents" are which - they appear in blue, and sometimes in rather small sizes, which makes distinguishing between them harder, though there are numbers under each option which could presumably be learnt.