Have you ever wanted to have an ⌘ (Command Key) in you text?
As many of you who read this blog know I share many tips and tricks. In those tips I try to make sure that there is a clear way to use the tip by making sure you have step by step directions. Earlier today I was writing a post about the DigitalColor Meter. In that article I wanted to type a, “Apple Clover”, the symbol that is on the command key ⌘. Well I Googled this for about 15 minutes before I came across the answer. I pieced together the solution from about 10 websites. Trust me when I say that this may be as hard to figure out as who really shot JFK and where Jimmy Hoffa is. Well I wanted to make it much easier so here it goes.
- The first thing you need to do is make sure you are using the “Unicode Hex Input” Keyboard layout.
- Open System Preferences.
- Got to the “International” area and select the “Imput Menu” tab.
- Scroll down to the bottom of the different keyboard layouts. You will see several different languages here.
- Click on the box to the left of Unicode Hex Input.
- Now just under the keyboard selection area is the Imput menu shortcuts area.
- You need to make sure that the shortcuts will work. If you see a Waring symbol than you need to make an adjustment.
This is for those of you who need to make an adjustment. If you don’t skip down to the next area.
Click the Keyboard Shortcuts button.
- Scroll down to the Imput Menu and click the Triangle to make sure that the shortcuts are displayed like below.
- If you need to make a change click on the key sequence on the left and change it to what you want. I used ctrl+option+I and ctrl+option+shift+I for mine.
Now to type the, “Apple Clover”, ⌘ in the text are.
Move over to the application where you want to type it. and place the text insertion point,move the cursor to, where you want it.
Use your keyboard short cut to switch to the Unicode Hex Input. Some menu bars will get to see a small blue box with a gold U+ inside it.
While holding down the option key type the Unicode for the key. 2318
This will display this “⌘”
There you have it. How to type a ⌘ in your text. There are a lot of these type of codes you can put in the text using this method. Blow is a chart of the different codes and what they will display. I was not able to get all of the Keys to work so you may want to try the keys but I was not able to get some to work for me.
Technorati Tags: Apple, Apple clover, command, command key, font, special character, tips, tricks, type
May 13, 2008
Matt, thank you SO MUCH … I’ve been teaching my Dad to use his new MacBook Pro by using screen captures and typing emails to him, but I’ve been so frustrated trying to explain ⌘ (wow, I did it!).
Very gratefully,
Luke
PS – I couldn’t get the ‘Apple’ icon to work, but I guess it’s redundant with ⌘ anyway.
June 11, 2009
This seems like a lot of work.
If you want to enter the ⌘ in your text, just Google: “& # 8 9 8 4 ;” (Remove the spaces)
Google will show you a ⌘ and you can copy and paste to your document. Save as a bookmark to use everyday. Much easier.
December 31, 2009
If you are looking to add the actual clover symbol in a text document use the font wingdings and type the letter Z. This will give you the clover symbol. I used this for an SOP procedure on an apple machine so operators know what the key looks like.
March 16, 2010
Thanks for this! I thought I’d never figure out how to include the “clover” in text.
P.S. I suppose someone has already told you that in the title of this article there is the word “you” which should be “your.”
Robin
September 3, 2010
##########################################
# Important note about the Apple logo : #
##########################################
The code mentionned above is not part of Unicode 3.0 and it will probably never be included in any version of Unicode.
It has been rejected by Unicode because it is a Company logo, and Unicode doesn’t accept any logos.
U+F8FF is a code point of the private use area, and there could be other Unicode fonts which use this code point for another character.
The Apple’s apple at this position is a pecularity of Apple’s fonts.
January 18, 2011
FYI: The cmd key symbol ⌘ is called the PLACE OF INTEREST SIGN.
March 15, 2011
Luke: alt shift K on a mac yields the apple logo ()
though, not sure if non-apple users can see the logo once it sends over the internet…