General Question

waterskier2007's avatar

How do i type a line over a letter on a mac?

Asked by waterskier2007 (2058points) March 25th, 2009

I need to type a character with a bar over it on a mac, is this possible, and how do i do it

Observing members: 0 Composing members: 0

27 Answers

suzyq2463's avatar

Maybe this will help: http://tlt.its.psu.edu/suggestions/international/accents/codemac.html

I’m not sure what kind of line you need, but I’m assuming it’s a diacritical.

waterskier2007's avatar

thanks for the link but when i do that, it puts a bar to the top right of the letter, not centered above, thanks anyways though

it looks like this

gailcalled's avatar

None of these are straight lines but might pass on in a dim room.

á = Opt + e, then a
• é = Opt + e, then e
• í = Opt + e, then i
• ó = Opt + e, then o
• ú = Opt + e, then u
For the ñ, hold down the Option key while you type the n; release and type n again.
• ñ = Opt + n, then n
To place the diaeresis over the u, hold down the Option key while pressing the u key; release and type u again.
û = Opt + i. then û

Robmandu taught me everything I know.

robmandu's avatar

From Apple

You can use the Character Palette to insert special characters, such as mathematical symbols, letters with accent marks, or arrows and other “dingbats,” into your documents.

You can also use the Character Palette to enter Japanese, Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, and Korean characters, as well as characters from other languages.

Open System Preferences and click International. Click Input Menu, then click the checkboxes next to Character Palette and “Show Input menu in menu bar.”

If an application is specifically designed to work with Mac OS X, you can choose Edit > Special Characters to open the Character Palette.

The text above is specific to Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard. Similar info for older versions is available here.

robmandu's avatar

@gailcalled, I dunno if I taught you all those keyboard shortcuts. Nicely done!

robmandu's avatar

I’m sorry, but it continues to drive me a little crazy that @waterskier2007 still lists the following items in his Fields of Expertise:

Apple computers, iPhone, iPhone ringtones, Macintosh, mac osx, ipods, itunes, imovie, iweb, iDVD, iLife, pages, keynote, iwork, numbers, MacBook, iMac

I’ll work on getting over it.

gailcalled's avatar

⁻Τηανκ υοθ.

robmandu's avatar

˙ǝɯoɔןǝʍ ǝɹ,noʎ

jrpowell's avatar

It only works in some applications. TextEdit is good with it. Word is picky about the font used. It works with Lucida Grande. I made a quick video (easier than typing) to show you how in TextEdit.

Link

robmandu's avatar

(need more GA’s for @johnpowell)

gailcalled's avatar

@jp: That gets my vote for the Oscar for best documentary short done in less than five minutes. Or maybe a McArthur genius grant.

waterskier2007's avatar

@robmandu oh yeah i should probably take those down considering the fact that I don’t know how to add a bar over the letter. I tried the character palette, font palette. No one else has been able to figure it out so i guess no one here can put anything related to macs in their expertise

robmandu's avatar

āw, tōō bād. hōpē yōū fīgūrē īt ōūt sōōn.

gailcalled's avatar

So̅ a̅w̅es̅om̅e (although a little off-center.)

gailcalled's avatar

@waterskier2007 : You don’t know me well yet, but if I can do this, anyone can. Rob will confirm th̅̅̅a̅̅t.

benseven's avatar

@waterskier2007 There are several people who have answered your question. If you’re too incompetent to implement their solutions, that doesn’t mean they haven’t answered the question – it means you’re a dolt.

waterskier2007's avatar

i have listened to exactly what they said and i showed what happened when i did so it doesnt mean that

benseven's avatar

“No one else has been able to figure it out so i guess no one here can put anything related to macs in their expertise”

Clearly, these guys have been able to figure it out, and you should be thanking them rather than being a douche.

gailcalled's avatar

@waterskier2007 : Go back to the brilliant video johnpowell made ^^. Open it as a separate window and then follow his instructions to the T.

Have you been able to find your “character palette” yet? Jp will give you some arcane code to type in. And as I said, if I can do it, anyone can.

waterskier2007's avatar

wow, thanks. for some reason when i was first trying to watch the movie it cut out half way right after he opened the character palette, so i thought it was just showing how to open the palette, which i knew how to do

gailcalled's avatar

Thank johnopowell.

benseven's avatar

Bangs head on keyboard.

gailcalled's avatar

@benseven: If your ear hits control, you’ll find lots of other interesting stuff (if you use a Mac).For example; œ∑´®†πåß∂ƒ©˙∆˚˚¬˚Ω≈ç√∫˜µ≤≤≥≥÷

gailcalled's avatar

@benseven: Μυ πλεασθρε.

robmandu's avatar

Smashing Magazine and Ilya Birman teamed up to create a new typography keyboard layout for both Mac and Windows.

The idea is that it should help simplify some of the process for adding accent markings to letters and for inserting special characters like ™, ®, €, §, ↓, ↑, «, », ï, ö, ü, ĭ, ŏ, ŭ, etc.

It doesn’t offer all possible diacritical marks, and it’s subject to what the current application will allow, but it seems to work pretty okay for me.

Answer this question

Login

or

Join

to answer.

This question is in the General Section. Responses must be helpful and on-topic.

Your answer will be saved while you login or join.

Have a question? Ask Fluther!

What do you know more about?
or
Knowledge Networking @ Fluther