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While I love my Mac there are some things that drive me mad.
Where the hell is the hash (#) key?
It’s ALT+3 on my keyboard, but you’d have to be a genius to work that one out by yourself
At least the tilde (~) is on the keyboard, unlike a standard Italian PC keyboard which seems to have it hidden from view for some inane reason.
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See, that frustrates you…(whereas I remember that the yanks call it ‘pound’ rather than ‘hash’ which makes the Alt-3 easier)
My frustration is when I try to use a PC and none of the decent easy-to-learn shortcuts work.
Want to do a copyright symbol. Go look it up. ©
Want to do an acute on an e? é
Want to do an umlaut on an o? ö
These are simple and can be learned easily on a Mac.
On Windows computers, letters with acute accents can be created by holding down the alt key and typing in a three-number code on the number pad to the right of the keyboard before releasing the alt key.
e.g.
160 for á
130 for é
161 for í
162 for ó
163 for ú
On a Mac, thats
Alt-e, a
Alt-e, e
Alt-e, i
Alt-e, o
Alt-u, u
MJ
If I was writing more in Italian, French or Spanish I’d probably use the accents more, but I end up using hash and tilde a lot (SSH 🙂 )
When I was living in Italy the lack of a tilde on the keyboard was really annoying!
Michele
I switched mine to US mode ages ago, as I never use the pound symbol, the hash is then reached by SHIFT-3, and it’s otherwise very similar.
Also, Emacs thinks that the alt key is Very Special, and gets confused if it’s used in this manner.
The lack of a # on the main mac keyboard is quite annoying, particularly given that so many web developers use macs now. I have an american mac book, and it defaults to having the # key in place onf the sterling pound symbol.
On the subject of the other characters – http://www.copypastecharacter.com/ is a great, handy resource in a toolbar.
You should buy the new apple aluminium keyboard- the hash symbol is shown on the 3 key but you still have to alt click it for the symbol. I guess it could be changed to shift-3 but I’m stuck in my ways that it’ll always be alt (or ‘option’ as the alt key was traditionally called on Macs until they PCed everything)
The new apple keyboard is such an improvement on the old one, it’s great for typing and takes up less space. I highly recommend them.
@John – I’ll have a look into it. Thanks for letting me know .. (so much for me avoiding ebay!)
Michele
oh god this has been driving me nuts: http://taint.org/2008/09/28/115648a.html
Justin
At least I am not alone 🙂
I’m not sure if I’d want to remap my keyboard – I’d probably end up even more confused!
Michele
John
Is there a wired version of that keyboard?
I have a serious aversion to wireless keyboards
Michele
Michele,
There are two versions- the wireless version is a ‘cut-down’ keyboard, missing the main numeric keypad amongst other things. The keyboard version I was referring to is the wired version (can be seen here: http://store.apple.com/ie/product/MB110Z/A?fnode=MTY1NDA1Mg&mco=MTQ0OTA )
The wireless version (I think) is more designed towards the AppleTV and small work stations. Anyway, it doesn’t have usb ports on it either which is shit.
To everyone else regarding key mapping- I think (don’t quote me) Apple followed a European standard of some description for their keyboards (I’m not sure about the laptops), hence the strange §± and tilde placement. I don’t think it was a deliberate decision by Apple over the key’s usefulness/placement.
so is the complaint about whether it’s different or whether it is better or worse.
To my mind the Mac way is different/better because I’ve tried going Mac –> Windows
It’s very annoying trying to write xhtml, css and javascript on a mac as the # key is such a commonly used button. The first time I went to code something, it took me an hour to find out where it was. Must look into swapping it around somehow.
I wonder if Apple will have their new laptops (which should be unveiled tomorrow) keyboards in line with the new aluminium ones. I think they stopped using a ‘British’ keyboard layout for an international one instead.
As for not being able to find characters on a mac keyboard, I guess there’s a certain level of a learning curve with a different OS. personally I would have googled the query, rather than spend time looking for it 😛
mj
áéíóú – all typed using Windows, none using character codes.
AltGr & a = á => less keypresses than a Mac
etc
MJ,
to have letters with accents you simply use the ‘Alt Gr’ key (right hand ALT key).
Simple