Council on OS X. The simplest input special characters

On a Mac, you can enter any of the many tens of thousands of characters that are included in the Unicode table. To do this, just for instance, you can name four ways: system-wide window "Symbols", pop-up panel "Emoji and symbols" AutoCorrect list in the "System Preferences" and - aerobatics - its a keyboard layout. However, there is also the fifth most compromise the way: just enough to edit one configuration file - and all the characters will be available at a distance of one-touch friendly you keys.

Many of you probably know about the Press and Hold function when by holding certain keys letters pops up a small panel of similar characters (similar to the way it happens in iOS). This feature is more fully realized for Latin alphabets, for example, by pressing a key with a Latin A, E, I, O and U pop-up panel with all the options that letter equipped with various diacritical marks, included valid for you the input language. However, for the Russian language, this "trick" works with the letters E and L, for which, respectively, are available for alternative input the letter E and Z.

However, few people know that a set of characters that are available through a pop-up panel, you can flexibly adjust to your liking. Let's say, very convenient to enter currency symbols, keeping the same letter P (from the word "ruble"):

Or - special characters, starting with the Apple logo, by pressing the F key (aka Latin A):

How to do it? Brainer. Let's go point by point.

Step 1. Open a folder / System / Library / Input Methods / PressAndHold.app / Contents / Resources (it is inside service utility PressAndHold, which is responsible for the pop-up toolbar alternative work characters).

Step 2. If you want to customize the Russian keyboard layout, locate the file in the open folder Keyboard-ru.plist, copy it to your desktop and open it in any convenient text editor.

Step 3. Almost at the very beginning of the file you will see snippets of code with the phrase Roman-Accent-E, Roman-Accent-b - here and set up letters by pressing the trigger which should PressAndHold panel. Here is the complete code snippet that we are interested in:

Roman-Accent-EDirectionrightKeycapsHERStringsHER

Marked in red are the elements that you need to replace when setting up their letters. For example, if you want to customize the Russian letter P to enter different currency symbols (rubles, dollars, euros, pounds sterling, the hryvnia) in our file to insert the following code:

Roman-Accent-RDirectionleftKeycaps₽ $ € £ ₴Strings₽ $ € £ ₴

To set up the letter F to enter special characters used in menu OS X, a file you need to add the following code:

Roman-Accent-FDirectionleftKeycaps ⌘ ⌥ ⇧ ^ ⎋ ⏏ ⌫ ↑ ⇡ ↖ ⇞ ⇥Strings ⌘ ⌥ ⇧ ^ ⎋ ⏏ ⌫ ↑ ⇡ ↖ ⇞ ⇥

Step 4. Repeat the same for the lower-case letters, if you want to gain the same special characters sets, regardless of the register. Save the file and drag it into the same folder (the system will ask the admin password).

Everything! Nothing even a reboot is not necessary - just go to any application, where you can enter some text, and check how the keys P and F, if briefly hold down. Cool, right? :)

Unfortunately, the above method works well only with the letters. How to bind the panel Press and Hold to numbers and punctuation marks, it remains a mystery.

It does not work Press and Hold?

It also happens that the callback function panel alternate characters does not work. The most obvious reasons for this are only two. First, in the system settings can be disabled on re-entering the characters while keeping the keys. In this case, the slider "Auto repeat keys" needed to shift to the right from the position "Off.".

The second reason - you could once turn off the Press and Hold manually, for example via the "Terminal". To enable it, type "Terminal" command defaults write com.sublimetext.3 ApplePressAndHoldEnabled -bool true and restart any text application or OS X entirely. After that, everything must be earned.

Enjoy. ;)