Virtual keyboard mac os x. How to quickly recall special characters (emojis, icons) on Mac (macOS)
We have all been using the new operating system for a long time now. macOS Sierra . Although the update became unavailable for, but for the rest Apple computers feels great.
It's time to learn about some hidden possibilities to get the most out of your new operating system.
1. RAID Assistant
Why is this needed: application Disk Utility
OS X El Capitan has been simplified to the limit. The ability to create RAID arrays and combined virtual disks. Fortunately, macOS developers Sierra came to their senses and returned useful set opportunities.
With its help you can use old flash drives for your home and more.
How to turn it on: in the application Disk Utility select in the menu bar File – Raid Assistant.
2. Keyboard from iOS
Why is this needed: there are little things like that iOS keyboard, which are missing on your computer or laptop. iOS has long been able to put a period when double click on Space and after the period write the word with a capital letter.
Now macOS can do this too, but these functions are disabled by default.
How to turn it on: go to Settings – Keyboard – Text and activate the options Add a period with a double space And Automatically capitalize words.
3. Restore tabs in Safari
Why is this needed: standard way restore tabs by clicking on Command + Z allows you to return a limited number of closed sites. It will be useless if you accidentally close a window with several tabs or shut down the browser altogether.
One more thing will come to the rescue useful combination keys that will restore everything required pages or even a tabbed window.
How to turn it on: you don’t need to configure anything, just click Command + Shift + T and the browser will open the latest closed tabs, will completely restore closed window browser with all pages or when opened will return all tabs if display is enabled in the settings blank page at startup.
4. Picture in picture anywhere
Why is this needed: Initially, the window with the video clip detached from the browser can be placed in one of the corners of the desktop. This arrangement will not always be convenient. Often you need to move the picture a little, but the window jumps to another corner instead.
How to turn it on: When dragging a window with a video, hold down the key Command. Now you can place it absolutely anywhere.
5. Increased productivity
Why is this needed: if your Mac can't handle the load, there are a couple standard settings that will improve your computer's performance. Options Reduce movement And Reduce transparency got into the desktop operating system from iOS and performs similar functions. The first switch will remove animation, and the second will remove the transparency of elements in the system.
How to turn it on: let's move along the path Settings - Universal access– Monitor and activate one or both options at the same time.
With these features, using your Mac will become even more convenient. Remember it yourself and tell your friends.
We won’t go into details why yours stopped working and why you needed a virtual one/ screen keyboard. I already know this, everyone eats and drinks in front of the computer, and the rest are psychopaths and beat her). If your keyboard is out of order, it’s not a big deal and you can temporarily replace it. Let's see how to do this.
How to enable the virtual keyboard
You know, when I needed it myself, I found it right away, but then, out of curiosity, I looked at what answers there were on the Internet before writing this post. I was surprised by the answers on YouTube and other sites... It’s terrible, the authors write how to call up the keyboard using hot keys... But, if I’m looking for how to find it, it means my keyboard doesn’t work and I can’t press these keys).
Below I wrote how to enable the virtual keyboard with the mouse only:
WindowsXP – 7: Open the Start menu, then All Programs, then Accessories, Accessibility and select On-Screen Keyboard.
Windows 8- Open Control Panel, then "Accessibility" After "Enable on-screen keyboard"
Windows 10– In the notification panel, click on the keyboard icon and select “Show button touchpad" Or “Control Panel”, “Accessibility”, “Keyboard”, turn on the “Turn on the on-screen keyboard” lever.
Linux - Unfortunately, this is not provided and must be installed. Everything would be fine, but to install you need to write to command line. Therefore, I recommend moving on to the next point.
MacOS- "Programs", " System Settings", "Language and text", "Input sources" check the box next to "Keyboard and symbols" and next to the languages you need. Now to open it, click on the flag (at the top, where you can change the language) and click “Show panel”.
On-screen keyboard online
If for some reason standard program you are not satisfied, you can use it online. Quite a convenient solution, but the standard one is better.
I used the Yandex keyboard, and it is quite comfortable. To open it, go to the “ ” result and click “Keyboard” at the bottom.
It is more convenient because the input field is higher and you can enter a fairly large text, which you cannot do in Yandex, but in any case this is a temporary perversion and no one will write large texts this way.
Download virtual keyboard
I know that there are individuals who are not suitable simple solutions problems and they like to complicate their lives, so I want to recommend the Hot Virtual Keyboard virtual keyboard programs.
Unlike all previous options, this program allows you to change the design, make flexible settings, and many more interesting things, but in my opinion unnecessary.
Sometimes for work or study we need specific symbols that cannot be found in official Russian or English layout- arrow, mathematical root, currency symbol, letters and hieroglyphs of other alphabets, etc. In this article, we'll tell you where to find them on your Mac.
In contact with
By the way, some things can be done with keyboard shortcuts. For example, in the English layout, pressing ⌥Option (Alt) + Z will give you a letter Ω (“omega”, the last letter of the Greek alphabet). To access all special characters, do the following:
How to quickly recall special characters (emojis, icons) on Mac (macOS)
1 . your Mac and select a section Keyboard.
2 . Check the box next to the inscription Show Keyboard and Symbols panels in the menu bar.
3 . In the status menu, click on the small flag (Russian, American). Two new lines will appear - Show Keyboard panel And Show Symbols Panel.
Keyboard panel
Clicking on this text will display virtual keyboard. Press any of the “optional” keys - and you will be surprised at how many special characters you can type on it! Below is the usual Russian layout, and then the same, but taking into account the key pressed ⌥Option (Alt).
You can press several optional keys at once. For example, additional options English keyboard, obtained using a combination ⌥Option (Alt) + ⇧Shift:
Just press a button on the virtual keyboard, and the desired special character will immediately appear in your text editor.
The downside of this panel is that it only shows characters that can be typed on the keyboard layouts you select. In reality, there are many more of them (symbols), so it’s time to move on to the next section.
Symbols panel
All Unicode special characters are collected here. Initially, the panel displays ten items - Arrows, Parentheses, Punctuation, Currency Symbols(including ruble icon), Pictograms, Icons/Stars, Mathematical symbols, Letter symbols, Emoji and Latin characters. Available various options fonts, and similar characters are displayed. Special characters used at least once are included in the section Used. You can also add new collections - to do this, click on the “gear” in the left top corner window and select Set up list... There are many options here, from the aviation alphabet to ancient writing systems and code tables.
One of the most important and first problems that every user faces when switching from a PC to a Mac is the Russian layout in OS X, which often causes confusion with its specific location and method of opening certain letters and symbols.
In contact with
There are three Russian layouts in OS X: “Russian”, “Russian-PC” and “Russian-phonetic”. The extreme option can be immediately discarded due to the complete mismatch of virtual symbols and physical keys. In the “Russian” layout, all keys coincide with physical keys, But the main problem is that the comma and period are typed " ⇧Shift+ 6 " And " ⇧Shift + 7 ". Another thing is the “Russian-PC” layout, in which a dot is placed by pressing the button to the left of the right shift, and a comma is placed by a combination of both. But in this case everyone suffers top row hotkeys pressed with the combination " ⇧Shift+", which simply ceases to coincide with the image on physical buttons. Yes, and the letter “e” is no longer separate key, but a combination of long pressing “e” followed by pressing unit. The suffering will last forever until Ukelele and direct user hands get down to business, wanting to get comfort when typing on the Russian keyboard.
Ukelele is free program distributed outside Mac App Store. The only drawback is the lack of Russian localization.
Using the utility, we will create a symbiosis of “Russian” and “Russian-PC” layouts, in which the hot keys of the number row and all other letters will be in place, and a comma and a period will be placed in a simple and convenient combination.
Download the program and install.
How to create the perfect layout in Russian?
After starting the program, an empty virtual keyboard will appear in front of us. There is no need to be scared; you don’t have to fill everything out manually. First you need to select an existing template. For our case, the “Russian” layout is ideal.
Switch to it, and then in Ukelele click File -> New From Current Input Source.
Since in the Russian keyboard there is a slash " /
" (not to be confused with the backslash " \
") is practically not used, then assign it instead point, For what:
1
. Double-click the left mouse button on the " /
«.
2
. Enter the period symbol and press OK.
Comma assign to the same button, but it will be launched by the combination “ ⇧Shift +
«:
1
. Hold down the key ⇧Shift and double-click the left mouse button on the " ?
»
2
. Enter a comma character and press OK.
On this moment we got an almost perfect Russian layout, but without the symbols " /
" And " ?
". We put them instead of the combination “ ⇧Shift + 6
" And " ⇧Shift + 7
"(because the period and comma are already used, and these keys are already free. By the way, seven is perfectly associated with question mark), by analogy indicated above.
2
. Enter a custom name, for example “Russian-PRO” -> FileDialogSave and save to any directory.
3
. Move the resulting file to:
- username/Libraries/Keyboard Layouts so that the layout works only for you;
— /Library/Keyboard Layout so that the layout works for all users on a given Mac.
To activate a new layout you need to:
1
. Go to System Settings -> Keyboard -> Input Sources.
2
. Add a new layout by clicking " +
» -> Russian (new layout will not have a checkbox icon. Instead there will be a keyboard icon) -> Add.
P.S.:
1. operating system Most likely the name of the new layout will change slightly.
2. In order for the new layout to work in all active programs, you need to restart them.
3. The layout file is an ordinary XML file that can be opened in any text editor (thus, you can adjust the layout without Ukelele).
The system described above is just an example and a brief overview capabilities of a great tool. You can also create perfect layout at your own discretion.
The on-screen keyboard is a very effective tool. It allows you to perform any action in any program using only a mouse or any similar pointing device.
Click the Start button.In the menu that opens, select All programs - Accessories -Accessibility and click the On-Screen Keyboard icon. An on-screen keyboard will appear in front of you.
This is a regular program window - like any other, you can drag it by its title around the screen and resize it using the mouse. What distinguishes an on-screen keyboard from a real keyboard is the presence of an Options key and the fact that the right digital block The keys are hidden by default.
The on-screen keyboard operates in one of three modes. To install the appropriate one, press the Options key. The Settings dialog box will open. The mode is selected using a switch.
The first mode is Keystroke. It uses a standard technique for programs - hover the pointer over an object and then click the mouse button. This “presses” a key on the on-screen keyboard.
The Pointer over keys mode differs from the first one in that there is no need to click the mouse button - just hover the pointer over the desired key and keep him there for a while. How long to hold the pointer so that the drawn key is “pressed” is set by the Hover Duration slider. The default is one second.
Hover mode solves the problem with simultaneous control both by pointer movement and by button. It was developed primarily for people who use alternative manipulators, such as a “head mouse” or trackball.
The scanning mode helps to overcome the most serious limitations in “communication” with the computer. The principle is that the on-screen keyboard illuminates rows of keys one by one. If you click the mouse button, press the joystick button, etc. while a row is highlighting, groups of four keys in this row begin to be highlighted in turn. After selecting a group, one of the four keys is selected in the same way. Then the process is repeated: row, group of 4 keys, one key.
In scanning mode, pressing one key on the on-screen keyboard takes three button presses and quite a long time. But the user requires a minimum of movements. In fact, all computer control is concentrated in a single button, which is pressed at the right moments. Almost any special sensor can act as a button.
It is clear that on the on-screen keyboard you cannot press two keys at once. How to type keyboard shortcuts and other key combinations?
To do this, on the on-screen keyboard keys
How to use the on-screen keyboard?
It can be called up once through the Start button menu, as shown at the beginning of the section.
To have the on-screen keyboard load every time you turn on your computer, open Center special features(Start | Control Panel | Ease of Access Center). Select the Use your computer without a mouse or keyboard link. A dialog box will open in which you need to select the Use on-screen keyboard checkbox.
Apply the setting and close this dialog box by clicking OK. Now the on-screen keyboard will appear on the screen automatically when the computer starts.
Using a mouse or alternative pointing device, position the blinking cursor where you want to enter text: in work area document or instant messaging program, in the input field of the dialog box, in address bar or in the browser search field, etc.
Move your mouse pointer to the on-screen keyboard. Type letters and other symbols on it. The characters you enter will appear where the cursor was placed.
To continue entering text elsewhere in the document or in another field, click there. If you are working with spreadsheet, you can also use the arrow keys on the on-screen keyboard to move to other cells. In short, the on-screen keyboard works almost the same as a “real” keyboard.
Setting up your desktop and programs
The special input capabilities are well complemented by some special operating techniques. We won’t reveal any fundamental secrets here! Simply by using only a mouse or only a keyboard, limiting the number of keys pressed or the movements performed by the pointing device, certain well-known actions are most effective, increase speed and reduce fatigue.
