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What combination of keys do I press to produce the command symbol (⌘) on Mac OS X?

(I copied the above symbol from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Command_key.)

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2 Answers

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If you're just looking for the Unicode versions of Mac OS X keys, you can use this site to copy and paste them from the text box.

More generally, Mac OS X provides a pane to insert special characters. You'll typically find it under Edit -> Special Characters in any program that takes text input. The Command key symbol can be found under Symbols -> Technical Symbols. To insert the character, select it and click "Insert".

alt text

If you're really hardcore and are looking for a way to type the character by entering the Unicode hex code, this is possible:

  1. Go into System Preferences -> Language & Text -> Input Sources and check "Unicode Hex Input"

2. From the input source selector in the menu bar, select "Unicode Hex Input"

alt text

3. To enter a Unicode character, hold down option and type the 4-digit hex code for the character and it will be inserted. In this case, it would be option+2318.

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That's useful, thanks. But there's no way to type the character using the keyboard? – Daryl Spitzer Nov 16 '10 at 0:02
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@Daryl There is, but it's a little complicated. I've edited my answer to include it. – Kyle Cronin♦ Nov 16 '10 at 0:27
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Wow, I was sure that would be some option-key way to type a ⌘. But there isn't! I just looked through every possible variation of the keyboard viewer and it's just... not... there! – Josh Dec 20 '10 at 23:55
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starting with Lion, to see the Technical Symbols in the Special Characters window you'll need to click into Settings to "Customize List..." and add it to your view. – rymo Jan 2 at 19:03
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I also found it hard to find a straight answer for this, so I just went into System Preferences > Language & Text > Text and created a use symbol and text substitution option where when I type (cmd) it replaces it with the command symbol.

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