Some native keyboard accent shortcuts not working since OS X 10.11.3 Update

Question

I have a Qwerty keyboard on my MacBook Pro late-2015, set to the standard US layout, that I sometime use to write French accentuated characters.

However, since the last OS X update, some accent shortcuts are not working anymore. More specifically, Option6 (+ some vowel), which used to produce circumflex accents now writes §, and Optionc, used for c cedilla, is now used for capitalising the last written word. I can still write these characters using the press and hold method, but it's pretty inefficient.

How can I re-enable these accent shortcuts?

Answer 1

The standard US keyboard layout always yields a § if alt6 is pressed.

To get your desired results enable the US extended (or ABC Extended in OS X 10.11) keyboard layout:

• alt6 -> ˆ
• alt6+e -> ê
• altc+c -> ç

Answer 2

Go to system preferences/keyboard/input sources and make sure that only the item called "US International PC" is on the list, or the item called "ABC Extended" (known as "US Extended" prior to OS X 10.11).

(The standard US layout does not use Option 6 for circumflex, it uses Option i. The US International PC layout uses Shift 6, while ABC Extended uses Option 6. I suspect you were using one of these layouts rather than "US".)

Answer 3

I realise that you probablyuse the command shortcuts for increased speed, but it may be helpful to you (and others) to consider the slightly longer method of holding down a character until the "pop up" choice list appears. For example, holding down c or e on my (British English) system yields:

This has the added benefit that the list can be customised to a certain extent (if you are happy messing with the plist files)