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I've just bought my first Mac (long-time PC user) and am attempting to solve the problem of the missing easy-access has (#) key. (I know it's there - either Alt +3 or Shift + 3 - but I want to access with one button push).

I've installed Ukelele as recommended in answers to this question but I was wondering whether anyone has any tips or recommendations about where to remap the has key to.

Any suggestions would be most welcome.

Thank you!

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I assume you're on a non-US keyboard - my US mac keyboard has shift-3 as #, where my £ is on my UK keyboard.

I think this rather depends on your key usage. Most normal users never use the ` or ~, so that top left key would work. I use them both quite a lot though.

Another alternative would be to use System Prefs to switch to the US layout. Most of the keys are exactly the same, and you'd get the usual shift-3 for #. Not quite one-button, but an easy solution, nonetheless.

F5 and F6 doesn't get much use on my keyboard at all, nor do F13-F19.

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If you don’t need the § symbol frequently, you could remap that key to # instead. It’s on the left of the 1 key on a UK QWERTY keyboard, so it’s very easy to reach.

I don’t remap # myself, but I know a few colleagues who do exactly this, because it makes it easier to write CSS.

P.S. Since you’re starting out with Ukelele.app and custom keyboard layouts, you might be interested in this post of mine where I explain how to create, install, and use custom keyboard layouts.

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  • Thanks for the response. I kind of went with your suggestion by assigning # to the \ key (just to the left of the return key like on my PC) and assigning the \ to the § symbol.
    – bravokiloecho
    Mar 29, 2012 at 21:39
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You may just want to install the standard UK layout:

http://liyang.hu/osx-british.xhtml

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  • My apple's from the UK and I'm running the Mac version of a UK keyboard which has the #-key as Alt-3. But thanks for taking the time to respond.
    – bravokiloecho
    Mar 29, 2012 at 21:37
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    @negatron -- I was trying to tell you that if you install a layout from the link I provided, you will have your # (and other) keys where you have always had them before you switched to Mac. Every former PC user has the same problem with the Apple British keyboard layout, and long ago an alternative was created to fix that.
    – Tom Gewecke
    Mar 29, 2012 at 22:40

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