Don't be afraid of Special Characters

 Special Characters & Symbols on a Mac   (OS X .6.1)


I tweet,  and every single day I see someone asking how to make a hash sign (#) or an Apple sign (), even the very secret clover (CMD) sign ⌘
Then, it's the GRΣΣK Characters or the Accented Latin ones ( The é of Café).
(If you spell Café properly, you may want to ask for the "garçon" properly too, with a "ç", otherwise it's a garkon, (don't call them garkon: Not good for you!) 

Even for the general public,  looking for a ±, ‰ or ≠ can be nerve wrecking, and make you spend a ∞ of time looking for it, and I am not ☞ at anyone here.  Not even ☞ to my ♡♡♡ wife.
Ok. Enough  for the demo.
Here is how you can access all of them without going on a overload of shortcuts.

You either have, or not, on the top left of your screen something called the "Character Viewer"

For the ones without it:
Go to System Preferences (In Applications Folder)

Select "Language and Text"

Select "Input Source"
Check boxes: 
✔ Show Input menu in Menu Bar
✔ Keyboard and Character Viewer

Close Dialogue Box, and you are done!

Now everybody should have access to the Character Viewer

Just Click on It and you'll have access to all the ☀ ☠ ☢ ☤ Ω ☏ ✈☝, as well as ≤ ≥ = ≠ ≡ ≅ ≈ .... you get the picture ...

Related Characters, Manage Symbols and Add to Favorites 
Click "Character Info"  to find related characters. i.e  ♳ is related to ♴ and ♻ ♲ ♼ ♽
Click on the left box to insert the character
Use the option box to add to favorites

Tip:  
You can use the find box:  i.e if you type "mus" it will list all special characters in relation of "mus..."














Tip #2  Drag and drop the character into a document, it will automatically adjust to the correct Font and Size


Leopard User: 
You'll find this Special Character editor under Pages >> Edit >> Special Character


Symbols Available (example of. )
Currency Symbols           $ ¢ ₥ ₠ € ₣ ₤ £ ₧ ₱ ¥ ₨
Phonetic Symbols            a ɑ ɐ ɒ æ b ʙ ɓ β ð ƈ œ ɨ ɣɠ
Miscellaneous Symbols  ☏  ♳  ♻  ☕  ♕  ♖  ♗  ♌  ♋  ♍  ☤
Geometrical                     ◐ ◑ ◒ ◓ ▤ ▥ ▦ ▧ ┿ ╂ ╬ ╦ ╔ ╠ ╚ ╩ ╣
Arrows                             ↩ ↪ ↫ ↬ ↻ ⥁ ⇇ ⇈ ⇉ ⇊ ☜ ☝ ☞☟
Mathematical Symbols    ⨗ ⨘ ⨧ ⨦ ⨑ ⨊
Braille                              ⠪ ⠲ ⠳ ⠴ ⠬ ⠭ ⠽ ⠿
Enclosed letters                ㈖ ㈗ ㈘ ㈙   Ⓐ Ⓑ Ⓒ  ⒠ ⒡ ⒢ ⒣
LetterLike Symbols           ℻  ℡ ℅  ℆ ℉ ℞
Technical  Symbols           ⌭  ⌬  ⌛  ⍒  ⍋   ⍉  ⌁
Musical Symbols             ♭ ♮ ♬♫  ♪ ♩ ♯

And while you're at it, check the Symbol and Text Substitution.
You can add and create your own, for example "cdeg" will automatically being replaced by the Celsius Degree Symbol ℃. You can create your own shorthands.
Just select Text, and the +. Then ....go nuts ...