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**Category:** About This Message Board\
**Created:** [September 29, 2001, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-helpful-note-about-special-characters-html-characters/84498 "2001-09-29T17:53:02Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 3
**Author:**  [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\
**Post date:** [October 1, 2001, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-helpful-note-about-special-characters-html-characters/84498/41 "2001-10-01T19:35:09Z")
> [@](#):
>
> Can you give me an example of how they are more intuitive than mnemonic device (the ampersand syntax given above)?
Sure!
This {\*} is an asterisk. I make it with shift-8 (same as you do).
This {•} is a bullet. I make it with option-8.
This {°} is a degrees sign (as in temperature). shift-option-8.
This { } is a non-breaking space. option-spacebar.
This {¢} is a cent sign. option-4, similar to the Shift-4 that makes the $ sign.
This accented e {é} is option-e followed by e again
(is that one the grave? I always get the names confused. Anyway…) You see the letter e with that particular accent more often than other vowels, but sometimes other vowels do take that accent.
This accented i {í} is option-e followed by i
This accented a {á} is option-e followed by a
This accented o {ó} is option-e followed by o
This accented u {ú} is option-e followed by u.
Want umlauts? {ü} is option-u followed by u.
Option-u followed by other vowels such as o {ö} = same.
The French c with the descender-thingie, whatever it is called? {ç} is option-c
The spanish tilde-thingie that goes over the n? {ñ} option-n followed by n. Option-n followed by other appropriate letters puts a similar ˜ over them too. And I just put one by itself by going option-n followed by space.
Ý is option-t
å is option-a. ß, the German es-tzet thingie, is option-s.
The en-dash {–} is option dash. The em-dash {—} is option-shift-dash.
The scriptlike f {ƒ} commonly used on the Mac to mean “folder” is option-f
The division sign {÷} is option-slash.
The upside-down exclamation point {¡} is option-1.
The upside-down question mark {¿} is shift-option-slash (or option-questionmark if you prefer).
The “not equal” sign {\*} is option-equals.
The less-than-or-equals sign {\*} is option-\<
The greater-than-or-equals sign {\*} is option-\>
The yen sign {¥} is option-y.
Some of ours are a bit less intuitive, but are still easy to remember if you use them much:
curly quotes [“”] are option [ and option-shift [ respectively.
curly single quotes [‘’] are option ] and option-shift ] respectively.
The omega {\*} is option-z.
Copyright {©} is option-g (option-c being already taken; look at a capital G and look at a ©…I guess it is supposed to be similar?)
The ellipsis {…} is option-semicolon.
The European quotation marks {«»} are option-backslash and option-shift-backslash, respectively.
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**Author:**  [@Achernar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Achernar)\
**Post date:** [October 1, 2001, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-helpful-note-about-special-characters-html-characters/84498/42 "2001-10-01T23:52:51Z")
Option-4 is more intuitive than ¢? It’s kind of cool that Macs have all those keys, but I don’t find them any more intuitive; I think it’s all a matter of what you learned first. I happen to think that Alt+0162 is pretty straightforward. 😃 One cool thing about the ASCII escapes is that you can add any multiple of 256 to a number and it still works. Alt+0162 too hard to remember? How about Alt+04002, Alt+021666, or Alt+023458?
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**Author:**  [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\
**Post date:** [October 2, 2001, 5:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-helpful-note-about-special-characters-html-characters/84498/43 "2001-10-02T05:25:45Z")
Well, I guess one would have an inCENTive to remember that one 🙂
But sure, you look at the sign and hit option and type that key and you get ¢. (The 4 being the key that gives you when you shift it).
And while I might remember ¢, I might have trouble coming up with ©right or ¥ or &upsidedownquestionmark, if you catch my drift.
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**Author:**  [@erislover](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/erislover)\
**Post date:** [October 2, 2001, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-helpful-note-about-special-characters-html-characters/84498/44 "2001-10-02T13:39:12Z")
Look, this isn’t GD. For Eris’s sake, many people _already_ know how to hand-code HTML, and that is HTML. For them, it is 100% easier than anything else.
[sup][sub]Man, you try and be a nice guy…[/sub][/sup]
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**Author:**  [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\
**Post date:** [October 2, 2001, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-helpful-note-about-special-characters-html-characters/84498/45 "2001-10-02T14:30:19Z")
sorry!
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**Author:**  [@erislover](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/erislover)\
**Post date:** [October 2, 2001, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-helpful-note-about-special-characters-html-characters/84498/46 "2001-10-02T17:04:02Z")
I wasn’t tryin’ to be mean, **AHunter** , jes’ sayin’. The title is “HTML & Characters” and all 😉
The Mac info is interesting, though (and after all, I did ask for it). 🙂
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