Eight years I’ve been in the newspaper business and today I come across a question about fonts I cannot answer. Here’s how it began. A new girl here at work came to me and a coworker while we were having lunch and asked how to make a degree symbol. My coworker and I answered at the same time, but gave different answers. I said shift-option 8 and he said option K. As it turns out, both appear to me to be the degree symbol, but they’re different and now I cannot help but wonder which is the true degree symbol and what the other one is. My friend is trying to tell me that shift-option 8 is a hollow bullet, but that can’t be right, since a bullet is generally at the center of a line and shift-option 8 rises to the top. However, option K rises even higher (like superscript) and is only about two-thirds as big. But to make a long story just a little longer, I’d really like to know what the difference between the two is, if there’s anyone out there who pays attention to such things.
I believe your friend had it correct.
Option K is the degree symbol at my newspaper.
But I have no idea what the other symbol represents.
You might have better luck if this was posted in GQ.
In fiddling around with the symbol menu in MS Word, I see that the symbol made by option+K is exactly the same size and height above baseline as the little accent mark one sees in some of the Scandinavian languages (like Danish, IIRC). Hit option+A to see an example.
Hitting shift+option+8 produces a larger symbol that looks the same as the degree sign in the Symbol font section of the symbol insert menu… so I suppose this is meant to be the “true” degree symbol.
I always use option-K to make a degree symbol, myself. I think it’s easy enough to figure out in the context of other text, just as long as the overall font size isn’t too small.
Shift-Option-8 is, according to the font directories, the degree symbol. But Option-K is easier on the fingers…if you’re a wuss. 
Well, that’s at least two votes for me. I thought I had been doing it wrong all these years, like all those folks who use inches and feet marks instead of true quotation marks and apostrophes (for some reason, that problem seems especially widespread among TV news folks). And the last two guys offered more convincing evidence, so I guess that shift-option 8 is the degree symbol. That still leaves me wondering what the heck the smaller, higher degree symbol is for. I would suppose it could be used in the event someone had to use degrees when typing in superscript, but I cannot imagine when anyone ever would. Personally, though, I think option K probably looks better, as long as the type isn’t too small.
sheesh. I knew i should have used KeyCaps… all this time I’ve been using a superscripted, smaller size, lowercase ‘o’ to be my degree sign.
<feels stupid>
My book “The Mac is not a typewiter” says that the degree sign is the <shift-option-8> combination. Sample use: it’s 20°C over here in Southern California right now.
<option 9> is the numeral indicator used for primo, secundo, tertio, etc… in lists.
1º, 2º, 3º, etc…
Since primo, secundo, tertio, etc… comes from the italian, there is also the feminine version - prima, secunda, tertia etc… and the keyboard shortcut for that is <option 9>
1ª, 2ª, 3ª, etc…
I still don’t know what <option k> is for, but I’ll find out!