Keyboards

Keyboards

just a place holder for now.

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Macintosh Keyboards <TOC>

from Mac_OS_X_Tiger.html (Wikibook – en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Mac_OS_X_Tiger)

Shortcut Shorthand

The second most important use of the keyboard (after inputting data) is executing “keyboard shortcuts”. A keyboard shortcut, also known as a keystroke, is a sequence of keys that activates a command or feature in the frontmost program.

A keystroke is activated by holding down one or more “modifier keys” and then pressing another key, usually a letter. The combination of modifier keys changes (modifies) the function the letter keys on your keyboard.

There are four modifier keys on the Mac keyboard. Their names, markings, and the symbols used to represent them in this Wikibook are listed in the table below.

Table 1 – Mac Modifier Keys.
Name Marked With Symbol
Control Control/ctrl ^
Command ⌘, ‰ &#F8FF;
Option Option, Alt
Shift Shift
Info Symbol NOTE: Some Mac laptop keyboards aren’t quite large enough to fit every key on them. Apple solves this problem by doubling up two functions on one key. To switch a laptop key to its second meaning, hold down the special laptop-exclusive fifth modifier key, called “Function” and marked with “Fn”.

Around the Mac OS and in this wikibook, keystrokes are written using shorthand. Modifier keys are represented by the symbols listed in Table 1. “Press the “B” key while holding down Command” is written as “⌘B”. “Press the “B” key while holding down Command and Option simultaneously” is written as “⌘⌥B”.

Books BACKGROUND: Ever wonder why Apple uses that little cloverleaf (⌘) as the official symbol for the command key? In the original 1984 Mac, the plan was to use the Apple logo as the symbol for it, but this made menus full of keyboard shortcuts look very cluttered. So the lead Mac designer leafed through a book of symbols and found the squiggle we now know as the command key symbol, which is used on Swedish campground signs to mark places of interest.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Command_key

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U%2BF8FF

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unicode (, U+2318)

(local copy) source: http://blog.nominet.org.uk/tech/2006/10/30/apple-keyboard-symbols/