The U.S. Extended keyboard allows you to types accented carons (č), ogoneks (ą), dots (), thorns (þ) and others.
This page includes instructions for activating the Extended Keyboard and its codes.

Page Content

  1. Student Computing Labs
  2. Activate Extended Keyboard
  3. Extended Keyboard Accent Codes
  4. Combining Diacritics – Makes any combination, but there may be display issues

Student Computing Labs

Follow the instructions below to activate different keyboards as needed. They will remain active in your profile between logins. See the Macintosh Computing Lab page to see which Mac operating system is installed.

Activate Extended Keyboard

To use these codes, you need to activate the U.S. Extended keyboard (or ABC Extented in El Capitan) in the System Preferences following the instructions below.
Note: Some codes may not work if the software or Web site does not fully support Unicode.

Activate U.S. Extended Keyboard in Yosemite/Mavericks

See the Mac Keyboard instructions for activation instructions before Mavericks.
  1. Go to the Apple menu and open Systems Preferences.
  2. Click the Languages and Regions (U.N. flag) icon on the first row of the Systems Preferences panel.
  3. lick the Keyboard Preferences button at the bottom of the window to open the keyboard preferences.
  4. Click the Input Sources tab.
  5. Click the + putton to see a list of languages with keyboards. The U.S. Extended keyboard is listed under English. Click Add to ensure that they keyboard is activated.

Switch Keyboards

  1. Make sure you have activated all the appropriate keyboards following the instructions in the previous section.
  2. Open a software application such as a word processor, spread-sheet or any other application in which you need to enter text.
  3. On the upper right portion of the screen, click on the American flag icon (U.S. Flag Icon). Use the dropdown menu to select the U.S.Extended Keyboard (American Flag with U).
  4. The keyboard will be switched and an appropriate font will be selected within the application. A flag icon corresponding to the keyboard will be displayed on the upper right.
  5. To switch back to the standard U.S. keyboard or to some other keyboard, click on the flag icon on the upper right and select a keyboard from the dropdown menu.

Note on Fonts

Many of the fonts from Apple, Adobe and Unicode friendly fonts include the extended accents, but some older fonts or decorative fonts may be missing characters. Check your documents carefully to be sure formatting is consistent.

Extended Keyboard Codes

Note: If these codes are not working, then please make sure you have activated and switched to the extended keyboard following the instructions above.

Accent codes for Mac Extended Keboard. X = any letter
ACCENT SAMPLE TEMPLATE NOTES
Circumflex Ŵ,ŵ Option+6,X Works with many letters including W.. Note difference from Option+I in U.S. Standard keyboard.
Accented Y Ý,Ÿ See Notes Use Option+E for acute Y and Option+U for umlaut Y
Macron Ō,ō Option+A, X Latin long mark, plus long Y (Ȳ) and long ash (Ǣ). Use Option+K,A if you need A-ring.
Breve Ŏ,ŏ Option+B, X Short vowel mark
Arch (inverted Breve) Ȏ,ȏ Shift+Option+S, X Appears over vowels
Nasal Vowel Tilde Ẽ,ẽ See Notes Use Option+N to place a tilde over any vowel including E,I
Hacheck Č,č Option+V, X Used in Czech and other languages
Cedilla/Cedille Ş,ş Option+C, X Works with S and other letters as well as C
Polish Ogonek Ą,ą Option+M, X Used in Polish for nasal vowels. Reverse of French cedille
A ring, U ring Ů,ů Option+K, X U ring in Czech; A-ring in Scnadinavian languages
Hungarian Double Acute Ő,ő Option+J, X Appears only over O,U
Double Grave Ȍ,ȍ Shift+Option+Y, X Tone marker in some Slavic languages. Works with vowels plus R.
Strikethrough Bar ł,ɨ Option+L, X Works with L,I,O
Subscript Dot ṣ,ḍ Option+X, X Used to indicate retroflex consonants
Superscript Dot ṡ,ḟ, Option+W, X Used in Polish and Old Irish.
Thorn þ,Þ Option+T
Shift+Option+T
Used in Icelandic and Old English
Eth ð,Ð Option+D
Shift+Option+D
Used in Icelandic and Old English

Combining Diacritics

These codes add accents to ANY Letter via Unicode combining characters (glossary). As a result, there may be unusual display issues with certain fonts or certain letters (e.g. capital letters).

To use these codes first type the letter, then type the code.
NOTE: If these codes are not working, then please make sure you have activated and switched to the extended keyboard following the instructions above.

Combing Diacritics: Type Letter first, then Code
ACCENT SAMPLE TEMPLATE
Combining Acute V́,v́ Shift+Option+E
Combining Double Acute V̋,v̋ Shift+Option+J
Combining Grave V̀,v̀ Shift+Option+`
Combining Umlaut/Diaresis V̈,v̈ Shift+Option+U
Combining Circumflex V̂,v̂ Shift+Option+6
Combining Tilde Ṽ,ṽ Shift+Option+N
Combing Caron/Hachek V̌,v̌ Shift+Option+V
Combining Macron V̄,v̄ Shift+Option+A
Combining Macron Below J̱,j̱ Shift+Option+H
Combining Breve V̆,v̆ Shift+Option+B
Combining Cedille V̧,v̧ Shift+Option+C
Combining Ogonek V̨,v̨ Shift+Option+M
Combining Ring Above V̊,v̊ Shift+Option+K
Combining Stroke V̵,v̵ Shift+Option+L
Superscript Dot Above V̇,v̇ Shift+Option+W
Combining Dot Below J̣,j̣ Shift+Option+X
Combining Comma Below V̦,v̦ Shift+Option+I
Combining Horn V̛,v̛ Shift+Option+I

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