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Find any character on your keyboard with the Keyboard Viewer

· 5 min read

The Keyboard Viewer is a window that shows your Mac’s keyboard with the characters each key types for the input source you are using. Hold Option, Shift or both, and the keys change to show those characters too. To open it, turn on the Input menu in System Settings > Keyboard (click Edit… next to Input Sources, then turn on “Show Input menu in menu bar”), then choose Show Keyboard Viewer from that menu.

It is the quickest way to answer “where is ≈ on this keyboard?” without searching the web, and it works for any layout and language your Mac supports.

Turn on the Input menu

The Keyboard Viewer lives in the Input menu, which is off on many Macs. To turn it on:

  1. Open System Settings and click Keyboard in the sidebar.
  2. In the Text Input section, click Edit… next to Input Sources.
  3. In the sheet that opens, with All Input Sources selected at the top of the list, turn on “Show Input menu in menu bar”.
  4. Click Done.

A new menu appears on the right side of the menu bar, showing the icon of your current input source. It is also where you switch between layouts and languages if you use more than one.

Open the Keyboard Viewer and read it

Click the Input menu and choose Show Keyboard Viewer. A window opens with a picture of the keyboard, each key labeled with what it types right now. To close it, click its close button, or choose Hide Keyboard Viewer from the same menu.

Then try the modifiers:

  • Hold Shift. The keys show their capitals and the symbols on the upper half of the number and punctuation keys.
  • Hold Option. The keys show their Option characters: © on G, ™ on 2, • on 8 and so on, on a U.S. or ABC layout.
  • Hold Option and Shift. The second set: ° on 8, € on 2, the Apple logo on K.

Some keys get an orange outline while you hold Option. Those are dead keys: press one, then a letter, and the letter gets an accent. On a U.S. or ABC layout, Option-E then e gives é.

You can also type from the viewer. Click a key in it and that character goes into the app in front, just as if you had pressed the key.

Find a character in three steps

Say you need ≈, ¿ or ∑ and have no idea where they live.

  1. Hold Shift first. Some symbols, such as ~ and |, sit on the Shift layer of keys you rarely look at, and on other languages’ layouts the plain layer holds more than you expect.
  2. Hold Option, then Option and Shift. Scan the board for the character. On a U.S. or ABC layout, ≈ is Option-X, ∑ is Option-W and ¿ is Option-Shift-/.
  3. If it is an accent, look for the orange outline. Accented letters are built from a dead key and a letter rather than having keys of their own.

If the character is not on any layer, it is not on your keyboard. Choose Show Emoji & Symbols from the same Input menu, or press Control-Command-Space, and search for it by name in the Character Viewer. Type special characters on a Mac with the Option key has a table of the most useful Option characters if you would rather learn them than look them up.

See another language’s layout before you type

The Keyboard Viewer shows whichever input source is selected, which makes it a good way to learn a new layout.

  1. In System Settings > Keyboard, click Edit… next to Input Sources.
  2. Click the add button at the bottom of the list, pick a language, then a layout, and click Add.
  3. Choose the new layout from the Input menu. The Keyboard Viewer redraws for it at once.

This is how you find out, before typing a word, that AZERTY puts A where Q was, or where German keeps its umlauts. Switch back from the Input menu, or press Control-Space if “Select the previous input source” is turned on in the Input Sources list under Keyboard Shortcuts… in Keyboard settings. Switch keyboard layouts on a Mac covers layouts and switching in more depth.

Keyboard Viewer, Accessibility Keyboard, or an overlay

Apple notes that the Keyboard Viewer is built on the Accessibility Keyboard. The full Accessibility Keyboard, turned on in System Settings > Accessibility > Keyboard, is made for using a Mac without a physical keyboard: it can stay on screen, type by clicking, and take custom panels made in Apple’s Panel Editor. If you need to type with a pointer all day, that is the one to use. The macOS Accessibility Keyboard and when an overlay suits you better compares the two in detail.

The Keyboard Viewer is for finding characters. It is not designed for showing an audience what you press: it shows characters rather than naming the shortcuts you use.

That is the job of Typebar. It puts a full keyboard on screen in the shape you use, MacBook, Magic Keyboard or tenkeyless, in ANSI, ISO or JIS, and its keys follow your input source, so QWERTZ, AZERTY, Dvorak and Colemak show correctly. Every key you press lights up, and a pill names each shortcut with the name from the app’s own menus. Hold ⌥ for a moment and the board shows the characters each key types, the same thing you use the Keyboard Viewer for, in a form you can size and place for a recording. How to show an on-screen keyboard on a Mac lays out the choices.

Typebar is $9 once, and the first 24 hours are free with everything on.

Questions

Where is the Keyboard Viewer in macOS Sonoma and later?

In the Input menu in the menu bar. If you do not see that menu, turn on “Show Input menu in menu bar” in System Settings > Keyboard, under Edit… next to Input Sources.

Can I type with the Keyboard Viewer?

Yes. Click a key in the viewer and its character goes into the app in front, as if you had pressed that key.

Why are some keys outlined in orange?

They are dead keys. Press one, then a letter, to put an accent on that letter.

Why does the viewer show a different layout from my keyboard?

It shows the selected input source, not what is printed on your keys. Choose the input source that matches your keyboard from the Input menu, and the viewer follows.