The Keyboard Viewer shows the characters for the keyboard layout or input method that is selected in the Input menu. For example, if U.S. is chosen in the Input menu, you see the characters that appear on a U.S. keyboard in the Keyboard Viewer.

You can use the Keyboard Viewer to see where characters are located on keyboards used for other languages if you have those fonts installed.

To access the Keyboard Viewer, the Input menu must be visible in the menu bar.

To show the Input menu:

  1. Choose Apple > System Preferences and do one of the following:

    • For Mac OS X 10.6 or later, click Language & Text, then click Input Sources, and then select the checkbox next to Keyboard & Character Viewer.

    • For Mac OS X 10.5.7 and earlier, click International, then click Input Menu, and then select the checkbox next to Keyboard Viewer.

      The Input menu appears on the right side of your menu bar and looks like a flag or character.

  2. Select the checkbox next to a country's keyboard layout or input method to see the character layout on keyboards used in that country.

  3. Select the checkbox next to “Show input menu in menu bar.”

To see the keyboard layout for another language:

  1. Choose a language or input method from the Input menu that appears on the right side of the menu bar.

  2. Choose Show Keyboard Viewer from the Input menu.

  3. Press keys on your keyboard to see their location on the Keyboard Viewer. Press Option, Shift, and Command-Option to see accents and special characters.

  4. To place a character at the insertion point of your document, click the key for that character on the Keyboard Viewer.

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