Monday, January 08, 2007

Hash key on a UK Mac Keyboard

This is for all Mac users in the UK, if you are having trouble finding the hash key on your Mac keyboard, I'll put you out of your misery, it isn't there. For some reason it was seen as expendable. However, hash signs can be written in abundance by holding the Alt key down and then pressing the number 3. #enjoy!

236 comments:

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Anonymous said...

Holy smokes! thanks for that. I thought for a second that apples "simple" design approach had gone a bit TOO far.

Anonymous said...

I get a nice £ sign when I do that

popple said...

Thanks for this I'm a happy Apple switcher who does web design so the # is very important!

Anonymous said...

Thanks # you saved me!!!

Anonymous said...

I've just downloaded the latest release of RDC for the mac (Version 2), and it now appears to use the key combination CMD + \

Anonymous said...

just google hoe to find the hash key and your blog came out on top! thanks dude u saved me :)

Anonymous said...

What is the hash key anyway in non-mac computers. Thanks

Anonymous said...

if you get a £ sign ur pressing shift rather than alt. alt is the key between the 'cntrl' key and the 'cmd' key

thanks

Anonymous said...

Thank you..i have made a switch and i continue to be puzzled why apple does not make it easier for switchers...thanks again

Anonymous said...

Excellent - my first mac and my password has a # in it so I was going mad !!! Now if I can just find the home and end keys....

Liz said...

Thank you so much!! It's so easy when you know how!
I've 'pushed' your blog to the top of Google search for hash key on Macs.

sophie (duckduckgoosestuff) said...

seriously, thank you!

Anonymous said...

Interesting. For me it is SHIFT + 3 to get a #, even though the printing on the keys says that SHIFT + 3 should give me a £. In order to get a £ I have to press ALT + 3.

Hope that helps to confuse the situation. :-)

Unknown said...

thanks mate , makes twitter #tags a bit easier !

Anonymous said...

Damn, for an OS based on unix, leaving the # off of the keyboard is mad...what about comments in scripts? What about coding in java and formatting of type #,###.## etc. Serious design problem for the keyboard. Glad I found your article though...

Unknown said...

thx seeing the error of my ways is not good

Anonymous said...

Good workarounds for RDP users also at http://www.john.geek.nz/index.php/2009/01/mac-os-x-remote-desktop-client-uk-keyboard-bug-fix/

Anonymous said...

ah, nice one!

Anonymous said...

omg...thanks for that... twitter is usable now :)

Emma said...

Thanks! Just learning how to use twitter and was stuck - you're was one of first posts on google :)

Anonymous said...

brill - cheers!!!

RyanDevine StrattersFearClothing said...

Thanks Man, I Do HTML and Graphics, just switched to a mac about a couple of months ago until now i was pasting it from wiki lol

SprintExec said...

Having just joined the happy band of 'apple switcher's' I feel sure I will now bookmark or favourite your blog. Many thanks Andy

Unknown said...

I know I'm late coming to this, but the alt3 thing only works if...unlike me...you haven't assigned alt as the control key for switching between spaces...I have now fixed this bu assigning a different key to switch spaces. "Simple"?

Darren Michael - Every day goings on in my digital creative world said...

"I get a nice £ sign when I do that" your keyboard is more than likly in US mode like my bosses was so it would be shift+3 ######### lovly :D

Anonymous said...

Its almost impossible to be a happy Mac switcher, the os keeps thinking its knows best. I cant find the hash at all, it no longer in either of those places it should be. fortunately you can copy and paste it from this discussion

Sallyx said...

Many thanks very needed for Twittering.
Sallyx

failedidealist said...

i felt like such a fucktard for being unable to find it. thank you sir

Unknown said...

Thanks! If it weren't for people like you I'd be screwed!

Rabenschwarz said...

You're great. #thanks

Unknown said...

GRACIAS MIJO!!!!
little things that makes one happy

Unknown said...

Thank you!!!

Unknown said...

Just googled for this and your result came out first!! Thanks you!


###########

ricoeurian said...

THANK YOU! (what a weird and stupid decision for Apple to remove the symbol from the keyboard)

Kennedy said...

Thanks for this...was beginning to think that hashing was out of the question. Hashes now...what next, monitors? THANKS AGAIN!
Kennedy

Anonymous said...

wow that has been bugging me for ages - finally got around to doing a google search and this link came up! Amazing - it was the only flaw I had with my Mac! ####################################

Anonymous said...

I think in the US they actually call the # hash key the pound key!

Unknown said...

#### Thanks!!!

Unknown said...

Thank you!########

sam said...

Thank u SO friggin' much! xxx

Asa said...

THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!

#### # # # # #

Finally: boy that feels good.

Louis Halpern said...

thank#s for that - useful post for change

Anonymous said...

This does not work for the new apple UK keyboards (the ones with the numeric keypad). Any ideas?

Anonymous said...

THANK YOUUU SOOOOOO MUCH IVE BEEN LOOKING 4 AGES....N 4T IM GNNA AV 2 GOOGLE IT...GREAT HELP!! :)

Ben said...

Thanks, I thought I was going mad.
How could they think the hash key was expendable though?

Mr Paulo said...

Great blog - I am trying to run a business and have switched to mac - not easy so far. Niggles more than anything.

Anonymous said...

you are a weird but lovely life saver!!!! ##########

Anonymous said...

you are a weird but lovely life saver!!!###########

Unknown said...

Thank god for folk like you..saved the day!

Anonymous said...

i thought it had fallen off, thanks for that

Dan said...

A quick google search, found your page, solved the issue I had on a borrowed Mac, perfect!

What the internet is great for!

Many thanks.

Anonymous said...

You should be proud this continues to be the first result for such an important Mac query!!!

Keep helping us Macophiles!!! :)

Anonymous said...

Thank you so much, it has been driving me mad trying to use Twitter without a # key.

Unknown said...

Anyone noticed this before..: on our voicemail system at work (in the UK) it says "enter extension and password followed by the pound sign". What it actually means is the Hash key (#).
On a Mac UK keyboard, Shift + 3 is the £ (pound sign). strange coincidence? Or maybe the US calls # the pound sign? Something to do with Imperial Pounds and Ounces?
P.s I just looked it up and yes.. The US does call # a pound sign. question answered!

Giles said...

Thanks very much. It's been driving me crazy! #

Anonymous said...

Thanks for that, was just going to find another one and copy and paste it instead!

Emily said...

wow that has actually saved my life

i was getting SO confused you would not believe!!

##### yay <3

Crossroads Rider said...

Fabulous advice & all in time for Blue Moon on New Year's Eve! Thanks

MarkF said...

Phew !

Thanks very much ...

Layla said...

And apparently that's ctrl alt 3 if your using your mac in partitioned pc mode #

Anonymous said...

############ Thank you.

Anonymous said...

############ Thank you.

Nigelgreenx said...

alt+3 in Firefox puts me in the third tab so I can't use that in browser-based stuff. Great otherwise. BTW Home is cmd+left and end is cmd+right. alt+arrow moves a word at a time and adding shift to all those selects the text. V useful

ben said...

That's really useful thanks. I still have one small problem though. What started me looking for the hash key was that I wanted to be able to use the googlemail shortcut for delete. Even though I can type the hash key the way this article tells me it does seem to work in googlemail!

Anonymous said...

thank you so much you are a life savor i was writing an essay and couldn't find it but hallelujahi found you thanks again :)

Anonymous said...

Haha - genius blog post! Thanks, saved me from staring blindly at my keyboard for hours. :)

Unknown said...

Thanks #helper! :)

Sheraz said...

A LIFE SAVER

Thanks a billion gzillion

Anonymous said...

thankyou #master!

Anonymous said...

#thanks#

Sarah Bradbury said...

I thought I was going mad not being able to find it.. never needed it til I started tweeting so copied and pasted before.. No need to now.. :o)

Unknown said...

thanks, I have been copy / pasteing this for YEARS

Anonymous said...

#####################

Oh Yeah, bitches, Oh Yeah!

#####################

Was looking for this.

Layla said...

THANK YOU!!! (This has been driving me crazy)

Anonymous said...

THANK YOU!!!! You have saved me from frustration and regret (for buying a Mac in the UK) - thanks!

Anonymous said...

Thanks!!!!

Anonymous said...

alt and three worked for me thnak you very much
the difference between ordering 3# lemons and 3kg of lemons

Anonymous said...

Thanks so much! And Macs are supposed to be simple?? Yeah, right.

Eleanor Edwards said...

Thank you, thank you, thank you :D Was tearing my hair out on Twitter!

Boukoo said...

amazing... thanks a lot!

Helford River Expeditions said...

thank you thank you thank you! You have put me out of my # misery!

Anonymous said...

I love my mac. I had always used Windows for web development. Why? I ask myself frequently.

I found the transition quite easy, but to be honest, I am computer literate, so that helped a great deal.

Anyway, thanks for the post. Like many others here, I'm suprised to exactly why Apple have done this; it wasn't as if us British were never going to consider coding...

Anonymous said...

You are a STAR!

tom said...

I have a macbook pro with the us keyboard but language set to uk. So there is a hash sign over the 3 but it give a £ sign. But alt-3 works - thanks.

Tim said...

Thanks! Very useful, and I'm a longtime mac user!

Jon said...

Why isn't there a hash key without having to do that?

Mark Strefford said...

hi that's great info! thank you!

Lawrence said...

Thanks so much!

George said...

how do you do it in a terminal window?

Anonymous said...

Yeah apparently they felt the same way about delete. I have to say, since I switched to Mac and splurged on a macbook pro, I've felt nothing but disenchanted. How on earth do Apple get such a good rep?

In any case, thanks for the tip. Incidentally, delete = cmd+backspace.

Unknown said...

#THANK YOU#

alen said...

#!/bin/bash

echo it works, cheers

Anonymous said...

Thank you - I was scratching my head over that one for a while!

Anonymous said...

Thanks, great tip.

Me, You and Magoo said...

thanks for the tip, always wondered how you made the hash symbol on a mac :)

Unknown said...

You are a life saver ####### look hashes!#

Anonymous said...

For me and Macs, I adore the build quality of Apple's products (second to none by far), though I'll never buy a MacBook/Pro/Air due to Apple's infuriating minimalist tat for the sake of differentiating themselves.

I WANT a hash key for programming purposes, I WANT a delete key because that is what I use frequently, and I WANT a mouse that allows me to take advantage of the fingers most of us are graced with. Do they ever read forums such as these?

Such a pity.

Anonymous said...

Awe#ome.

Non techy typed switched over to being an Apple biatch and wondered where it was lol

Thanks :)

Anonymous said...

Many thanks :-D #

leegee said...

#¢∞§¶•ÂªÂº!!

Apple have certainly gone to far with the simplification trip - shows that Apple has more Photoshop users in the house than programmers :)

Great tip - thanks.

Anonymous said...

I love you. #

Anonymous said...

THANK YOOOOOOOOOOU I # YOUUUUU ;)

Anonymous said...

# thanks! #####

Dei T said...

Thank you!! =D

Nicola said...

Thank god for that.... I thought I was losing my mind. Have literally been scanning the keyboard for the past ten minutes saying "It's got to be here somewhere. They couldn't possibly have thought we didn't need it!"
There's ten minutes I'll never get back!

Anonymous said...

#1 for assistance

Anonymous said...

Thank you so much!

Anonymous said...

Thank you! Am guessing they designed this keyboard before the event of Twitter and #hashtags.

Rosy Lady said...

Thank you so much for sharing this. I've been staring intently at my keyboard for ages, thought I was missing it or something.

Unknown said...

#Thanks!! I've been looking for this for ages, I was beginning to question the wisdom of Mr Jobs!

Anonymous said...

OMG OMG!! you are amazing!!! :D thank you soo much.. --> ################## love it soo much! :D

Anonymous said...

Thank God for that...I thought I was going crazy!

Baby Quilt Patterns said...

You are a star. Many thanks

Chris said...

Brilliant! Thanks

Anonymous said...

cheers :) you're a star. I was having a nightmare with hash tags on twitter till i read this. Cool :)

soulb said...

thank you thank you thank you

despite not being able to find the hash key I'm a mac convert, using a PC feels like riding a bike without a seat

Daisy_A said...

Well thanks for that - been looking for yonks! Such a much used key too :-)

Anonymous said...

Oh yeah!
Thanks a lot man!
I am learning the R programming at the moment,
hash symbol is really important as I doing the programming.

Anonymous said...

Thanks - this is a major help. It crops up all the time if you use Apple's XCode programming toolkit and I'd resorted to cut and paste from existing codes...

IT Contractor Mortgages said...

Thanks for that one, got bored of copying them from other scripts!

Anonymous said...

Thanks - you're a #### genius!!!

Anonymous said...

Like everyone has said thanks for the tip #!

Can you also advise on the standard copyright symbol
(the c in a circle?)
thanks

Anonymous said...

Also works (Right Alt key only though) for Win 7 running on Macbook...

Anonymous said...

Cheers###

Anonymous said...

I like the way Apple always seems like it is deliberately screwing with you as though it knows best like this, whereas when windows gets confusing it always gives the impression that it is trying its best to help but fails miserably out of sheer incompetence.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for that - switching to Apple was summed up by James T Kirk: It's life jim but not as we know it!

Unknown said...

Thanks. You helped a lot!!

Anonymous said...

make sure the UNION JACK is displayed in the menu bar by the date and time then: alt+3 will = #

Anonymous said...

legend. Thanks mate!

Anonymous said...

Try CTRL+ALT+3

Nick said...

Genius - thanks so much for your post, and thanks to Google for making it the first hit on the list!

Miss Plus 1 said...

Thanks dude. I could have sworn I'd seen it on my keyboard.. thought I was going mad!

Anonymous said...

#Thanks so much. Now I can Twitter properly##

Alison said...

brilliant! First search for "hash key on a mac" was yours - and so simple when you know how!

Jon said...

Incidentally, using the Keyboard Viewer you can see how to get at lots of alternate characters. Look at System Preferences... Keyboard and check the "Show Keyboard and Character Viewer in menu bar" option.

Tris said...

Thanks

Anonymous said...

New to a Mac and had a weird moment looking frantically for the hash key. Thank goodness I found your blog through Google.

Thanks #

Anonymous said...

have been copying & pasting like a tool.... xD #cheers

Anonymous said...

why didn't i google earlier been driving me crazy thanks#####

Anonymous said...

no key board drivers windows xp press the # key which is the key at the right of the (") -> the (|\) key seems to work fine maybe i missed something here ..

Anonymous said...

thank you!#####

Becca said...

Thank you so much, I can't believe that it was so simple!!

EB said...

Many thanks for this very helpful tip.

Up to now I've had to go into the 'symbol' section of MS Word and insert the hash symbol from there.

Very annoying and time consuming having to do this.

Your simple tip will save me hours of time over the coming years (if I'm spared!).

All the best

EB

Copy editor and web writer

Anonymous said...

thnks!!!!

Anonymous said...

I actually love you for this ~ yes I love you! :D ###
Thanks #

Anonymous said...

I actually love you for this ~ yes I love you! :D ###
Thanks #

555 Films said...

Thanks it's been driving me crazy copying the # in Twitter

Anonymous said...

Brilliant. Thank you.

Anonymous said...

thanks a lot

Anonymous said...

Hilarious, I thought I was the only person who couldn't find it until I saw 106 other grateful commenters. Thanks!

Anonymous said...

Whew thanks for that I thought I must be going mad not seeing the hash key. I'm fairly new to the mac and not used to it yet. Also thanks to the ifo from another post about cmd and backspace for delete, that is another key I missed.

Unknown said...

Thanks! It's well hidden

Sammy said...

Many thanks for that, have had a Mac for years happily never needing to know that until today. Knew it wasn't just me stumped by the missing # key when I started typing 'hash key o'.... into Google & it knew what I was looking for ; )

Marzipants said...

Phew! I didn't think I was going to be able to Twitter.
Thank you very much for your help.
Have a lovely weekend x

Anonymous said...

Thanks for that....! Thank goodness for google

Sarah said...

##########

you have no idea how goood that feels.. damn dont know hwy it took me soooo long to google it.


Thank you very much : )

Anonymous said...

Yay! I can tweet vigorously now trending topics!

Anonymous said...

i love #

Anonymous said...

########### yay thanks

chazmccann said...

THANKYOU! ive been asking EVERYONE... they just thought i was dumb and couldn't see it! x

Anonymous said...

I hope you've had some advertising out of this wonderful bit of advice (Newbie Apple user:-) # (Bugger me, it works!)

Anonymous said...

Top of the search and top of my saviours of the day!

Anonymous said...

Thank you thank you
#######

Anonymous said...

Thank you! ########################

Anonymous said...

you legend, this has saved me so much time at work! ######

Raf said...

#Thank You So much! CMD KEY GIVES YOU POUND SIGN ALT GIVES YOU #!

Raf said...

THANK YOU! CMD KEY GIVES YOU POUND SIGN AND ALT KEY GIVES YOU #!

Raf said...

THANK YOU SO MUCH! CMD KEY GIVES YOU POUND SIGN AND ALT GIVES YOU #!

Anonymous said...

woop! ####

Kimtag said...

Bizarre. I mean. Priorities, people !

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the help had a apple for year and only just noticed. ;-)

Anonymous said...

You shall go to #heaven for your kindness of saving all those poor souls including mine from starvation due to aimlessly searching for the # key. Almost 3 months and I am still not convinced about the greatness of Macs...maybe one day I shall become a believer ...for now I remain a frustrated hash searching soul...

Anonymous said...

LIFE SAVER

Unknown said...

Thanks#########

Pedro said...

Thanks. I've just opened a Twitter account and need # to put in front of keywords

Anonymous said...

Thanks... thought I was going mad and staring at every key for a good second to make sure I wasn't missing it somehow!! ######## :))

Anonymous said...

Thanks.. thought I was going mad for a minute... staring at each key individually to make sure I hadn't missed it!!! ###### :))

Anonymous said...

Thanks a lot :)

Anonymous said...

wow thanks have had my Mac for a while & could never figure out why the hash key was £ symbol! Definately not my finest hour

saint lucia hotels said...

interesting read, from one apple switcher to another, thanks

Anonymous said...

#thanks, most useful thing I found this week#

Nati Mady said...

THANKS! this makes # tagging on twitter MUCH EASIER!

Anonymous said...

Hi it looks like its now shift and 3 in Lion

Anonymous said...

You + Google search = win!

Just had exactly the same thought while trying twitter on my new iMac "Dude, where's my # key??"

Thank you

Anonymous said...

Cheers mate!

frank said...

Top work and to comment on some of the replies; Yes apple did go too far with their stupid mini keyboard. Why remove all these keys. When did anyone ask for an even smaller keyboard with less functionality. Cupertino definitely slipped up on this one ?

Anonymous said...

Don't use it very often, and always forget! Nice one.

Boo said...

Weird how they don't have a # key on the keyboard when it's used extensively in Objective # as part of the #define command.

Weird.

Ben said...

Thanks for that.

A keyboard design oversite, me thinks.

RTP said...

Thankyou!

Winning Inch Internet Marketing said...

LOL I been cutting and pasting for nearly 3 years.. Thanks.. Just need to break the habit now!

Anonymous said...

you are a genius

Unknown said...

tidy easy when you know how loving my new mac pro 2011

Chris Hunt said...

Thanks - I'm using my girlfriend's Apple and just added the missing # key to the list of "legendary Apple ease of use" features.

Will be so happy to switch back to my trusty PC next week.

Anonymous said...

Thanks! Just switched to a mac and can't believe it wasn't on the keyboard. :)

Hence72 said...

wonderful! I'm ######ing with joy

Anonymous said...

Thanks - but why isn't this on a separate key or even printed on the keytop?

Seems to be design simplicity over functionality ...

Iva said...

I found changing the keyboard to US international pc in system preferences/keyboard or language preferences is better as shft-3 is easier on the hand than alt-3

Mike Williams said...

brilliant, thought for a moment I was going mental. So in the next build of ios apple ties get closer to twitter so on a Friday loads of mac users go FF oh bugger cant do it

Darren Reynolds said...

Neat thanks.

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