I used to be able to type a bullet point • with option-8. Now when I do that I get NOTHING. How do I turn that bullet back on? OS 15.3.2.
[Re-Titled by Moderator]
iMac 24″, macOS 15.3
Ah, well, it says that "U.S. and Unicode Hex Input" is listed for Input Sources. I go to edit, and I see listed both "U.S." and "Unicode Hex Input". So what am I supposed to do about that? I remove "Unicode Hex Input", such that the input source is just "U.S." and it makes no difference.
Dannymac22 wrote:
Ah, well, it says that "U.S. and Unicode Hex Input" is listed for Input Sources. I go to edit, and I see listed both "U.S." and "Unicode Hex Input". So what am I supposed to do about that? I remove "Unicode Hex Input", such that the input source is just "U.S." and it makes no difference.
See Camelot’s post just before mine.
Not only try other option-key combinations, but also try the other Option key.
Option with just about any other key will produce something. Option-v should be a square root symbol.
Option with most vowels and a few other keys are compound combinations to produce accented characters. E.g., Option-e, then a will produce an accute accent, á. Those won’t produce anything until you press the second letter.
OK, an update. I set System Settings/Keyboard/Input Sources to "Show input menu in menu bar". Then I go to the menubar, and see that EITHER "U.S." or "Unicode Hex Input" is offered. I choose the former. I was trying to change that in System Settings, but i guess didn't manage to do so. Now all of my option-key selections work EXCEPT option-8 for a bullet. Geez Louise! In fact option-8 is the ONLY option key combo that doesn't do anything. Duh?
P.S. I should add that I checked to make sure that in my frustration about option-8, I didn't add some malfunctioning text replacement for that. But nope, I didn't. My only text replacements in System Settings are the defaults, for ℅ and ™.
P.P.S. When I "Show Keyboard Viewer" in the Menubar, I am presented with a "Keyboard - ANSI" keyboard image, on which option-8 is clearly identified as a bullet. But it just won't DO a bullet for option-8. Weirder and weirder.
Well, now that I have the "Show input in menubar" turned on, it's pretty easy to NOT use Unicode Hex. Option-8 doesn't emplace a bullet in ANY application. Yes, I could manually make a text replacement for the bullet, but as noted in my P.P.S., the bullet is already defined as option-8 in the ANSI keyboard. It just won't do it. Now, I'm making a lot of progress here, in that my option keystrokes are almost all restored. Just not the one I REALLY want.
Yes, as I said, my keyboard viewer DOES show a bullet for option-8, as you show here. (Though my keyboard, in the viewer, is titled "Keyboard - ANSI", if that makes any difference). I tried using several standard fonts, and none of them makes a bullet when I hit option-8. Oh, I also did a restart. No joy.
Dannymac22 wrote:
Yes, as I said, my keyboard viewer DOES show a bullet for option-8, as you show here. (Though my keyboard, in the viewer, is titled "Keyboard - ANSI", if that makes any difference). I tried using several standard fonts, and none of them makes a bullet when I hit option-8. Oh, I also did a restart. No joy.
The ANSI part is normal. I am in Europe, my keyboard is ISO, you are probably in the US, so it's ANSI.
This minor difference does not impact most keys' positioning, certainly not the Option-8.
Did you test in Safe Mode? If it works in Safe Mode but not when starting normally, it means some third party software is causing a problem. In that case: Please run Etrecheck and post its full report here. Use the "additional text" button and paste the report into the text box.
Dannymac22 wrote:
Well, now that I have the "Show input in menubar" turned on, it's pretty easy to NOT use Unicode Hex.
Unless you need it for something, still best to remove it, as it can be easy to switch to it by accidentially hitting one of the keyboard shortcuts used to switch keyboards.
But while you have it there, switch to Unicode Hex and then hold down the option key while typing 2022. Does that produce • ?
Very interesting! I switch to Unicode Hex and then hold down the option key while typing 2022 and YES, I get •.
(Just plunked that bullet there in this post using this strategy.) So how do I get option-8 to do it under U.S. input???
Dannymac22 wrote:
Very interesting! I switch to Unicode Hex and then hold down the option key while typing 2022 and YES, I get •.
My guess is that you have some non-Apple software installed which is hijacking option 8 for its own purposes.
Safe Mode and Etrecheck might help in verifying that.
Dannymac22 wrote:
Not clear what I would look for in an EntreCheck report. No major issues found there.
post its full report here.
Use the "additional text" button and paste the report into the text box.
You have a lot of very old stuff - like Flip4Mac, VirtualBox version 5.* (which I don't think even works in an Apple Silicon Mac), and others.
This suggests that you have been upgrading the OS in place, and migrating everything from one Mac to the next, probably over a decade or so.
I can't say if anything specifically is causing the problem that brought you here, but it is recommended when moving to a new Mac (especially from an Intel to an Apple Silicon one) to migrate only the user accounts, and not applications, settings, or other files. This will leave behind many agents, daemons and startup items (a feature deprecated since 10.10 Yosemite!), and start fresh, while keeping all your documents, photos, music, mail, etc., as well as your personal settings.
Well, I guess we're out of ideas. I "Show Keyboard Viewer", and an ANSI keyboard pops up. I press "option" and the 8 key shows •. The 7 key shows ¶, and the 9 key shows ª. When I press option-7, I get ¶, when I press option-9 I get ª, and when I press option-8, I get NOTHING.
Option-8 has no listed text replacements. In fact, I've never made any text replacements. The only ones there are three defaults.
This is NUTS.
How do I restore the Option-8 bullet point shortcut in macOS 15.3.2?
