Adding keyboard shortcut for special character

I regularly work in languages other than English and need to use special characters. While I have learnt many of the key combinations provided for calling up special characters such as the German 'sz', I would love a simpler shortcut for some other special characters than the ones provided. I vaguely recall being able to customize shortcuts in the past, but am now unable to find information about how to do this online.


To be specific, I am sometimes also looking to replace an existing, fiddly combination of keystrokes for inserting a particular character that I need to use a lot with something simpler. For this purpose, it doesn't matter if I overwrite another combination already in use, if it's one I don't ever use myself.


MacBook Pro 14″, macOS 15.5

Posted on Jul 14, 2025 11:09 AM

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4 replies

Jul 14, 2025 12:49 PM in response to Emspy12

there are several possibilities to the issue you’re describing. The easiest one would be to use the option provided in settings, so, settings, general, keyboard, text replacement. For example, you’d configure typing “sz” to a ß. I know you’re fine with that, just as an example. The problem is, every time you type “sz” intendedly, like in “Szene”, it would result in something like “ß ene”, which, of course, is not an option. You can look into the shortcuts app I think on both your iOS/iPadOS and macOS devices, and see if something fits your case, also, like suggested by @Tom Gewecke, a custom keyboard layout could be your preferred solution. Or make friends with standard keyboard commands in case that’s all you need, as brought up by @Urquhart1244. Feel free to update us on how you’re progressing or if you run into any additional issues!

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Adding keyboard shortcut for special character

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