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Enabling Unicode on a Macintosh Workstation
Many faculty who teach in math and sciences need to insert special symbols that are not part of the normal character palette. These symbols are called Unicode symbols and often the user knows the Unicode code (a combination of numbers and letters). In order to insert these numbers, Unicode needs to be enabled on the computer following these directions:
1. Navigate to "Apple -> System Preferences -> Language & Text."
2. Navigate to the Input Sources tab and check the Unicode Hex Input option.
3. Optional: Check the Keyboard & Character Viewer. This will allow a user to browse all Unicode symbols but is not necessary if the user already knows the codes.
4. Exit out of "System Preferences."
5. In the upper right corner of the screen you will now see a US flag next to the speaker icon. Select it and select "Unicode Hex Input."
6. You can now insert Unicode characters by holding in alt + the Unicode code, or you can click on the icon again and select "Show Character Viewer" and browse for the symbol needed.