Mac 101: Activate the Onscreen Keyboard in OS X
Written on September 24, 2008 by Jenny Kortina and 10 people have commented
An onscreen keyboard can be a powerful tool for screencasters. This tutorial will show you how to turn on the onscreen keyboard that OS X has built in.
To turn on the onscreen keyboard:
- Go to the System Preferences panel
- Select the “International” icon
- Go to the “Input Menu” tab
- Select the “Keyboard Viewer”
- You now should have an American flag in your menu bar. Click on the American flag and select “Show Keyboard Viewer”
- You now should have a keyboard on your desktop that displays whatever your press on your keyboard. Quick, easy, free!
* If you click the plus arrow in the upper left hand corner of the keyboard it makes it much larger.
#1 obsidian says:I don’t have the “Keyboard Viewer” option in the input menu. I’m I missing something?
#2 Jenny says:@obsidian: Are you sure you just don’t see it? I know it works in both Tiger and Leopard.
#3 dimitris says:please read this : macosxhints
#4 Colin says:This is a great tip. I use the onscreen keyboard viewer to see special characters (like , ® and ™) when I can’t remember the keys off the top of my head.
#5 Sanford says:Cool. Thanks!
#6 DeadParrot says:In 10.5 I just make an alias to
/System/Library/Components/KeyboardViewer.component/Contents/SharedSupport/KeyboardViewerSupport.app
I put this in my local utilities folder, paste a nice icon and I just open the application whenever I need it. I don’t need to fiddle with the International menu.
Note that this breaks with major releases, since Apple moves things around. So expect a different path in 10.6 or 10.7.
#7 rajington says:if you have quicksilver:
get the “extra scripts” plugin and “show keyboard viewer” is an action you can activate, you don’t have to do any of the additional steps above or lose the precious menubar space…
http://lifehacker.com/software/notag/quicksilver-extra-scripts-37816.php
if you don’t have quicksilver:
get it, stupid: http://www.blacktree.com/
#8 socorro Martinez says:to whom it may concern
i use the keyboard viewer, because i am disable. i really enjoyed using the keyboard viewer. but i have a problem. and it is that i can’t use the shift or the cap locks can someone help me. thank you.
#9 joe says:HELP. Shift and Caps Lock dont work with the onscreen keyboard. using the mouse, you should be able to click the caps lock button, and have all buttons remain in caps until you click the CAPS LOCK button again. however, when you hit the caps lock, nothing happens
#10 nick-sf says:wow. awesome. I’ve got a new Wacom Cintiq as my main monitor and this thing is PERFECT for little typing tasks without yanking out the physical keyboard.