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Hi this is a new problem that I did not have a few weeks ago.

I have a Logitech Illuminated Keyboard running on Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard).

The problem is that I cannot type a tilde. Instead when I press the tilde I get this character:

§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§

I cannot for the life of me figure this out, except that I vaguely remember I can asked to redetect the Mac keyboard layout for this keyboard and I think i chose the wrong one.

Now I get this weird character when pressing tilde. How can I fix this? Or how can I redetect this keyboard layout? Thanks.

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What keyboard (Input Source) is selected in "Language and Text" in your System Preferences? Of note the character you're printing can normally be inserted using Option-6 (the section character) – Chealion Nov 2 '09 at 1:57
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On some Apple keyboards, a backtick/tilde key is left from "Z", on others it's left from "1" (and the other position is then "§/±"). And there's probably more options here. So: where is it on your Logitech keyboard? – Arjan Nov 3 '09 at 11:07
Makes me wonder: can you somehow still switch between application windows? (Command-Tab to switch between applications, Command-tilde to switch between the windows of an application)? – Arjan Nov 3 '09 at 11:24
Arjan: No i cannot command-tilde between windows. The character output doesnt work in any form for me. – Brock Woolf Dec 1 '09 at 16:56
@Chealion: Option-6 gives me: § - Nice try though – Brock Woolf Dec 1 '09 at 16:56
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2 Answers

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Don't know if you are still reading this but if you download a program called: Ukelele then you can make up custom keyboard maps.

Then you need to put the keyboard map into Labrary/Keyboard Layouts/ and log off and then back in.

Once you have then you can choose your custom keyboard layout and you will be able to use the ~ key no problem (I'm using a logitech illuminated keyboard using the default Logitech-UK) keymap that comes with ukelele and everything works.

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Thank you Charlie this worked! – Brock Woolf Dec 1 '09 at 16:57
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up vote 2 down vote

Usually ~ character is associated with "n" letter. So you can do ~ using "Option + n" keys.

When you do not know how to type a char, you should try the keyboard viewer in the last tab of the "langage and text" icon of the prefs panel.

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Protest ;-) There's no "Alt" in OS X. See superuser.com/questions/25005/… ;-) (Option-N followed by n or N can be used to get ñ and Ñ. But indeed, Option-N followed by space yields just ~. Still, Brock's keyboard layout does not match the actual keyboard.) – Arjan Nov 3 '09 at 11:04
Sorry, on french layout the "option" is also co-named "alt" – Luka Nov 3 '09 at 11:12
I edited the answer to take your comment into account. Thanks ! – Luka Nov 3 '09 at 11:15
on french layout the "option" is also co-named "alt" -- yes, on my Macs as well, but that's not used in OS X. Of course, it's not a real issue (let's get world peace first). See that link I gave for some thoughts on "Backspace" and "Alt". I actually hope that French keyboards have a tilde key as well? I can't live without it, like using Command-~ to switch between application windows. – Arjan Nov 3 '09 at 11:20
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On my layout option + n produces a ˜, which is different to the tilde, which is ~ – joshhunt Nov 3 '09 at 12:23
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