Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

higgdpi

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 16, 2009
9
0
Hello all :D
try as i might i cannot work out how to get the hash key to show on my mac.
I know it's supposed to be alt+3 and i've checked and checked all other keyboard shortcuts for conflicts and cannot find any. I've tried deleting the com.apple.keyboard prefs file but to no avail. I've also tried creating a new user on this mac... and whilst the hash character does appear, I need it to work on my administators login, not this extra user.

Can ANYone help? I'm going nuts here... it's hard to code with no hash key... :confused:
 

higgdpi

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 16, 2009
9
0
d'oh sorry, I'm in the UK so on a british layout (shift+3 gives me a £ sign)
yep that's the sign :)
 

miles01110

macrumors Core
Jul 24, 2006
19,260
37
The Ivory Tower (I'm not coming down)
It appears to be on the tilde key on the right hand side.

500px-KB_United_Kingdom.svg.png
 

firestarter

macrumors 603
Dec 31, 2002
5,506
227
Green and pleasant land
It appears to be on the tilde key on the right hand side.

That isn't a UK Apple keyboard.

On my UK Mac keyboard it's Alt-3 #.

If you go to 'Keyboard' in system preferences, are your modifier keys set to what they should be? You could try restoring defaults.

Are there any shortcuts set up that might affect this? Again, try restoring to default.

Also try the 'Language and Text' control panel. Check that your Input Source is British.

If none of that works, you could try using the Symbol substitution pane of 'Language & Text' to replace say '§' or '±' with '#'. Personally, I've never used '§' so it might be cool to reclaim that key anyway!!
 
Last edited:

higgdpi

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 16, 2009
9
0
i think that's a pc keyboard...
my @ key is shift+2 and the tilde key is next to the z, the hash key in the diagram is \ (or | with shift) in my keyboard
 

Phil A.

Moderator emeritus
Apr 2, 2006
5,800
3,100
Shropshire, UK
Is this in OS X, Bootcamped Windows or a Virtual machine? Also, is it an Apple Keyboard (and is it bluetooth or wired?)

What does alt-3 give you? On my iMac, it's definitely alt-3 for the # sign.

If you switch to a US Keyboard (System preferences, language and text, Input Sources), it should swap around the # and £ (i.e. shift+3 gives you # and alt-3 gives you £): Does it?
 

higgdpi

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 16, 2009
9
0
Yes, OSX with wired apple keyboard. I tried a bluetooth keyboard and got the same results.
hmm, interesting... switching to a US layout does give me the hash with shift+3 but now won't give me the pound sign with alt+3. I just get no input at all, no other character, no space, just as if i'm not pressing anything.
sometimes in quarkxpress when i'm using the text cursor, it flickers between the text cursor and a hand icon until i press the alt key once and then it settles for being a text cursor...
I guess worse case scenario i could keep switching keyboard layouts, but it's not ideal...
 

Phil A.

Moderator emeritus
Apr 2, 2006
5,800
3,100
Shropshire, UK
Yes, OSX with wired apple keyboard. I tried a bluetooth keyboard and got the same results.
hmm, interesting... switching to a US layout does give me the hash with shift+3 but now won't give me the pound sign with alt+3. I just get no input at all, no other character, no space, just as if i'm not pressing anything.
sometimes in quarkxpress when i'm using the text cursor, it flickers between the text cursor and a hand icon until i press the alt key once and then it settles for being a text cursor...
I guess worse case scenario i could keep switching keyboard layouts, but it's not ideal...

Have you tried both alt keys? Also, does alt+other keys give you anything?
For example, alt-5 should give you ∞, alt-g is © and alt-v is √
 

higgdpi

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 16, 2009
9
0
Are there any shortcuts set up that might affect this? Again, try restoring to default.

Also try the 'Language and Text' control panel. Check that your Input Source is British.

If none of that works, you could try using the Symbol substitution pane of 'Language & Text' to replace say '§' or '±' with '#'. Personally, I've never used '§' so it might be cool to reclaim that key anyway!!

hahah yes, i've tried all this already i'm afraid. restored to default and tried the replacement thing but that just doesn't work at all (none of them work)

Have you tried both alt keys? Also, does alt+other keys give you anything?
For example, alt-5 should give you ∞, alt-g is © and alt-v is √

yes both keys are the same and all the other alt keys seem to be fine... except the one i actually need :rolleyes: ∞©√ç
 
Last edited by a moderator:

Phil A.

Moderator emeritus
Apr 2, 2006
5,800
3,100
Shropshire, UK
Very weird!
Is it possible that you've got a program running that's re-purposing (and therefore disabling) the alt-3 combination as a hotkey?
 

higgdpi

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 16, 2009
9
0
oops sorry ergdegdeg, I forgot about the multiquote thing :)

Yeah, that was my first thought.. but I've tried looking for other programmes and conflicting shortcuts and can't find anything. I haven't installed anything new recently either. I'm baffled!
I'm currently running Smultron, quark, photoshop, mail and firefox and none of those are conflicting, but then i can't get it to work straight after start up when i only have text edit running...
As i say, it DOES work on a secondary user on this mac though... so it can't be fully fudged, it must be something i've done wrong somewhere...
 

higgdpi

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 16, 2009
9
0
Anyone any other ideas? :)
I'm pretending I'm american at the moment so the hash key works but i can't type about money cos i now don't have a pound sign key ;)
 

johanvee

macrumors newbie
Jul 1, 2011
1
0
I had exactly the same problem, which I've now fixed after a couple of tries. I can't say whether it was just my last effort or a combination of all of these steps that did it.

I tried resetting all keyboard & language settings to English (UK) or British. No change.
I tried restarting the computer. No change.
I tried logging in as another user. That worked.
I logged back in as me. That didn't work.
I then disabled Spaces. That worked!
I re-enabled Spaces. It still worked!

I think I might've set up a keyboard shortcut conflict when I was messing around with Spaces a few weeks ago. By resetting all shortcuts, disabling Spaces and then re-enabling it, it appears to have cured the problem.

Good luck.
 
Last edited:

dv1988

macrumors newbie
Oct 26, 2013
1
0
If you go to system preferences > Language and text > input sources. You should be able to add more types of keyboards, e.g. US layout keyboards etc etc whereby your hash key is shift + 3.
 

DaBr

macrumors newbie
Mar 27, 2024
1
0
I'm using a Macbook Air and stumbled on this solution: Shift + fn + 3. Hope this helps.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.