How to Type Emoji and Symbols on Mac

Press Control + Command + Space to open the Emoji and Symbols picker on Mac, expand it to the Character Viewer, and learn the Option key symbols.

1. Open the Emoji and Symbols picker. Click into any text field and press Control + Command + Space. A small picker opens near the cursor. Type in its search field to filter, then click a character to insert it. The same picker sits under Edit, then Emoji and Symbols, in most native apps.
2. Expand it into the Character Viewer. Click the expand button at the top right of the small picker. It becomes a full window with a category list down the left side: Emoji, Arrows, Currency Symbols, Letterlike Symbols, Math Symbols, Punctuation, Pictographs, and more. The search field here covers every category at once.
3. Save the characters you reuse. Select a character in the expanded window. The detail panel on the right shows related characters and font variations of the same glyph. Click Add to Favorites. Favorites gets its own entry at the top of the category list, so your working set stays one click away.
4. Learn the Option key combinations. Hold Option and press a key to produce a second character. On the US layout, Option + G gives the copyright sign, Option + 2 gives the trademark sign, Option + 8 gives a bullet, Option + semicolon gives an ellipsis, and Option + hyphen gives an en dash.
5. Show the Input menu in the menu bar. Open System Settings, click Keyboard, and find the Text Input section. Click Edit beside Input Sources. Turn on Show Input menu in menu bar. Click Done. A flag or keyboard icon now sits in the menu bar near the clock.
6. Watch the Option key live. Click the Input menu in the menu bar and choose Show Keyboard Viewer. An on-screen keyboard appears. Hold Option and every key relabels itself with the character it will produce. Hold Option and Shift for the second layer. Click a key to type it.