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On Nov 11, 2024, at 5:33?AM, Otto Nikolaus via groups.io <otto.nikolaus@...> wrote:
In the UK the Option key was until recently labelled as ¡®alt¡¯, as on a PC kb. I¡¯ve no idea why.
Otto
Now you¡¯ve made me curious. ?
I didn¡¯t start using Macs until 2008. ?On my 2008 Mac Pro and 2010 MacBook Pro keyboards, the key¡¯s main label was option, but it in included a smaller alt on the upper left of the key. ? There is no mention anywhere about alt on my 2019 MacBook Pro (Intel) keyboard.
So I wondered whether any keyboard shortcuts lists mentioned anything about alt.
* My search found the following 2007 document, which doesn¡¯t mention alt.
* After feeling a bit lost at sea when switching from MS Windows when I got my first Mac, I purchased O¡¯Reilly¡¯s ¡°Mac OS X: Missing Manual Leopard¡±. ?They had a free download from an appendix in that book, ¡°The Master Mac OS X Secret Keystroke List: Appendix E - Mac OSX: Missing Manual Leopard¡±. ?That appendix has no reference to alt. ?With that said, I dug around this morning and I was able to download a sample of that book from Apple Books. ?It says the following about that key, ¡°The Option key (labeled Alt on keyboards in some countries) is sort of a "miscellaneous" key.¡± (The bolding was added by me.)
* In 2009, macmost.com had a similar shortcut list, ¡°Snow Leopard Power User Keyboard Shortcuts¡±. ?It also doesn¡¯t mention alt.
* The next keyboard shortcut list that I found was from a MacRumors 2011 guide. ?It too didn¡¯t refer to the key as alt.
* Every other list that I have is much more recent. ?Apple¡¯s current keyboard shortcut article mentions, ¡°Option (or Alt) ?¡±, but it also mentions ¡°Control (or Ctrl) ?¡±. ?It then goes on to say, ¡°On keyboards made for Windows PCs, use the Alt key instead of Option, and the Ctrl key or Windows logo key instead of Command.¡±
In macOS Sonoma, there is no mention of alt in:
Apple > Settings > Keyboard > Keyboard Shortcuts?
I don¡¯t remember whether that was the case for preferences in earlier OS versions.
So all of this has left me wondering what keyboard shortcut lists look like in countries that had the option key labeled as alt. ?Also, did their System Preferences show alt or option in their keyboard shortcuts?
--
Bev in TX
Brent