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Friday, April 12, 2024

macos – Why does Apple add a key for §


I always wondered why does Apple include a key for § in all their keyboards for my country of Portugal.

The same applies to the shift character ±.
It doesn’t seem to have any use within macOS, although I use it to create special keyboard shortcuts, since no software seems to make use of it.

I understand not all hardware has this key layout, but it is prominent here, on the top left of the keyboard, before the key 1.
Like this:
enter image description here

I’m from Portugal and all keyboards here have this key. I don’t work in the legal system but I have never seen a legal document with this symbol.

It seems to be used by other EU countries and probably added to the Portuguese keyboards by association.

Is there a reason Apple includes this key that’s related to a software feature?

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