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I thought the exact same thing.

http://www.iminstant.com/iminstant/iminstant.nsf/d6plinks/CTYR-7GNP8A

Hmmm... on my Mac Pro wired keyboard all those symbols *are* there. From the diagram above the only exceptions are the escape key and the control key - alt (option), delete, shift etc all have the symbols shown.

It gets even better when you have a German keyboard version - try finding "[", "]", "{" or "}" on a non-american Apple keyboard. Even with the older Apple keyboards this has been a usability nightmare.

That's why I chose the "workaround" of buying a Microsoft Natural keyboard. And there's some good news about them, too: The Microsoft OS X keyboard drivers are not compatible with Apple's Java 6 implementation - the keyboard does not work in Java 6 apps, as for example Netbeans 6.1 with JavaFX. Isn't that beautiful? ;-)

All of the symbols are right there on both of my macs - an Air and a fairly ancient G4 PowerBook.

The other problem I have with Mac keyboarding is that I'm never sure whether I need to use cmd-whatever or ctrl-whatever. I usually have to just guess and see which works. And then I forget again.

Why four modifier keys? Aren't three enough?

Michael and Ian: I wonder if we have a UK/US difference here. The MacBook Air pictured on the Apple site (http://www.apple.com/macbookair/design.html) clearly doesn't have the keyboard symbols.

I assumed it was a wired keyboard / laptop keyboard difference? (Although what Ian says would appear to contradict that...)

The UK apple keyboards do have them. However # (hash to us in the UK and disturbingly 'pound' to Americans) is hidden under option 4 - which is great for developers....

> It gets even better when you have a German keyboard version - try finding "[", "]", "{" or "}" on a non-american Apple keyboard.

This is why you have the virtual keyboard. Also, I don't know for german but on the french keyboard they're combinations of the parens keys and modifiers (alt or alt and shift, I think, I can type them when I'm using my mac but I don't remember the exact chord)

So, a slight tangent, but the command key has a symbol because, historically, the symbol was the only character on the key. And it looks like the symbols on the other keys are/were rarely present.

http://2aday.wordpress.com/2007/08/09/why-the-applecommand-key-finally-lost-its-apple/

Agreed. My MacBook doesn't have the symbols, and there's no reason why. Allow me to pile on: there's no excuse for Apple to ship a single computer without a second mouse button and without a forward delete key.

I'm pretty sure it's a US / UK / Other difference, as my Macbook keyboard features most of the icons.

Yes. It's a US/most-of-the-rest-of-the-world difference. The European keyboards, which all use the ISO key arrangement label the modifier keys symbolically. Perhaps this is for reasons of being multi-lingual. The US keyboards (ANSI arrangement) use English most places. The command key is the exception: it has been decorated with a symbol since the days of the original Macintosh.

Here's an example of an ISO keyboard (German layout):

http://www.tgunkel.de/it/hardware/doc/ibook_g4_linux_data/iBook_G4_keyoard_german.png

Ever since I got my MacBook Pro generation 1 (aka, the gettin-the-kinks-out generation), I have struggled with the Option key symbol. What is it even... representing? the drop shadow of a backwards italicized T?

I still call the command-key 'open-apple' since there used to be an Open Apple and a Closed Apple on old Apple //es and IIgs's ...

Ugh... the whole thing is like a twisted joke on "usability".

So that's what that symbol is...
I gave up using Mac keyboard shortcuts because the only symbol I knew was Shift (ok, and Tab and Delete, the delete key is marked and the tab symbol is marked on the windows keyboard with that symbol. Page up, page down, enter (non-keypad) look obvious enough (ok, the windows keyboard enter has that symbol too). Arrow keys are arrow keys.

But yeah. I'd never ever figured out the alt key.

In finder help for keyboard symbols is has a forward and backward delete keys but how does the forward delete work?

The UK keyboard is labeled better with 2 exceptions, # and ⌃.

1. To get # requires "alt ⌥" + 3 because ⇧ + 3 = £.
People refer to an "option" key but on current UK keyboards it's labeled "alt ⌥" which I'm fine with as most other keyboards have "Alt" and "Alt GR" and ⌥ is what's used in the menus.

2. ⌃ is labeled "ctrl" but hey, look at any non-Apple keyboard. I would have preferred 'ctrl ⌃'.

If you don't like the US keyboard and you're using English, I recommend a UK keyboard or you could buy a Sharpie.