How do I restore the Option-8 bullet point shortcut in macOS 15.3.2?

Dannymac22 wrote:

Nope, those don't do anything. Rather bizzarely option-number key sometimes produces oriental characters!

Have you installed anything recently that would affect what you type! You can try the new voodoo, start up in safe mode, then restart normally.. Safe mode will disable any third-party system modifications, and also clear system caches. So while in safe mode, try the option Kehs And then restart normally and see if anything changes.

Start up your Mac in safe mode - Apple Support

Dannymac22 wrote:

OK, an update. I set System Settings/Keyboard/Input Sources to "Show input menu in menu bar". Then I go to the menubar, and see that EITHER "U.S." or "Unicode Hex Input" is offered. I choose the former. I was trying to change that in System Settings, but i guess didn't manage to do so.

Go to system settings and use the minus button at the bottom of the All Input Sources list to remove Unicode Hex. That will ensure that you do not accidentally wind up using it by mistake in the future.

Does Option 8 • not work in any app, or just some?

To make a text replacement for it, see

Replace text and punctuation in documents on Mac - Apple Support

Copy the • from here if necessary.

Dannymac22 wrote: This is an Apple problem. NOT a MIcrosoft problem. But an Apple problem can still lead to inconveniences in other apps.

Unfortunately (unless you have found other reports of it) the failure of Option 8 to produce anything seems to be confined to one account on one machine. It may be impossible for anyone else to duplicate, and that makes it really hard to find a fix.

Making text replacements work the way you want in Word is solely a MS problem, Apple can't fix it.

It seems like there should be a way to do text replacement in Terminal. I have found this, but not clear it can do the necessary in this case

Create custom function keys in Terminal on Mac - Apple Support

The text replacement works perfectly well - even with just one character:

Just put the ¶ in "Replace" and • in "With" (no spaces at all).

Then when you are typing press Option-7 and a Space to get •

From the same menu where you can choose the Keyboard Layout as US or some other, choose Show Keyboard Viewer:

When you press the Option key, the 8 key should show the bullet. What do you see then?

If you do see the bullet as illustrated above, then the matter may due to whatever font you are using, so maybe try choosing a different font and seeing if that helps.

Sorry, didn’t give you full instructions. After typing the text to replace, you have to type a space or some other punctuation.

You type a space after you type the replacement sequence or letter (not in the replacement setting itself).

Any Apple app should normally have an Edit menu with a substitutions submenu.

You have probably changed your input source to something other than what you are used to using.

But I tried a few that are in English and they all make a bullet point.

Check Keyboard System Settings > Input Sources > Edit.

What about other Option-key combinations? Is it just Option-8 that's affected?

Since Option-8 is almost universally •, and you've checked your Keyboard Input Sources for rogue languages/keyboards, the next suggestion would be an override. Two places come to mind;

First would be Settings -> Keyboard -> Text Replacements which can be used to automatically substitute words, phrases and other keystroke for other characters. See if Option-8 is listed there and replaced with something else.

The second option would be Settings -> Keyboard -> Keyboard Shortcuts where key combinations can be setup to initiate actions such as launch an app, select a menu item, etc. Also in here are overrides for the Command, Option and Control keys, so make sure they haven't been remapped (for example, it's possible to tell the OS that you want the Option key to act like the Command Key, which could result in what you're seeing).

These options aren't known to change on their own, though, so if that is the solution, either you change it (inadvertently), or someone else changed it (as a prank?).

> I actually don't use any other option key combinations.

My question wasn't whether you use them, but whether they work at all.

If NO option-key combination works, then it's likely some setting with the option key (or a broken option key itself, which I suppose could be the issue).

If other option-key combos work, but option-8 doesn't then it's more likely to be a specific key combination/override.

Knowing that will help narrow down where to look for a solution.

Dannymac22 wrote:

Yes, but what exactly needs to be set in Keyboard System Settings > Input Sources > Edit? Enable Keyboard Shortcuts doesn't do the trick. I turned on everything in that pane and it still doesn't do it.

You need to make sure that the correct input source is selected that you expected to be for instance mine is US and that produces a bullet when you press option eight. It’s not a shortcut. It’s not a keyboard shortcut. It is the character produced when you press that combination and that is mapped in the keyboard layout, I.E., input source