How can I type the currency symbol for Costa Rican colón on my Mac?

Solution 1:

Add it to the Press & Hold character picker

You can add it to a letter's Press & Hold character picker.

1. Navigate to System/Library/Input Methods/PressAndHold.app/Contents/Resources/.

2. Backup the Keyboard-en.plist file.

3. Append the following to the Keyboard-en.plist file (before the closing </dict></plist>).

   <key>Roman-Accent-w</key>
   <dict>
       <key>Direction</key>
       <string>right</string>
       <key>Keycaps</key>
       <string>₡</string>
       <key>Strings</key>
       <string>₡</string>
   </dict>
   

Feel free to change the Roman-Accent-w to any character you wish, providing it does not already have Press & Hold keys assigned.

If you wish to use a character with an existing Press & Hold set, you can append the ₡ to the relevant <string> lines for that character.

Solution 2:

1. Go to Edit → Special Characters (or press ⌘ cmd + ⌃ ctrl + space).

2. Click on the gear wheel at top left and select Customize List…, then check the box for Currency Symbols.

   

3. Select Currency Symbols from the list and find the one you want. Double-click it to enter it at the current insertion point, or drag-drop it to the desired location.