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In Illustrator, "Tilde" key ~ seems to have some magical power:
According to Adobe's site, it can "transform pattern (independent of object) when using Selection tool, Scale tool, Reflect tool, or Shear tool".
Sounds great! I wish I could play around with it, but... I use a French keyboard. No such key on my keyboard.
² key is not working. And to access the tilde character, I must combine alt + é/2 keys, which obviously results to a duplication of the selected object.
I know I could change my keyboard through the Windows regional settings, but maybe there's another way.
Maybe this key is hidden somewhere, or maybe I could change it through the keyboard shortcuts menu.
Any help appreciated.
Specs: CS6 - Windows 7
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Hello, I'm sorry to insist but the key "ù" works even without using the key "AltGr"
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Hi Doms64
You are right, the ù key works as a replacement for the tilde/backstick key to draw this kind of repeating pattern.
But it doesn't when it comes to transform pattern inside an object. This is what this is all about....
Cheers anyway
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Have you tried Shift plus the key to the left of the w?
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FWIW, I've been plagued with this "Tilde" problems for years too, living on a French-Canadian PC QWERTY keyboard.
While experimenting, on my "French" keyboard, with accented characters, on the second row, starting with the letter "A" on the left, the keys goes like this: ASDFGHJKL, and then, it is followed by the semi-colon ";", and then, this key, which create the "e accent grave" or "è". Holding this key while drawing any of the geometric shape will do the equivalent of the "tilde" key on the Mac *BUT* it does not woek with "moving patterns" interactively inside a shape 😞
I may find that magic key later... But that's a step in the right direction.
Thanks to all of you who contributed to this thread!
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I´v struggled with this for years my self on my Norwegian keyboard. Today I did some more testing and suddenly found out that it actually works with the "<" key! Huge timesaver for me. Might be the same for french keyboard?
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Currently, the tilde key on an AZERTY (French) keyboard is "Option" key + N. The easiest way I've found to identify the special keys and symbols is to click your keyboard icon ("flag" icon) in the upper right side of your menu bar and select "Show Keyboard Viewer". While the viewer is open, when you hold your "Option" ky on the real keyboard, you'll see the viewer toggle between the normal and special characters. NOTE: If you don't see your flag icon in the menu bar then you should go to your System Preference > Keyboard > Input Sources tab and check "Show input menu in menu bar".
See here for how to see the special charcters on the Keyboard Viewer:
Hope this helps as every few years I have to look this up. It keeps changing as the keyboards and usage change.
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I was looking for this on a UK keyboard, and for me it is the @ key!