http://urlgreyhot.com/personal/weblog/mac_os_x_character_mapMac OS X character map
While looking for a character to place into Illustrator today, I noticed that the Keycaps character map utility is no longer to be found in OS X Panther (10.3). Poking around in Google, I found that this function is now handled through the Keyboard Viewer palette. getting this to show up takes a few steps though.
First, open System Preferences and show the International settings.
Second, select the Input Menu tab and check the Keyboard Palette checkbox. Check the menu box that reads "Show input menu in menu bar".
Now you will notice an icon in your system's top menu bar, probably the U.S. flag. This the input menu. When you click on the menu you can select "Show Keyboard Viewer" and the palette will open, allowing you to select a font and hold down Option, Shift, Command keys to view keyboard combinations.
I'm too tired right now to check this out but I will in the morning; it might be for a pre-10.4 OS:
I know this is a bit of a long way to do this same thing. But in case you want to see the Character Palette or view the Keycaps you can find these programs buried in the System Library. You can then make Aliases to them to bring them up whenever, they're locations:
Keyboard Viewer (keycaps)
/System/Library/Components/KeyboardViewer.component/Contents/SharedSupport/KeyboardViewerServer.app
The Character Palette App should be in that same directory.
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=336704 <2nd Frame a Response by GimmeSlack12>
The differences might be that you have to do a key-combination to get the same result that is just embedded by Pop Char X JB!