Find Unicode Symbols for Mac Functional Keys

Changing preferences and running, defaults -currentHost read -g shows you what changes are being written. I was going to write up a short bash script to automate it, but it looks like I was beaten to the punch:

#!/bin/bash                                                                      

mappingplist=com.apple.keyboard.modifiermapping

if [ $1 == "emacs" ]; then
    echo "Switching to emacs modifiers"
    defaults -currentHost write -g $mappingplist '(                              
                {                                                                
            HIDKeyboardModifierMappingDst = 4;                                   
            HIDKeyboardModifierMappingSrc = 2; },                                
                {                                                                
            HIDKeyboardModifierMappingDst = 12;                                  
            HIDKeyboardModifierMappingSrc = 10;                                  
        },                                                                       
                {                                                                
            HIDKeyboardModifierMappingDst = 2;                                   
            HIDKeyboardModifierMappingSrc = 4;                                   
        },                                                                       
                {                                                                
            HIDKeyboardModifierMappingDst = 10;                                  
            HIDKeyboardModifierMappingSrc = 12;                                  
        })'


else
    echo "Switching to default modifiers"
    defaults -currentHost delete -g $mappingplist
fi

The script takes one argument, if the argument is emacs, then it swaps command and control, if the argument is anything else it restores the defaults.

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=949280

I've disabled the ⌘+⌥+space shortcut for Spotlight window (since I never used it anyway), but enabled the same shortcut to switch to the next input method. (You can configure this in the Keyboard preference pane.)

So whenever you need to use the ⌥ key to navigate, you can punch the three keys, do your navigating, punch them again, and be back in Unicode mode (if you only have two input sources; otherwise you'll cycle through them.)