OS X: How do I use the tmux prefix correctly?

Question

I am following a tmux tutorial which states (Control + b) + % should open a new pane. When I try to do this from tmux though, the Control + b keypress just gets converted into a character which displays on the command line.

Various tmux tutorials seem to treat Control + b as a special keypress, but it always just appears as a character on my command line. How do I use the tmux prefix correctly?

Answer 1

That tutorial you linked to in your question has you overriding the default Control-b with Control-a

try (Control-a) + %

this is a popular override. I use it. My ~/.tmux.conf has:

set -g prefix C-a
unbind C-b
bind C-a send-prefix

this is nice when you also remap your caps lock key to be control, the caps lock key and the 'a' key are right next to each other