Very useful program - when it will have reached beta status
The Compose function of AllChars 5 supporting Unicode seems to be just the utility I have been waiting for.
I sometimes type text in foreign languages on my german keyboard, e.g. in spanish, czech, french. I have tried several ways to enter the missing characters like c cedilla ç, n tilde ñ, z haček ž etc.
MSKLC (Microsoft Keyboard Layout Creator) requires Administrator rights and is quite demanding for an ordinary user without IT affinity.
For Spanish, I have learnt the code for n tilde, 0241, but my brain has limited memory capacity, and there are probably more important things than hex codes to memorize.
Furthermore, menu shortcuts tend to pop up instead of the desired Unicode if you use ALT <+> Numpad with registry setting EnableHexNumpad. Edit control Alt-x works only in some applications like Wordpad or Word, and in German Word Alt-X pops up menu shortcut "Extras" (you may use Alt-C instead), but in german outlook, alt-c is also a shortcut for Cc.
I first tried version AllChars 4, but when I found out that it is a non-Unicode program, limited to the local codepage (1252 for western european languages), I moved on to alfa version 5.
So I would like to share some information how I got AllChars 5 working for me.
- Version 5 requires .Net 2.0 because it is written in C#.
Be patient at the first start, on a PC from the year 2000 .Net takes 20 seconds for the first start.
- Disable Autohide of the windows taskbar, and watch the AllChars icon on the taskbar
upper square red: compose character pressed, waiting for the first char.
lower square red: waiting for the second char.
Timeouts (e.g. if you have pressed Compose by mistake) are a bit short, especially if you are still trying to figure out which compose sequence you need to type.
Do not define Left Ctrl as Compose Key
the current version of Allchars will swallow Ctrl completely, als well as AltGr.
use a key you never use like Caps Lock or Right Windows Key.
to add compose key definitions, edit AllChars.xml carefully with notepad.
copy a whole line and modify the copy.
see below the section I have added for Czech and Spanish.
In version 5.0.170, dead key combinations do not work (german keyboard: if you press acute ` followed by a you normally get à, with AllChars you get double acute followed by a)
I could resolve this with a modification of the C# source:
Because I do not need the macro functions of AllChars at all, I simply removed lines 156-171 related to macro processing from AllCharsHook.cs in function keyboardHookProc.
Next problem was that the compose sequence ~n did not work (~ requires AltGr on the german keyboard layout)
I just defined another sequence nj.
Very useful program - when it will have reached beta status
The Compose function of AllChars 5 supporting Unicode seems to be just the utility I have been waiting for.
I sometimes type text in foreign languages on my german keyboard, e.g. in spanish, czech, french. I have tried several ways to enter the missing characters like c cedilla ç, n tilde ñ, z haček ž etc.
MSKLC (Microsoft Keyboard Layout Creator) requires Administrator rights and is quite demanding for an ordinary user without IT affinity.
For Spanish, I have learnt the code for n tilde, 0241, but my brain has limited memory capacity, and there are probably more important things than hex codes to memorize.
Furthermore, menu shortcuts tend to pop up instead of the desired Unicode if you use ALT <+> Numpad with registry setting EnableHexNumpad. Edit control Alt-x works only in some applications like Wordpad or Word, and in German Word Alt-X pops up menu shortcut "Extras" (you may use Alt-C instead), but in german outlook, alt-c is also a shortcut for Cc.
I first tried version AllChars 4, but when I found out that it is a non-Unicode program, limited to the local codepage (1252 for western european languages), I moved on to alfa version 5.
So I would like to share some information how I got AllChars 5 working for me.
- Version 5 requires .Net 2.0 because it is written in C#.
Be patient at the first start, on a PC from the year 2000 .Net takes 20 seconds for the first start.
- Disable Autohide of the windows taskbar, and watch the AllChars icon on the taskbar
upper square red: compose character pressed, waiting for the first char.
lower square red: waiting for the second char.
Timeouts (e.g. if you have pressed Compose by mistake) are a bit short, especially if you are still trying to figure out which compose sequence you need to type.
Do not define Left Ctrl as Compose Key
the current version of Allchars will swallow Ctrl completely, als well as AltGr.
use a key you never use like Caps Lock or Right Windows Key.
to add compose key definitions, edit AllChars.xml carefully with notepad.
copy a whole line and modify the copy.
see below the section I have added for Czech and Spanish.
In version 5.0.170, dead key combinations do not work (german keyboard: if you press acute ` followed by a you normally get à, with AllChars you get double acute followed by a)
I could resolve this with a modification of the C# source:
Because I do not need the macro functions of AllChars at all, I simply removed lines 156-171 related to macro processing from AllCharsHook.cs in function keyboardHookProc.
Next problem was that the compose sequence ~n did not work (~ requires AltGr on the german keyboard layout)
I just defined another sequence nj.
Wishlist:
Import utility for the 2858 compose definitions from X11:
http://webcvs.freedesktop.org/xorg/xc/nls/Compose/en_US.UTF-8?view=co
At the moment I am adding them manually to Allchars.xml as I need them,
at least I do not have to invent new combinations.