RE: Input method for Unicode characters

From: T.A. MCALLISTER (ecl6tam_at_lucs-01.novell.leeds.ac.uk)
Date: Tue Nov 18 2003 - 06:22:48 EST

  • Next message: Steve Anderson: "Re: Input method for Unicode characters"

    There are lots of different ways to enter Unicode characters. Methods
    involving typing code-numbers or clicking on characters in dialogue-
    boxes are fine for individual, rarely-needed characters, but they are
    very labour-intensive if you need characters frequently and/or lots of
    different languages.

    For that, it's much easier to use a key-mapping utility such as
    Microsoft's (freeware) Keyboard Layout Creator. (A slightly better
    one is Keyman, version 5 of which is freeware for educational use, but
    Abiword doesn't seem to work with it yet.) There are several similar
    programs, mostly shareware.

    It's not hard to invent your own keyboard layouts. I use deadkeys,
    one for each accent (e.g. forward-slash followed by any letter
    produces that letter with an acute accent, if it can take one; back-slash
    for grave accent, and so on). With that method it's easy to type any or
    all of the Latin-alphabet languages with a single keyboard layout; no
    more of that tedious switching to the AZERTY keyboard to type
    French, then having to use the QWERTZ layout for German, then back
    to English, and never being able to touch-type because you're never
    sure which keys A, Y and Z are on at any given moment.

    That method is also easy to remember: all acute accents are controlled
    by one dead key, all graves by another, etc, so it's pretty intuitive. You
    can type all of the Western European languages using only 7 dead
    keys: Acute, Grave, Umlaut, Circumflex, Tilde, Ligature, and "Other".

    A single similar mapping can cope with all the Cyrillic-alphabet
    languages.

    I must admit that some languages are a challenge: even Microsoft's
    Greek Polytonic keyboard does a lousy job of typing Ancient Greek.

    Alec McAllister

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