Looking for text editor or Firefox addon with unicode characters

[Cheryl_27]

Looked at several apps in the alternative freeware list here. Looking for something simple to use mostly for forum posts & email, when I need special characters. Like the degrees symbol.

A Firefox addon for formatting w/ unicode characters would be great, but not found one.

One of the apps mentioned on the list here - EditBone - says it contains a character map - but haven't tried it to see how it works overall. I'm looking for simplicity, not programming level app.

Windows (Vista) has a character map (charmap.exe) that opens as a separate prgm. It lets you copy / paste or drag N drop symbols into forum composing screens or text editor, but that means a separate prgm running.

Its window isn't resizable & only way to scroll is with arrows or grab scroll bar. Haven't figured out how to have it stay on top, yet- maybe there's a way.

If anyone knows of fairly simple text editors (really, just Notepad / Wordpad type apps) that have unicode characters available from their menu / tool bar. please let me know.

AFAIK, it's NOT possible to compose w/ formatting in something like wordpad, copy it to a forum composer & maintain formatting.

[Bertch]

Why not just use the built in windows character map if you want something simple?

[Cheryl_27]

Only because of the limitations / irritations about it that I mentioned. I can - just looking for something possibly easier.

[Ambroos]

If your keyboard language matches the language you type in you should have almost all symbols you need available. I have a Belgian keyboard and we have a nice amount of them. ? ? $ ? ² ³ ? ~ ^ ? ?, some accents and some other stuff. Never really occurs that I need anything else.

I've never seen a text editor with easy access to them either. Aside Word ofc.

[Innuendo]

Notepad++ has a "Character Panel" that shows special character like the degrees symbol you mentioned. Just double-click on the desired symbol and it's inserted at the cursor in the main window.

[Cheryl_27]

Ambroos - English keyboards have special characters, but only US $ monetary sign, for instance.

No super / subscripts, degrees symbol or Greek letters: ³ ?.

Innuendo - just what are you inferring by your screen name, anyway? :)

So Notepad++ does. I never read about it & never dawned on me that "character panel" would be special characters. It's just in a single, long column; only ASCII symbols; no search function. You can't copy symbols directly from NPP's list to a composer like this. Must enter them into NPP, then cut / paste to here: ?

It'd really be better if I could find an Fx addon that had a character map, cause that's where I use them most - online. Never seen one, though.

Anyone know how to start a program like Windows character map so the window will stay on top (that doesn't have any built in options for that)?

[Innuendo]

Innuendo - just what are you inferring by your screen name, anyway? :)

Ha! :)

I imagine you're inferring with yours that you're a female who created this username when she was 27 years old. ;)

It'd really be better if I could find an Fx addon that had a character map, cause that's where I use them most - online.

If it's just for online, why not just use the Alt+[numeric keypad code] to type your characters, i.e. Alt+0176 for ? and Alt+0128 for ?? Just hold down the Alt key and type the numbers on the numeric keypad before releasing the Alt.

Charmap.exe and http://www.alt-codes.net can tell you what each Alt-code is. Best part is once you get your favorite codes memorized, it will be a lot faster than having to deal with some Fx add-on.

[Cheryl_27]

You have to be kidding - memorize codes for a bunch of symbols? I'm lucky to remember my ATM PIN. Maybe if I used certain ones repeatedly & frequently. No way, using them every once in a while. I'll save my memorizationalizing for more impotent things.

[Innuendo]

Your memorizationalizing aside, you don't make it easy. ;)

Here's the closest thing I could find based on your criteria.

https://addons.mozil...addon/charpick/

It's not perfect. It has the Euro, degrees, the cents symbol and superscripts along with a bunch of others. No subscripts, though.

EDIT: Looks like you can Add/Edit the palettes to change the character palettes to your taste.

[Cheryl_27]

Thanks very much for the link - I looked it over. Might be worth a shot. I don't know why Mozilla's add on search is so poor sometimes. At times, I've typed in an exact name, minus one letter & it finds nothing. Or type phrases that contain some addons' exact words in a title & it doesn't find them.

[Innuendo]

Thanks very much for the link - I looked it over. Might be worth a shot. I don't know why Mozilla's add on search is so poor sometimes. At times, I've typed in an exact name, minus one letter & it finds nothing. Or type phrases that contain some addons' exact words in a title & it doesn't find them.

That's usually why I'll just use my favorite search engine and make site:addons.mozilla.org part of the search parameters. I do think that add-on is your best shot, though. I couldn't find *anything* anywhere that offered a character map which is very odd. You'd have thought it would have been one of the first add-ons ever coded.

Just use that alt-codes web site to add your desired characters to the palettes once & you should be good from there on out.