There’s something a bit upsetting about how finding it online is faster and easier than using an application purpose-built for this purpose (Character Map)
I actually find it a lot easier on mobile, because you can see all the symbols available to type without having to memorise them or have 2-4 different characters printed on each key. Gboard has almost every special character I ever need to use accessible in its two extra screens, and accented letters like êëéèē accessible by long-pressing the base letter.
Unexpected Keyboard (on F-Droid) is also fantastic for extra characters, give it a try, but I don’t use it as a daily driver because of lack of spellcheck and glide typing.
For real though, Linux Mint comes with what seems to be a clone of it, name included, and I’m pretty sure I’ve seen other clones of it integrated into writing software. There have been plenty of opportunities to improve on the formula, and the experience is improved slightly, it’s just not enough.
I admit I’ve never used it, but it seems to require you to know in advance the key presses to get the character you want, so it’s not going to help if it’s a character you only use rarely.
If you got compose key (linux, mac, windows with third party software), then those are trivial:
ë ñ ũ ü, and even åâăāãȧaąàáæª₂2²
Goes like Compose e ", Compose n ~, etc
But a thing to note that resulting letters are generic and not region-specific,
like that ë (U+00EB LATIN SMALL LETTER A WITH DIAERESIS)
is not the same as ё (U+0451 CYRILLIC SMALL LETTER IO)
Which might trigger spellcheckers or not even be displayed in certain fonts
There’s also apparently some weird combos like Compose+:) for ☺ and Compose+CCCP for ☭, but no easily available keys for greek letters unless you tweak configs…
I actually do this for complicated letter that I don’t know.
Like: ë, ñ, ũ, ü, etc
There’s something a bit upsetting about how finding it online is faster and easier than using an application purpose-built for this purpose (Character Map)
It’s even worse on mobile. I have no idea how to do this without changing my phone’s whole locale.
I’m not sure about your specific setup, but usually on mobiles you can hold your finger on a letter to see variants/accent marks.
It depends on the keyboard. I’ve used some in the past that tied that feature to the current language
I actually find it a lot easier on mobile, because you can see all the symbols available to type without having to memorise them or have 2-4 different characters printed on each key. Gboard has almost every special character I ever need to use accessible in its two extra screens, and accented letters like êëéèē accessible by long-pressing the base letter.
Unexpected Keyboard (on F-Droid) is also fantastic for extra characters, give it a try, but I don’t use it as a daily driver because of lack of spellcheck and glide typing.
Prêss æñd høld for Samsung and Google keyboards
I use SwiftKey, though.
That application was made before the turn of the fucking millennium and it has a bad UI design?
I know, right?
For real though, Linux Mint comes with what seems to be a clone of it, name included, and I’m pretty sure I’ve seen other clones of it integrated into writing software. There have been plenty of opportunities to improve on the formula, and the experience is improved slightly, it’s just not enough.
Edit: turns out the one in Mint is GNOME Character Map.
Y’all motherfuckers need the compose key.
I admit I’ve never used it, but it seems to require you to know in advance the key presses to get the character you want, so it’s not going to help if it’s a character you only use rarely.
I used to google for it, but now I ask chatgpt. Thats probably way worse resource-wise, right?
this is causing me physical pain
If you got compose key (linux, mac, windows with third party software), then those are trivial:
ë ñ ũ ü, and even åâăāãȧaąàáæª₂2²
Goes like
Compose e ",Compose n ~, etcBut a thing to note that resulting letters are generic and not region-specific,
like that
ë (U+00EB LATIN SMALL LETTER A WITH DIAERESIS)is not the same as
ё (U+0451 CYRILLIC SMALL LETTER IO)Which might trigger spellcheckers or not even be displayed in certain fonts
There’s also apparently some weird combos like
Compose+:)for☺andCompose+CCCPfor☭, but no easily available keys for greek letters unless you tweak configs…Thanks for the advice, but it’s not important enough for me to do it.
I barely use any of these letters anyway.
Æ
Compose-Shift-a-e