Finding "other" special characters faster

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ryancousins
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Finding "other" special characters faster

Post by ryancousins » Mon May 23, 2022 2:41 pm

Is there a way to quickly search through all of the "other" special characters that are available? A recent post about the plunge symbol (0x21A7) has led me to seek out this character several times and I always have to scroll through the large collection of characters and find it by hovering over the characters to see if I'm close to that symbol based on the code. It would be helpful if there were a search field where you could search by a character's official name or code, or perhaps have a "recently used" area. Or, perhaps the ability to have a user character area that populates under the other characters that are listed, such as diameter, degree, etc.

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Husky
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Re: Finding "other" special characters faster

Post by Husky » Tue May 24, 2022 12:53 am

Hi,
ryancousins wrote:
Mon May 23, 2022 2:41 pm
Is there a way to quickly search through all of the "other" special characters that are available?
nope - not with the current used Character Map in QCAD. It looks to me that QCAD uses a QT Character Map.

However - Unicode in Windows is a closed book. They work on different ways in different programs. A few programs need a different code format and a few programs don't accept Unicode at all.

This said - the Windows Character Map is a bit more advanced. By a bit I mean a bit! But it has a search field what can help to speed things up. You can use the Win Character Map but it takes one click more (Copy/Paste) than the QCAD Character Map. :wink:

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It will work with the QCAD Text Editor


Windows has also a fancy Character Map called Character Map UWP.

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Well, I should clarify: A bit more fancy but still not good enough. BTW - It doesn't works in QCAD Text Editor but in Property Editor etc. etc.

A fast solution is to use a third party tool like the "UnicodeInput Utility". Very slim program which runs in the background. If you need a Special Character just open this tool with ALT + and it will convert a written code into the corresponding character. Send - done. Yes, it works in QCAD Text Editor.

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https://www.fileformat.info/tool/unicodeinput/index.htm

It is not the only one on the market - just search the www for more of those tools ...
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ryancousins
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Re: Finding "other" special characters faster

Post by ryancousins » Tue May 24, 2022 3:20 am

Thanks for those suggestions. I’ve used similar utilities in the past for other applications so I might if the need arises in QCAD. Thankfully it’s not often that I need a character in my drawings that isn’t listed in the existing special character listing (diameter, degree, etc).

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