Filed under: Software, Odds and ends, Widget Watch
Widget Watch: CharacterPal
When Tiger first came out I was all over the widget scene, but lately I hardly ever find myself hitting F12 anymore. Although there are some widgets I find rather useful, I don't like the memory usage or having to invoke the Dashboard layer. Generally, I'd much rather have things in the menubar, if possible.CharacterPal does strike me as being just the right kind of thing for the Dashboard layer. This widget lists a bunch of unusual glyphs (e.g. €, £, ®) and when you hover over them it gives you the keyboard shortcut to type that glyph. It can also give you HTML character codes as well. Taco widgets has also conveniently made the widget work on the desktop as well (automating the old dev mode trick). So if you're a blogger like me and constantly forgetting the keyboard shortcut for the euro sign (opt + shift + 2), check out CharacterPal.
[Via MacNN]
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Seth said 8:55PM on 1-04-2007
I thought I would love this widget... but there doesn't seem to be a way to copy and paste the code for a character so that you can easily use it in a document. Am I missing something?
Reply
Josh* said 8:14PM on 1-04-2007
In the UK at least, our keyboards have the Euro sign displayed on the 2 key along with "@", whereas I believe the US has the # symbol? We bring that up with Option +3 because our "£" is there
Also our Enter/Return key is a lot bigger, so things like iSkin Protouch won't fit right on our keyboards ¬_¬
My point being this doesn't map correctly to UK layout. I assume you need to have the US keyboard for this to run perfectly.
I wish you could copy a symbol to the clipboard though rather than just be told the shortcut, because some browsers don't display them right. Oh wait, that'd be the keyboard setup too no doubt...
Nice find nonetheless.
%^€™ (testing)
Reply
Josh* said 8:15PM on 1-04-2007
Oh I spoke too fast! You can change the nationality layout in the widget preferences!
Well okay then! €™^
Reply
BobbyW said 8:15PM on 1-04-2007
Best Widget I've seen in a while.
Reply
Josh* said 8:58PM on 1-04-2007
Grr. Someone type Option+I into Firefox (or anything) and see what *you* come up with... because it isn't the ¬ symbol..
I can't make that classic ¬__¬ face without that symbol! life over!
Shutting up now...
Reply
BobbyW said 8:17PM on 1-04-2007
This can take the spot vacated by my Foxtrot widget. Cool.
Reply
jason said 8:26PM on 1-04-2007
Very cool! Thanks for sharing guys
Reply
Mat Lu said 8:28PM on 1-04-2007
@Seth: If you double-click on the glyph (in HTML mode) the HTML code is transferred to the clipboard. You're right, though, that in keyboard code it copies the keyboard shortcut and NOT the glyph itself. That does seem like a strange choice on Taco's part, since it doesn't seem very likely that you would need to paste the shortcut that often. Perhaps one thing to keep in mind, though, is that if it copied the glyph to the clipboard, unless you happened to be using the same font you might not want it. So hitting the keyboard shortcut would probably be better still.
Reply
AlanR said 12:48AM on 1-05-2007
"but there doesn't seem to be a way to copy and paste the code for a character so that you can easily use it in a document. Am I missing something?"
Yes, you're missing something. Click on the character or symbol you want and it's pasted to the Clipboard.
Reply
Josh* said 9:01PM on 1-04-2007
It does work after you post! It does! It does!
Reply
Matthew Waters said 10:06PM on 1-04-2007
Josh* - ¬ is option+L on a mac keyboard, not option+I - maybe that's where your problem lies.
Matt
Reply
narco said 11:08PM on 1-04-2007
Very cool, but can it translate Ancient? Goa'uld?
Fishes,
narco.
Reply
Josh* said 1:42PM on 1-05-2007
Matthew Waters -- thanks a lot, I guess I was thinking it was an uppercase I and now a lowercase L. :)
Reply
Trevor said 2:16AM on 1-05-2007
There is also my Symbols widget:
http://www.apple.com/downloads/dashboard/reference/symbols.html
Much like CharacterPal but also does LaTeX.
Reply
Patrick said 7:31AM on 1-05-2007
On a related note, check out my review post about PopChar.
Reply
Patrick said 7:33AM on 1-05-2007
Ok, so TUAW doesn't allow HTML in posts or I typed it incorrectly... here's the link:
http://www.applemorphic.com/2007/01/05/friday-software-spotlight-popchar/
Reply
Jason said 10:52AM on 1-05-2007
Ok, this is sorta off topic, but: I'd like to be able to use this widget, but I turned off my Dashboard and Expose using a utility a while back, and even though I tried to turn it back on last week, when I hit F12 and stuff it doesn't work. Any idea what I should be looking for, in order to fix it? :( :(
Reply
Scott F said 11:19AM on 1-05-2007
Doesn't hold a sputtering candle to PopChar. That's on my Gotta-have-it list.
Reply
Jason said 3:42PM on 1-05-2007
followup on my OT question: Mat Lu rules. He sent me to a MacWorld URL that did something just slightly different from what I did before, and it worked. YAY!
Two different writers from TUAW, Erica and Mat, have helped me out in email in the last couple of weeks. It was never expected, but is very much appreciated. As a "switcher" who is his friends' go-to for PC help, I have to say it's a humbling experience to have the reversed role when it comes to Macs, but you make it easier :)
Reply