# Character Picker Applet

Copyright © 2000 by Dan Mueth

# Character Picker Applet

`Character Picker` applet, shown in Figure 1, allows you to easily write many characters which are not available on standard keyboards such as accented characters, certain mathemathical symbols and punctuation, and some other special symbols. To add this applet to a Panel, right-click on the Panel and choose Panel->Add to panel->Applet->Utility->Character Picker.

Figure 1. Character Picker Applet

## Usage

First, bring the cursor focus to the `Character Picker` applet by left-clicking on one of the characters displayed in the applet. Specify the character group by pressing the corresponding key on your keyboard. (For a complete list of the character groups and corresponding keys, see the section called Characters.) For example, to see the various accented versions of the "a" letter, press "a". After you have found the correct letter or symbol, left-click on it to copy the symbol into the buffer. The character should appear as a depressed button. This is similar to the common Copy command available in many programs. To paste the symbol in any window, just click in the window with the middle mouse button. Most applications which have Copy and Paste features will also allow you to paste the symbol using its Paste command.

| ISO-8859-1 (Latin-1) character support
| Note that some applications do not support ISO-8859-1 characters. These applications will not display some characters from the `Character Picker` applet.

| Cut and Paste in X
| The X Windows system allows you to copy and paste text by highlighting it with the first mouse button to copy the text and then pasting the text by pressing the middle mouse button. Note that `Character Picker` uses the same copy buffer as X uses. Thus, when you select a character in the `Character Picker` it replaces any previous text in the buffer from highlighting text. Similarly, if you have selected a character in `Character Picker` and then highlight text, the highlighted text will replace the character in the buffer and the character's button will no longer appear depressed.

Right-clicking on the applet brings up a menu containing the following items:

- Properties… — opens the `Properties` dialog.

- Help — displays this document.

- About… — shows basic information about `Character Picker Applet`, inluding the applet's version and the author's name.

## Customization

You can customize `Character Picker` applet by right-clicking on it and choosing Properties…. This will open the Properties dialog(shown in Figure 2), which allows you to change various settings.

Figure 2. Properties dialog

The properties in the `Size` tab are:

- Follow panel size — If this button is checked, the `Character Picker` applet will automatically set the appropriate number of columns and rows of characters to fit in the Panel.

- `Minimum number of cells`: (for autosize) — This sets the minimum number of character buttons (or "cells") which will be shown. The actual number of character buttons may exceed this number, depending upon the Panel size and number chosen. Note that if this number is too small, some characters may not be visible. (This variable does not influence the cell layout if the Follow panel size button is not selected.)

- `Number of rows of buttons`: — This determines the number of rows of character buttons (or "cells") that appear in the applet. (This variable does not influence the cell layout if the Follow panel size button is selected.)

- `Number of columns of buttons`: — This determines the number of columns of character buttons (or "cells") that appear in the applet. (This variable does not influence the cell layout if the Follow panel size button is selected.)

- `Size of button`: (pixels) — This is the size (in pixels) of each character button in the applet.

The properties in the `Default List` tab are:

- `Default character list` — This is the list of characters which will be shown in the applet when you press the space bar. This is a convenient way to keep a list of your most frequently used characters. Just enter your most frequently used characters here.

After you have made all the changes you want, click on OK to apply the changes and close the Properties dialog. Click Apply to apply changes without closing. Close closes Properties without saving changes which have not been applied. Applied changes cannot be cancelled.

## Characters

`Character Picker` applet has all the characters from the ISO-8859-1(Latin 1) character set which are not on standard US keyboards. They are mapped onto the standard characters as shown in Figure 3. The bold characters in the first column of each half and to the left of the dotted lines are the characters you must type in the `Character Picker` applet to obtain the corresponding characters shown to the right.

Figure 3. Character Picker's Character Key

## Known Bugs and Limitations

This applet has no known bugs.

## Authors

`Character Picker` was written by Alexandre Muņiz (`<munizao@xprt.net>`). Please send all comments, suggestions, and bug reports to the GNOME bug tracking database. (Instructions for submitting bug reports can be found on-line. If you are using GNOME 1.1 or later, you can also use `Bug Report Tool` (bug-buddy), available in the Utilities submenu of Main Menu, for submitting bug reports.

This manual was written by Dan Mueth (`<d-mueth@uchicago.edu>`). Please send all comments and suggestions regarding this manual to the GNOME Documentation Project by sending an email to `<docs@gnome.org>`. You can also submit comments online by using the GNOME Documentation Status Table.

## License

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

A copy of the GNU General Public License is included as an appendix to the GNOME Users Guide. You may also obtain a copy of the GNU General Public License from the Free Software Foundation by visiting their Web site or by writing to

Free Software Foundation, Inc.
59 Temple Place - Suite 330
Boston, MA 02111-1307
USA