Would you like the Insert Special Character button to yield still more diacritics so that you might write still more languages on TC?

Thanks for the new Insert Special Character button, staff! Only... could there be more Special Characters there? Or could perhaps something be done about it so that one could draw directly from the Windows Insert Symbol table? Well I`m greedy, that I am! Sorry... Yet one could do with more diacritics to insert... The site is Unicoded, of course, but that`s of little use when one needs more than three languages with different diacritics. My own example: the default language is English (that means I can write Latin too, only I seldom need that), and as my computer is both Lithuanized and Russified I can switch to those languages at a click, but when it comes to Polish or French (wouldn`t mention Spanish because of the inverted question marks and such) I have either to restart the computer, or to click/copy/paste from the Word IS table (and copy the text to the Notepad afterwards, and only then paste that to wherever that`s to be pasted), or to just write with typos... That`s almost OK for the fora, but it`s really different when it comes to the TCT, because answers with typos would not do at all! Could something be done about that? I mean, some table of characters to be inserted while answering the TCT questions, so that one could concentrate ones attention on the answer and not on restarting/clicking/copying/pasting/...?

Thank you!

And I think I`ll make a poll of this, just in case... Because I myself find it difficult to understand what I have just written... Yet it seems to make some sense when I think of it. I hope creating a poll would  help me formulate this a bit more precisely ...

Dodo,

I have merged your two posts into one single thread in order to keep the discussion focussed here.

Laurent C.

I am interested  in a program that would convert characters typed on  standard American keyboard, a program   like a speller that would assign all the right diacritics or signs in a particular language once turned on. I type very fast, but in English only. When I type on any other kind of keyboard, I type much slower and it drives me mad. Does anybody know, if such a program exists?

I don’t understand this… why would you have to restart your computer to type Polish or Spanish? Changing your keyboard layout doesn’t require a restart. Unless you’re adding layouts for complex writing systems (Thai, Chinese, etc.), you don’t even need a single restart to add new keyboard layouts.

If you’re not aware how keyboard layouts work—which it sounds like you’re not—take a peek at this very old quick-and-dirty description of how to set up keyboard layouts in Windows that I wrote for someone else a long, long time ago (might be rather inaccurate for Vista, I don’t know; I wrote it for XP).

Thanks, Janus! I hope I know how keybord layouts work; I`m afraid I didn`t explain properly... One has to restart one`s computer and switch to a different "-izing" if one wants the right keybord AND the dictionaries to show diacritics and not just squiggles.  Besides, it is not very easy to reorient oneself when one is used to typing just two or three languages, while using other languages only occasionally.

I cannot help but notice some users just ignore diacritics. I think maybe they would use the right symbols (the various Latin alphabets I mean) if that could be done easily. Of course there are many ways of putting a right character into the right place, but most of the ways are rather inconvenient. Or we translators are lazy. I know I am...

Originally written by Janus Jacquet on February 20, 2009 6:47 AM ^ Such a program does not and cannot, for logical reasons, exist, if I’m understanding you correctly. You can’t rely on a program to add all necessary diacritics for you—how would it know whether in Spanish you meant to write policia (‘police officer&rsquo or policía (‘police&rsquo, for example? There’s far too large an error margin for that kind of software to be feasible. Originally written by Dodo Kaipdodo on February 19, 2009 11:52 PM My own example: the default language is English (that means I can write Latin too, only I seldom need that), and as my computer is both Lithuanized and Russified I can switch to those languages at a click, but when it comes to Polish or French (wouldn`t mention Spanish because of the inverted question marks and such) I have either to restart the computer, or to click/copy/paste from the Word IS table (and copy the text to the Notepad afterwards, and only then paste that to wherever that`s to be pasted), or to just write with typos... I don’t understand this… why would you have to restart your computer to type Polish or Spanish? Changing your keyboard layout doesn’t require a restart. Unless you’re adding layouts for complex writing systems (Thai, Chinese, etc.), you don’t even need a single restart to add new keyboard layouts. If you’re not aware how keyboard layouts work—which it sounds like you’re not—take a peek at this very old quick-and-dirty description of how to set up keyboard layouts in Windows that I wrote for someone else a long, long time ago (might be rather inaccurate for Vista, I don’t know; I wrote it for XP).

I do not know: maybe my idea is Utopian, but this would be great if there was such a program which could sense the diacritics in a particular language, like a speller. It could sense the words by the context, and then the person typing would have to make just some corrections. In fact, in Polish there are not too many words which look the same while spelled without the diacritics.

Flotsam and jetsam aside... and sorry, Janus, I did make a muddle of different things... what I want to ask is this:

Would users find it useful to find more special characters when clicking the Insert Special Character button (TC Fora)?

Would they find a similar button (Insert Symbol or Special Character or Diacritic or whatever) useful when answering TCT questions?

Should such things be found useful, could that be implemented?

Oh my...

I’m not sure I follow here … which dictionaries do you mean? Software dictionaries where the diacritics get mangled if you’re not booted into Windows in that particular language? That sounds like badly coded software to me.

Or do you mean spell-checkers? I wasn’t aware the universal language chosen in Windows made a difference to spell-checkers. Then again, I haven’t actually been a regular Windows user (not for multilingual purposes, anyway) for nigh on four years.

Certainly there are many ways of entering diacritics. My own lazy personal self just finds it a lot easier to switch keyboard layouts and then type ‘natively’ for whichever language I’m typing, rather than having to go to an ‘Insert symbol’ menu/box/button/thingy.

But then again, I’ve always hated that ‘Insert symbol’ thing, and I’ve made my own personalised keyboard layout that retains easy typing possibilities in English (including single-key values for the oft-neglected opening single quote), as well as giving me instant access to diacritics such as ű (for Hungarian), į and ė (for Lithuanian), ǚ (for Pinyin), đ (for Croatian), ı (for Turkish), ŵ (for Welsh), etc.

Took me a long time to do it originally, but it allows me to now be utterly lazy, and still type with cross-lingual accuracy without losing (much) speed.

So for me, at least, more symbols and/or ‘Insert Character/Symbol/Diacritic’ buttons would be of no real use. I didn’t even realise there was an ‘Insert Special Character’ button here (it doesn’t show up in the non-WYSIWYG editor).

Originally written by Janus Jacquet on February 21, 2009 7:13 AM  which dictionaries do you mean?

Various kinds. Righ now I`m furious with the Nowy slownik poprawnej polszczyzny CD. Well, doesn`t matter, as I prefer good old paper dictionaries anyway.

Or do you mean spell-checkers?

I seldom need those.

Certainly there are many ways of entering diacritics. My own lazy personal self just finds it a lot easier to switch keyboard layouts and then type ‘natively’ for whichever language I’m typing, rather than having to go to an ‘Insert symbol’ menu/box/button/thingy.

I`m used to "blind typing", or whatever that is called; with 4 languages as my "working languages", switching from one to another presents some problems. I prefer the ergonomic layout, and sometimes my fingers play tricks on me. For example, it is the fourth finger that hits the English or Lithuanian "a", but it is the first with the Russian "a". So it`s just easier for me to insert a symbol when the language is not one my fingers are "used to". BTW, I can still use the -- --- .-. ... .  -.-. --- -.. .  .- .-.. .--. .... .- -... . -  if I try very hard...

I didn’t even realise there was an ‘Insert Special Character’ button here.

It appeared only recently.

But I would really appreciate such a button when answering TCT Questions. And I think some other users would, too. Not all of them, of course, just some...