Alt Characters?

[tjones]

I have a DJ here that is having a hard time (only sometimes, however) entering song titles that contain alternative characters using the manual ALT key + three digit code on the number pad.
This only seems to have started since Windows 10 was put in place and only happens in the browser (works fine in, say, Notepad).
I suspect the Chrome browser on that system, but thought I’d inquire as to whether anyone has seen this issue when entering the Spinitron playlist.
Thanks for any insights!

[tom]

After 18 years using Mac I switched back to Windows last year. One of the things I’ve struggled with is exactly this problem and I don’t have any one good answer. Windows has nothing remotely as good as the MacOS Character Viewer. But there are a few things that help.

1. If the non-ASCII characters you need are from a Latin alphabet then you can type the corresponding ASCII character from the English alphabet and Spinitron will include suggestions with non-ASCII inflections of that character. For example, of you type “motorh” for artist name then Spinitron should suggest “Motörhead”.

   This is the easiest solution when it works but it only works if Spinitron knows and is able to suggest what you want and if you’re not looking for a non-Latin character, like Greek, Hebrew, Cyrillic or Arabic.

2. ⊞Win ;   (Windows key + semi-colon) opens Windows 10’s emoji picker. It works quite well for some things and has a search feature that can be very useful. It has a lot more than emojis, including some technical symbols and math. If you’re using mostly Latin alphabets then it can suffice and it’s easy to use. It’s worth learning to use it.

   

3. Old Windows Character Map works for almost everything if you put in enough work.

   1. Check Advanced view.
   2. Choose Uinicode character set.
   3. Group by Unicode subrange.
   4. Select a subrange.
   5. Find a font with the characters you’re looking for. It’s infuriating that you have to do this. Windows should find fonts that have the characters you want.

   The search is also worth trying.

   

4. Windows 10 has a new version of Character Map with a less old-fashioned look and feel but I haven’t found any practical use for it.

   

That’s all I’ve got. If anyone else has tips and tricks, please add them.