Inserting unicode characters with the keyboard
Throughout this project characters are referred to using their unicode values, for example the greek small alpha ("α") is referred to as "U+03B1".
Actually, a unicode value corresponds to every character existing in our documents. Furthermore, any character can be inserted using its unicode value.
"Why would anyone do such a thing when all the characters we need are on our keyboard?" one might ask. Well, exactly because not all characters actually exist on our keyboard, we use keyboard layouts (such as the Ibycus Keyboard Layout) to insert additional characters.
But, what if we want to insert a character that's not on any keyboard layout?
This is where characters' unicode values come to our aid. Using them, we are able to insert practically any character that's supported by the Unicode Standard.
This page will present the way to do it, how to prepare our system (if needed) and where to find the relevant data (the unicode values themselves).
Video tutorial ^
The following video will guide you through the process of inserting unicode characters with the keyboard.
Upon its completion, you will be able to insert practically any character into a LibreOffice or OpenOffice document; and any other document, actually.
Table of Content ^
- The Alt-X method (⌘⌥X on Mac OS X). Valid for LibreOffice 5.1 and later.
- Insert unicode characters on Windows (generic method).
- Insert unicode characters on Mac OS X (generic method).
- Insert unicode characters on Linux (generic method).
- Where to find the characters' hex. value to use.
- Using fileformat.info.
- Downloading PDF file from Unicode's site.
- The format of the PDF file.
- Epilogue.
Files and Links ^
Windows users will have to download the following file:
Links
- File Format: http://www.fileformat.info
- Unicode Public directory: http://www.unicode.org/Public/