29 ms·
WinCompose – A Compose Key for Windows
- rtkwe 5y agoCute. My least favorite part of any language class I've ever taken is if I have to type anything outside of the standard US english alphabet, the standard alt code method was never good.
- mkotowski 5y agoWell, at least it wasn’t at the level of pain of getting any IME to work on Linux (not that Windows is much better in that regard…).
- binrec 5y agoIt's not an off-the-shelf solution, but what I do is roll my own keyboard layout with MSKLC.
- Kaze404 5y agoDo you know if such a tool exists for Linux? I would like to use the US-INTL keyboard, as it allows me to write international characters easily, but comes with the downside that ' and " are dead keys, which makes programming annoying. I did once manage to manually write a keyboard layout that gets around that, but it was a painful process and I've been since looking for a tool that allows me to create keyboard layouts more easily. edit: I did a quick search and it seems that such a keyboard layout already exists. Here it is in case it's useful to anyone else: https://pieter-degroote.github.io/UltimateKEYS/ https://pieter-degroote.github.io/UltimateKEYS/
- bradrn 5y agoWhen porting my own multilingual keyboard layout [0] to Linux, I used M17N. It’s actually really convenient and flexible: the keyboard itself is specified as an sexp, which makes it easy to both write it manually and generate it from another format. (I actually ended up making a tool to translate from MSKLC to M17N format [1].) [0] https://github.com/bradrn/Conkey https://github.com/bradrn/Conkey [1] https://github.com/bradrn/Conkey/tree/master/ms2mim https://github.com/bradrn/Conkey/tree/master/ms2mim
- cush 5y agoFor emojis WIN+. is my go to.
- pseudosavant 5y agoThe touch keyboard can be really useful for any other special characters too. Just hold your click down on the key and you'll see other variants (e.g. S = šß§). I wouldn't rely on it to constantly type characters like that, but it is great every once in a while.
- asciimov 5y agoI'll have to remember this when I go back to windows one day. I roll my own keyboard layout on Linux, and the Compose key is a nice to have. I put it where the right Alt normally lives along with the dead greek key (by using shift-RALT).
- yc-kraln 5y agoI don't understand how this is different than the "International" keyboard variants that ship with Windows. How is this better than the status quo?
- MiddleEndian 5y agoSay I want to type the copyright symbol, not something I do every day, not something worth its own key on my keyboard. I type Compose O C and it gives me: ©, Compose ~ ~ gives me ≈, The built-in shortcuts are very easy to guess, it's great for things I don't type every day. Plus you can add or remove shortcuts so you can change your layout on the fly. It's great in Windows, Compose is great in Linux, and it's also is a good alternative for the otherwise useless CapsLock key.
- mkotowski 5y agoCompose key — and by extension WinCompose — is used as a mnemonic shortcut for various characters, both predefined and custom. For example, I am using WinCompose right now: … ’ č ß ɐ ə ” « ʌ × þ ð n’t ď ɥ. All the characters inserted without leaving hands off keyboard. As far as I know, there is no built-in keyboard on Windows with that kind of functionality (the emoji keyboard under `Win+.` coming close, but with no customization and more centered on inputting singular characters rather than blending in with normal keyboard usage).
- Springtime 5y agoAutohotkey is also useful for this. Any arbitrary set of characters can be auto replaced with the desired output, or alternatively be bound to a hotkey. This removes the need to memorize some abstract set of Alt key sequences and instead one could type something such as ++degree to produce °. The sequence of characters could be anything to distinguish it from regularly used text, here using ++ and name of the symbol to illustrate. WinCompose it appears uses a similar principle.
- hollasch 5y agoThat's my approach. Autohotkey plus sequences starting with "qq", like qqdeg (degree), qq>- (right arrow), and so forth.
- cjauvin 5y agoI'm a big fan of the compose key, both for its universality and intuitive "syntax". For many years I endured the pain of a dual French/US keyboard layout (one for writing, the other for coding), until a coworker showed me the special Option-key shortcuts you can use on a Mac to make French accents, and then finally I settled on the nice and intuitive Compose Key support offered natively by Ubuntu: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/ComposeKey https://help.ubuntu.com/community/ComposeKey
- TacticalCoder 5y agoBasically the same here, now I settled on QWERTY with a few tricks to do french diacritic signs. Compose key can be a bit slow at times, so I only use it for the less common characters, like e-circumflex. For the really common ones like e-acute and e-grave I simply assign additional shortcuts: for example hyper+e = e-acute (my keyboard has got additional modifier keys: it's not just ctrl/alt/shift as I've got additional physical keys, which I configured to act as Hyper and Super).
- yetanother-1 5y agoSame issue. I struggeled with french on German keyboard, so I searched how to type everything, and all wad easy except the ç. The only solution was to type ALT+135 from the keypad. It worked until a recent windows update, now I get garbage from that shortcut. I will give this a try, thanks!
- igitur 5y agoI had a similar problem recently, but it was self-inflicted. Try changing the status of the "Beta: Use Unicode UTF-8 for worldwide language support" checkbox. You can see this option by going to Settings and then: All Settings -> Time & Language -> Language -> "Administrative Language Settings"
- tasogare 5y agoI'm using a logical FR layout on a physical Mac FR layout, the underlying layout for Japanese input is QWERTY while the pinyin for Traditional Chinese uses AZERTY... I'm tired of all these context switches and I wish there was an universal keyboard IME that allow me to type the languages I care about without having to switch between IME all the time. Same complains about mobile (iOS). I might build something one day because of how annoying it is (at least typing English is easy from FR keyboard so that's one less keyboard to use).
- mackrevinack 5y agothese days i prefer to use menus like Rofi for things like this. all you need to memorise is 1 hotkey to open the menu and then you can search and filter the list to find whatever character you want, say 'trademark' or 'tra' to find ™, or search for an emoji by describing it
- pessimizer 5y agoYou don't have to memorize compose key combinations unless you use a few strange ones often. "Compose", "t", "m" gives me "™". Your first guess is usually right.
- porker 5y agoRofi won't work on Windows, will it?
- pier25 5y agoFor accents and such a good alternative is selecting an international keyboard on Windows. For example you can write a ñ with ALT + N.
- pier25 5y agoOff topic... but damn, Windows emojis are still super ugly. Anyone knows if they are better in Windows 11?
- amyjess 5y agoWinCompose is one of a handful of utilities that's made using Windows virtually painless as someone who's used to using Linux as a daily driver. (other such utilities include Chocolatey, MobaXterm, Greenshot, WSL in general for common CLI tools, and some KDE apps but especially Kate and Okular)
- MiddleEndian 5y agoAlso worth checking out is Ditto, clipboard history manager. Much snappier and lighter than the built-in one they eventually put into Windows. Nearly identical to KDE's Klipper, CTRL ` and your searchable clipboard history appears next to your cursor.
- nickjj 5y ago> Much snappier and lighter than the built-in one they eventually put into Windows Ditto also supports searching through your clipboard history. Been using Ditto for years.
- MiddleEndian 5y agoIt's really a killer utility. I find it to be slightly better than KDE's Klipper and much better than Butler as a clipboard in OS X (although it's been many years since I've used Butler)
- leokennis 5y agoLove that app. The built in one does not show tons of stuff you can copy to your clipboard. I work in IT and people are baffled when I copy a few things, paste them one by one, then search for a thing I copied a week ago…I feel naked without Ditto.
- vort3 5y agoThere was a software called 3dclip, which is essentially Ditto, but much more lightweight. I think it uses native windows elements and written without use of big libraries. Unfortunately it's discontinued and website isn't available anymore, but I have installer for anyone who is interested (it's not modified or anything). It doesn't have history search, but if all you want is a multiclipboard, it does that, and some other useful things as well. I use it for many years and happy with it. Tried Ditto but it's too big and slow for my taste. UPD: I was wrong, site is still up. https://www.3dclipboard.com/ https://www.3dclipboard.com/
- Proven 5y agoI think I'd like to use this to enter my SSO password on corporate web sites.
- aphit 5y agoI started to use WinCompose when I changed from a full size keyboard (with numpad) to a TKL keyboard which omits it. As a mechanical engineer, I often need to type things like the degree symbol and with WinCompose it is just Compose, o, o whereas I used to type these using alt codes. Other common uses are for sub and super scripts (₁¹), bullets (•), and my own custom ones like on for my email, which I set as Compose, e, m (since these days working from home I am constantly logging into lots of things).
- jamal-kumar 5y agoThe guessability of combos to compose characters with is really key to what makes the compose key a great tool. I wouldn't be surprised if Microsoft adopts this into their OS someday.
- ethhics 5y agoBeing a plan 9 nerd, I originally found 9ime [1] when I wanted a compose key in windows. It serves the same purpose and has the same default compose key of right-Alt. I’ve yet to be frustrated by it enough to switch to wincompose (but the UX is certainly better). [1] https://github.com/sqweek/9ime https://github.com/sqweek/9ime
- TriStateFarmer 5y agoI want to try this, is there a prebuilt binary available.
- ethhics 5y agoThere is not unfortunately.
- TriStateFarmer 5y agoI'm now using this and I like it very much, tiny and superfast, better than the slow bloat of WinCompose. Build notes for those from the future (I use Windows 7): 1) Install Cygwin, including mingw64-x86_64-gcc-core package 2) Edit build.sh file to replace compiler from CC=gcc to CC=x86_64-w64-mingw32-gcc This provides a native exe without dependancy on cygwin1.dll
- lloydatkinson 5y agoHow does this compare to the built in Win + .?
- asxd 5y agoWow, I had no idea this was a thing. Not to distract from the thread, but thanks for sharing!
- jccalhoun 5y ago> Wow, I had no idea this was a thing. Not to distract from the thread, but thanks for sharing! I think it was added in just the last few years. I am pretty sure it was added in one of the Win 10 updates. But yes it is really useful.
- lloydatkinson 5y agoYou’re welcome, now try Win + V
- nybble41 5y agoThe Win + . sequence opens the Emoji selector window, which as the name implies can only be used to select emojis. It's also more disruptive since it opens a separate window where you must navigate to or search for the desired emoji, select it, close the window, and then paste the selection into the original app. WinCompose (like XCompose) works as you are typing, without opening a new window; you just type a certain sequence starting with a special Compose key (like "Right-Alt ( 3 )") and it inserts arbitrary pre-defined characters (in this case ③). The key sequences and their replacements can be redefined by the user.
- k12sosse 5y agoIf you win+. from the carat/focus on text input, just type a hint for the emoji and hit enter (or use arrow keys to select other result) and it should replace the string you typed. i.e. win+. Skull
- 5y ago
- TriStateFarmer 5y agoThis WinCompose app seemed to be what I've been looking for, but it didn't work for me. Just so sluggish, sometimes missing keystrokes or waiting for it to catch up. Keyboard is one of those things that have to be INSTANT, even milliseconds is too long. This app is way to slow. It seems to be written in .NET? Which would be a very poor choice for such an app. EDIT: I presumed the sluggishness was because of .NET, perhaps my thinking is a bit dated.
- mikkelam 5y agoWhy do you think that .NET is a poor choice?
- alkonaut 5y ago.NET (framework) should be a very compelling choice for a win-only tray app. The framework is included with the OS, and the standard libraries will most likely already be in memory. The process footprint will be tiny and if the app is written correctly, it should be quite possible to make a very resource friendly app.
- aphit 5y agoI haven't had this experience at all, for whatever it's worth. I type ~120-130wpm for reference.
- alexanderh 5y agoLooks like a great project template for making a robust keylogger. Neat.
- alkonaut 5y agoWhy is it composing e.g. ´ + e into é when that's the default behavior without composing? Is it just to make the compose key a no-op in all such scenarios?
- dragonwriter 5y ago> Why is it composing e.g. ´ + e into é when that's the default behavior without composing? It's not “the default behavior”, its just what certain keyboard layouts (US-International, for instance) do.
- ryanschneider 5y agoTotal aside but I never knew about the `kbd` HTML tag used for the key sequence renderings in the readme. https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Element/kbd https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Element/kb...
- Leftium 5y agoOh! I always thought they were specific to SuperUser.com
- Semaphor 5y agoRelated but different (and no emoji special features), I was once recommended (either here or on Reddit) EurKEY [0] and have been using it since. Ö is (AltGr/Ctrl+Alt)+Shift+o. I mainly type in English (and prefer it for programming), but I still need German Umlauts, it’s just a super convenient layout and even has niceties like typographical apostrophes (’ vs ') built in (ctrl+shift+alt+0). To me, that seems more convenient than this (and Windows has a decent emoji picker with Win+. anyway, if you are into that ) [0]: EurKEY The European Keyboard Layout https://eurkey.steffen.bruentjen.eu/ https://eurkey.steffen.bruentjen.eu/
- jdrek1 5y agoDid you run into any problems using that layout? I tried using it (also after discovering it on HN) but I could not get around that bug where Windows error sounds appear randomly when alt tabbing.
- Semaphor 5y agoI’ve been using it exclusively for probably over a year by now, the only problems I have is when crappy software has non-configurable hotkeys and conflicts with certain letters. And even then, AltGr instead of Ctrl+Alt usually works.
- jdrek1 5y agoHm looks like the error is on my side then, good to know it works for others. Thanks, I'll see if I can get it to work somehow!
- tangus 5y agoThis is great! It's a shame XCompose doesn't follow rfc1345 though, which is the input method I use on Emacs. I have to learn two different sets of composing sequences :( (Fortunately they seem to agree on the majority of the accented Latin letters I use.)
- account42 5y agoYou could always place the rfc1345 sequences in your ~/.XCompose file.
- BrandoElFollito 5y agoIsn't this something that can be done in AutoHotkey? I feel that it is more effective to have a powerful tool such as AHK and invest a bit into writing the combinations of key/mouse/whatever than to have several standalone programs.
- nolok 5y agoThe same way "2003 google can be done by yahoo" I guess
- BrandoElFollito 5y agoSorry but I do not understand this comment, can you please clarify?
- nolok 5y agoWhat I meant is that while I'm not the target user of it, the actual value of WinCompose to its user is not the method of composing, but the pre-compiled database of available composition. Unless I misunderstood you, yes it can be done in AHK but you would have to rewrite all the composition you want in it by hand
- BrandoElFollito 5y agoYes, this i strue. I just found out that people tend to accumulate bits and pieces of software or configuration and at some point if may be worthwhile to invest in AHK to keep all this in one place, in a predictable way.
- mkotowski 5y agoActually, WinCompose started as an AHK script, so your conclusion isn't far off.
- kzrdude 5y agoI'm on Linux and on a keyboard layout that already uses AltGr for a lot of symbols. What key do you use for the compose key? I certainly don't have a physical compose key on my keyboards.
- kelnos 5y agoAs documented in the linked README, they use right-alt as compose, but that can be changed in the settings.
- kzrdude 5y agoThat's the readme for WinCompose. I'm wondering about linux
- mkotowski 5y agoIn the case of Ubuntu system with Gnome/Xfce4/KDE/LXDE: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/ComposeKey https://help.ubuntu.com/community/ComposeKey As for other distributions, unfortunately I have no idea, but I would hazard a guess the right settings (if present) should be in similar places relating to keyboard setup.
- pricci 5y agoMaybe the menu key, if you have it
- bmn__ 5y agoI use capslock. There are a number of popular choices that come preconfigured, see file /usr/share/X11/xkb/rules/base.lst line 851 https://github.com/freedesktop/xkeyboard-config/blob/master/rules/base.xml#L7161 https://github.com/freedesktop/xkeyboard-config/blob/master/...
- kzrdude 5y agocool thanks
- 5y ago
- emmanueloga_ 5y agoI was wondering why Windows doesn't come with a built in compose implementation. There doesn't seem to be a reason, just something that exists outside of the folklore of Microsoft/Windows [1]. 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compose_key https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compose_key
- lproven 5y agoAlso see AllChars: https://allchars.zwolnet.com/ https://allchars.zwolnet.com/ This was universal functionality on the DEC terminals that IBM adapted the PC AT Enhanced keyboard layouts from. It's a standard feature on Sun machines too, and can be turned on trivially in Linux. So there are many implementations.
- layer8 5y agoAllChars hasn’t been maintained for a long time, last stable release is from 2007, bugs are not getting fixed. I switched from AllChars to WinCompose for that reason.
- lproven 5y agoFair enough. I've seen Windows installations where one will work but the other won't. DEC itself included another such tool for Windows 3 with Pathworks. Here's another: http://www.accentcomposer.com/ http://www.accentcomposer.com/ My point being, it's a popular function and there are multiple implementations. Sadly I don't know of a working one for macOS. I've seen claims and tried them but nothing that actually works.