Greetings,
I have been looking for a small app that will do this for quite a long time. I have tried many variations but nothing is quite what I am looking for. I would like to see an app that presents the user with a window containing maybe 20 buttons (though, ideally, the number would be customizable). Each button can be assigned to a single Unicode character, maybe via an INI. Clicking on the button would paste that character into the active text field. I think such an app would work best if there were an option to keep the window on top, if it could be activated/minimized to the tray with a user-defined hotkey.
I need an app like this because I am learning Hungarian, and I occasionally need to type unicode characters. CHARMAP is just too slow and awkward for this.
One similar app is
Diacrit. It lets users choose character sets from different languages, but does not allow full customization. It also does not paste the characters - it only copies them to the clipboard. Diacrit is not freeware.
http://www.diacrit.sandrila.co.uk/LangPad is similar, but does not allow customization at all. Character sets must be purchased individually. I don't even think it does Unicode.
http://www.langpad.com/Type International Characters is another that is customizable, though it pops up a menu from an icon in the system tray rather than presenting a GUI. This one actually worked quite well, and if is easier to implement an app that does things this way, that would be OK. It is also not free.
http://www.unicodesoft.com/The only freeware app I have found that comes close is
QuickKey. It requires .NET, however, which I do not use. It is also incredibly complicated, and contains far more features than I require.
http://nathanaeljones.com/quickkey/There are more, but I won't list them. I have tried many, but nothing is as simple and as elegant as it could be. Just buttons that paste characters, nothing more.
So there it is! I am not a programmer so I have no idea how much time it would take to create something like this, but if it is feasible, and if anyone is inclined to help out with such an app, I would be very grateful.
Thank you!