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IDEA: Treo-like "Alt" key for Windows

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supersocialist:
Windows has a really terrible interface for entering things like accents on letters. Because the mobile keyboards are so cramped, Palm came up with a pretty nice solution: the "alt" key pops a small window up near the cursor, allowing the user to replace the just-typed character with an alternative loaded from a table.

The window is a narrow column showing a number of alternatives for the previous key: various accents over vowels, for example. Selection starts at the top and each press selects the next one down. It loops an infinite number of times, and also accepts pointer selection. Space bar and enter select the currently-highlighted alt-character, and clicking outside or esc dismisses the window without replacing the character.

There are hacks to change the order on a Treo, so I know it'd be possible to dig those ones out, but a lot of them wouldn't be useful on a real keyboard. It'd be easier to read the table from a text file anyway. The user would only have to load charmap once to build the table.

mouser:
i really like this idea of having it work based on previously typed key.. this definitely sounds like a coding snacks type thing.

Ruffnekk:
I’m not an expert on this area, but I can tell you how my keyboard (Dutch layout) works. My keyboard doesn’t have any accented characters mapped on it, the layout is almost identical to the US one. But sometimes in Dutch you do need an accented character and the way you can quickly get it is by pressing one key and then another. For example, if I need an é I will type the ´ sign first and then the e. Typing the ´ sign doesn’t display it until I press another key. This also works for other symbols like ´, `, ¨, ~, ¸ and ^. Thus you can quickly type characters like é á ó í, è à ò ì, ë ä ö ï, ñ ã õ, ç and ê î â û ô. I think something like this is easier than a popup and I think it should be possible to have this working on US layout as well, since it’s something native to Windows for other keyboards. I’m just not sure yet which files or settings should be manipulated to enable it... I’ll look around to see if I can find it :)

Ruffnekk:
Okay I found it. You should use the United States International keyboard settings: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/306560
I hope it’s an option for you :)

rjbull:
Don't forget the freeware AllChars for entering accented letters, and for text expansion.  -  Ruffnekk, it must be good, it's made in The Netherlands  :)


AllChars

AllChars provides a quick, easy-to-remember way of creating accents like é Ü ç î æ and special characters like ƒ ² ‰ © £ ± ß ° 1/2 ¿ « » ™ „ in most Windows programs.

AllChars emulates the *nix Compose key on Windows.

AllChars v3.5 upwards supports macros: type a (short) name and AllChars will replace it with a (long) text.

AllChars is very easy and intuitive in usage and it is possible to adapt it to your wishes.

AllChars is FREEWARE.

AllChars works with Windows 3.11 or Windows 95, 98, ME, NT 4.0 and 2000.


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You can also find several extended character map applications, better than the one built into Windows.

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