QuickChar requires any Macintosh, either 680x0 or PowerPC, with System 7.0 or later.
About QuickChar— A Quick Intro
QuickChar allows you to easily use characters which are not readily accessible on your keyboard. For users with English language keyboards, this will mean foreign letters such as“é” or “Å” or “ß”, while other users can enter characters which do not appear on their keyboards. It also allows you to shorten repetitive typing tasks by defining macros which can be expanded whenever you type a short abbreviation.
Installation
• Important: Users of version 1.5.0 or earlier must delete their QuickChar Preferences files and restart with the new QuickChar installed to avoid crashing.
Other users (ie 1.5.1, 1.5.1a) can continue with their current preferences files.
• Drag the appropriate version (68k or PowerPC) version of the control panel onto your System Folder, and let the Finder place it in the Control Panels folder. If you wish to use the floating picker then drag the QuickChar Floater application onto your System Folder as well, and allow it to be placed in the Extensions folder.
• I recommend that you also install the “TSM Fix” extension, to be found inside the “TSM Fix” folder, if you are going to use the floating picker.
• Restart to use QuickChar.
Entering Characters
To use the popup character picker, hold down your chosen modifier keys (the default is option-shift; use the control panel to change the combination to your liking) and press and hold the mouse button. Use the list on the left to select a category of characters to look at, and the large pane on the right to select the character to enter. When you release the mouse, the highlited character is entered at the insertion point. (To close the picker without entering anything, just move the mouse outside the window and then release.)
If you need to use a character often, you may find it quicker to enter the keystroke manually. The picker displays the keys you need to press to enter a character at the bottom of its window.
The number displayed along with the keystroke is simply the ASCII code for the character. Programmers may find this useful; otherwise you can ignore it.
You may however prefer to use the floating character picker if it is installed. A floating window appears over all your applications, containing a popup menu of sets and a display of characters beneath it. Clicking on a character inserts it into the current application, as well as displaying the keystroke needed to create it. When you’re not using it, click on the grow icon to collapse the window to its titlebar, or use cmd-escape to toggle its visibility.
This floating picker cannot, however, be used to enter text in the Save As… dialog boxes.
The Pickers and the Active Font
From this version, QuickChar is able in some applications to display its pickers in the font being used. This will make QuickChar useful for looking for a certain symbol in a Dingbats-style iconic font, for example, or finding a Greek letter in the Symbol font. Since finding the active font in any application would require a lot of patching and other dangerous hacks in my code, for the moment the application you are using must be QuickChar aware for the font sensitivity feature to work correctly. If QuickChar doesn’t use the active font in one of your applications, you may want to get in touch with the developers and request that they add support, or else inform me and I’ll try and contact them. If you are yourself a programmer you can find all the tools needed to make your product QuickChar aware inside the “QuickChar SDK” folder. Take a look!
Since fonts such as Dingbats are often obscure when displayed at twelve point size— the size used by default by the pickers—, you can choose to make QuickChar display these fonts in a larger size to allow you to find the character you need more easily. There may also be other fonts you’d like displayed at the larger size. Click on the “Options…” button in the control panel to do this. There is a list of the fonts to display at a larger size (it will be empty the first time you visit this dialog), and buttons for adding and removing fonts to and from this list. To add a font, just choose it from the popup menu and click “Add”; select a font and click “Remove” to remove it from the list.
The tradeoff with using a larger font size is that the size of the pickers becomes a lot bigger, and consume far more screen space. On smaller screens, the popup picker may not even completely fit the monitor with a large font size being displayed! So it is up to you whether you choose to avail of this feature.
Sets
The sets provided contain all the characters you’ll need, but you can create your own if you wish, to make accessing the characters you need the most often easier. To change the contents of sets and to add new ones, click “Edit Sets…” in the control panel. Although this dialog is fairly self-explanatory, here’s a brief outline of some of its features:
Use the list to select a set to edit. The selected set’s name is displayed underneath this list. You can give it a new name by entering it here.
The “Characters…” button lets you choose the characters in the selected set. If you’re unsure how to type in the character you want to use, click on the “Ä>” icon for a comprehensive selection to choose from.
Notes: You can have a maximum of 10 sets for your own use; the set called “Full charset” contains every character and cannot be deleted or edited.
Macros
To use QuickMacros, click “Edit Macros…” in the control panel. Here a list of your macros and their expansions is displayed in the list on the left; when you first use it, this list will be empty. Use the “New” and “Delete” buttons to add and remove macros.
Enter a macro’s abbreviation in the topmost field. This can be up to five letters long and cannot contain spaces.
Enter the macro’s expansion in the large field below it.
To use the macro in your work type ‘/” followed by the abbreviation and then a period (‘.’).
If you wish to use expansions with line breaks in them, use the enter key instead of return to enter the new line in the edit macros dialog.
Use variables to add variable data— such as the date or time— to your expansions. Variables consist of the '#' character followed by a letter indicating the variable. Select a variable in the list and click “Insert” to add it to the current macro’s expansion.
Tips
• You can collapse the floating picker to its titlebar when not in use by clicking in the zoom box.
• If you want to hide it completely, use cmd-escape to toggle its visibility on and off.
• Speed tip— your normal document windows will scroll much slower than normal if any part of the floating picker lies over them. Use either of the two suggestions above to make it easier to place the floating picker in an out-of-the-way part of the screen.
Registration
QuickChar is shareware, meaning that if you use it and find it helpful to you, you should register for a small fee.
QuickChar has no disabled features or “Give me your money” notices, so the onus is entirely on you, the user, to register. Please do.
Benefits include
- free technical support and an ear for your suggestions and ideas
- you are informed when new versions are released
- doing the right thing……
To register, double click the “Register Click! Software” application included with QuickChar. I use the well-known Kagi system; although direct payments to me of cash only are welcome, you’ll probably find it easier to register through Kagi, since you can use credit card, money order, etc.
Although this may look complicated, please don’t be put off; it is really quite simple!
The pricing is as follows:
1—20 copies: IR£5 each ($US8)
20+ copies: IR£4 each ($US6)
A site licence is IR£110 ($US160), and covers all locations for your organisation within a 100 mile/160km radius.
A worldwide licence is IR£435 (US$640) and covers all locations or your organsiation on earth.
Please remember that although you can send comments to me at either of my email addresses, registration info generated using the Register application must be send to Kagi!
If you are paying by Credit Card or First Virtual, you can email (shareware@kagi.com) or fax (+1 510 652-6589) the data to Kagi. Just copy the data in Register and paste it into an email message, or save it and attach it to one. To fax, print the data to the Kagi fax number above.
Email payments are processed in three to four days, and you’ll received an acknowledgement when your payment has been processed. Fax payments take up to ten days, and again, if you provide an email address you will receive an acknowledgement.
If you are paying by cash or US$ cheque, please print the the data in Register and send it to the address on the form, which should be:-
Kagi
1442-A Walnut Street #392-R3
Berkeley, California 94709-1405
USA
along with your cheque, if paying thus, which should be made payable to “Kagi Shareware”.
Please notice that only cheques drawn in US Dollars may be sent to Kagi.
If you have a purchasing department, you can enter all the data as needed and choose the “Invoice” payment method. Print three copies of the form and send it to your accounts payable people.
Finally… please do not send cash, cheque or invoice payments via email!
OK! That’s over! Thankyou for your support!
However… I do give tech support and assistance to any user, whether registered or not, so don't be put off from informing me of bugs or comments just because you haven't paid, although I understandably give priority to registered users.
Contacting Click! Software
All your comments, ideas and suggestions are most welcome! I can be reached at these locations:
• Matt Slot for his cool appe Windows code on which the floating picker is based.
• Pete ?, Guilherme Kawall and Kenneth Lawless for help in fixing the bug in 1.5.1
I HAVE DONE MY BEST TO ENSURE THAT QUICKCHAR WILL NOT DO ANY DAMAGE TO YOUR COMPUTER OR TO ANY DATA STORED ON IT. HOWEVER, I TAKE NO RESPONSIBILITY FOR ANY SUCH DAMAGE WHICH MAY OCCUR AS A RESULT OF USING QUICKCHAR. YOU USE QUICKCHAR AT YOUR OWN RISK.
