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November 1st 2010 : First run

OK, hello everybody (I live in France so my english can be a little bit wrong)

I study spanish this year, and some characters (such as n with tilde) are specials, I installed the character map plasmoid but it isn't very easy to use, because you have to click on it, click on the special character you want to insert, and then press CTRL+C/V.

I have a little idea to improve it, imagine a character map like in Gnome desktop (but for KDE of course).

Here's a little drawing



The idea is : when an application get the focus, such as kate, terminal, OOwriter... you just have to click on the corresponding command button to insert INSTANTLY the special character.

The character map in Gnome just copy it on the "Press Paper" (not very english...) and then you have to press CTRL+V to paste the character, which is not very ergonomic.

I think that a direct pasting would be easier and faster.


Here's a list of various things to take into account :

-The plasmoid get the focus when it will be clicked so, it's important to make it be able to get the focus back to the application

-To set up the special character, I think about a textbox where you can type special characters (without spaces between them for instance) and the plasmoid would divide the typed text, character by character to create the corresponding command buttons.

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November 5th 2010 : a better integration (thanks to TheBlackCat)

First, I thought that creating a new plasmoid was a good solution, but, as The Blackcat said, "
I think this would be better integrated into the existing character plasmoid rather than making an entirely new one", he's right.

so I have designed the modifications to bring to the actual plasmoid : a "palette mode" directly integrated



I learned something today : image mustn't be too large, that's why it didn't work and I had to upload the image 4 times !!! damn =)

as you can see, the palette would be near the character selector traditionnal button to allow the user to right click on the special character he wants and add it to the palette DIRECTLY

after the user composed his palette, he could be click on the character he he wants to insert and the plasmoid would paste it automaticaly on the application which get the focus

Now, to switch character map, enable Auto Paste and "palette mode" a simple right click is enough, here's a little drawing (very ugly I know but simple):



TO THINK

-include an option to remove a character
-include an option to have a palette with multiple rows to save space on pannel
-include an option to the menu (right click on character menu) to add the character to a new palette (with autoswitch)

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November 11th 2010 : configuration window

OK, here's the configuration window for the plasmoid, I hope it would be good and it will be respect the plasma spirit, look at it :



erratum : In the picture, my comment is "A default row/col number can be set by calculating textbox length"

Improvements should come soon : don't hesitate to propose your ideas to improve the concept

David

Es lo que tiene el castellano

Being able to customize the set of available special characters might be a good idea, indeed.. and showing them as buttons to do the "autopaste over the active window" looks very interesting imho.

+1

Oh thanks for your support Mamonetti

here's an example of the Configuration window that I designed rapidly, it would be possible to set up several character map by clicking on Add new button and it will add another textbox



To switch character map, I think adding a button (or a menu) to the plasmoid would be good, look :



It would be fast and efficient

david.

There is a character runner for krunner:
http://kde-apps.org/content/show.php?content=122629
Not the same, but useful

I don't manage use it, in fact I never use krunner (I'm a KDE newbie...)

I think you all missed something:

In Systemsettings enter "keyboard" in the search field. In the non-greyed out icons, find the keyboard settings. Differs on different versions, where it is.
Open "Advanced" tab. Set the Right-Alt key as the compose key.Apply.
From now on, you can compose characters:
rAlt " a -> ä
rAlt , c -> ç
rAlt ~ n -> ǹ

Try and see what you can compose...

I think this would be better integrated into the existing character plasmoid rather than making an entirely new one. Just right click on the character you want and click some option to add it to the list.

Knurpht, thanks for your answer but it doesn't work...

The Black Cat, you're true, modify the existing plasmoid can be a better idea than create a new one, maybe by including a "palette mode" as I drown uper : to my mind, it would be the fastest mean to insert special characters...

PS : I haven't got any knowledge in computers programming (I learned VB6 and a little C/C++), when we got an idea, who will program it after the concept come to maturity ?

Does someone has an idea to improve this concept ?
if you think my idea is good, please vote

friendly

david.

Great idea. It makes things a lot easier. You've got my vote.

Maybe the existing charselect plasmoid could be enhanced with a list of currently/frequently used characters? That alone would help a lot!

You're right, that's the idea =P