Specialized Tools
There are several tools that allow quick input of Unicode characters in applications. The input method of the free tool ЮNICODE Keyboard Enhancer uses hotkeys: To type a Unicode character you press and hold the modifier key and then press the selected symbol key. Which physical key takes the function of the modifier key as well the appropriated symbol keys are to be defined by user.
Another free tool is UnicodeIt. It converts LaTeX expressions like \alpha into Unicode. On the Mac, this works in most programs (including Keynote and Mail) using a keyboard shortcut. This tool also has an online version at http://www.unicodeit.net which works on most platforms including smart phones.
There is also a free webtool called Shapecatcher that can by used to find Unicode characters by drawing them.
Read more about this topic: Unicode Input
Famous quotes containing the words specialized and/or tools:
“In the twentieth century, death terrifies men less than the absence of real life. All these dead, mechanized, specialized actions, stealing a little bit of life a thousand times a day until the mind and body are exhausted, until that death which is not the end of life but the final saturation with absence.”
—Raoul Vaneigem (b. 1934)
“Think of the tools in a tool-box: there is a hammer, pliers, a saw, a screwdriver, a rule, a glue-pot, nails and screws.—The function of words are as diverse as the functions of these objects.”
—Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951)