# Clickable accented characters



## mkellogg

Hi everybody,

I'm adding some clickable accented characters to the editor toolbar.  Now, you can click the letters to insert an accented character (like áéíóú) if your keyboard is not capable.

You can see it in action in the English-Spanish and Solo Español forums now. (Example. You can see it to the right of the strikethough ABC button, but only in the "advanced" editor, not Quick Reply.) If everything works well, I'll soon add it to other forums as well.

I know many of you are saying "It would be even better if...!"  I agree, but this is better than what we have had till now.

Let me know if you have any problems.

Happy New Year and _Feliz Reyes_ to you all,
Mike


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## swift

Great news, Mike. Thanks for this new feature. I think that moderators will be particularly happy. 

I have just tested the clickable accented characters and they work properly.  Nevertheless, it is necessary to "go advanced" in order to have those characters (they are not visible in the "quick reply" box), and most people will not see them if they do not use the advanced mode...

Regards,


J.


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## Angel.Aura

Thanks a lot, Mike 


swift said:


> Great news, Mike. Thanks for this new feature. I think that moderators will be particularly happy.


Indeed!!


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## pyan

Thanks, Mike.

I hope there are no snags and they can be in use in the French forums as soon as possible.  I think a lot of people will be grateful.


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## Miguelillo 87

swift said:


> Great news, Mike. Thanks for this new feature. I think that moderators will be particularly happy.


 
I also have to say I was happy surprised for this new feature I think this is our Día de Reyes present for the Spanish forums!!!!



> Nevertheless, it is necessary to "go advanced" in order to have those characters (they are not visible in the "quick reply" box), and most people will not see them if they do not use the advanced mode...


 
I also agree, I think this new tool it's gonna be all a success!!!!


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## swift

Miguelillo 87 said:


> I also have to say I was happy surprised for this new feature I think this is our Día de Reyes present for the Spanish forums!


Are you implying that the other forums (including the French-Spanish one) were forgotten by the _Reyes_ this year?


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## Miguelillo 87

swift said:


> Are you implying that the other forums (including the French-Spanish one) were forgotten by the _Reyes_ this year?


 
Maybe they didn't behave so well  

Or maybe they didn't write their (cartita) letter to Los Reyes


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## mkellogg

Yes, consider it your gift for Los Reyes.   It is a shame that I couldn't get Baltasar to do all the programming for me.


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## Miguelillo 87

mkellogg said:


> Yes, consider it your gift for Los Reyes.  It is a shame that I couldn't get Baltasar to do all the programming for me.


 
Hey He and his fellows had to travel all night around the world, Besides I think they are not very realted to technology, they prefer magic


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## mkellogg

You see, I can't do magic, and am stuck with JavaScript.  It would have been much easier to finish with magic, I think.


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## werrr

I use Google Virtual Keybord for this purpose (for Cyrillics). So far, I call it via a bookmarklet, but perhaps it could be possible to implement it directly into the edit box.

Mike, what do you think about it? It should be easy to implement it and it will cause no additional load on Wordreference server because Google cares for everything.


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## mkellogg

Hi werrr,

I think I already addressed this above


mkellogg said:


> I know many of you are saying "It would be even better if...!"  I agree, but this is better than what we have had till now.



If anybody out there is a JavaScript master (a true guru), I'd be happy to tell you what I've got working so far and let you figure out the details.


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## werrr

OK, I can stay with my bookmarklet. I just thought that Google Virtual Keybord could be the kind of magic you wrote about. 


If anybody is interested, the bookmarklet which assigns a Russian keyboard to all text areas on the current page goes like this (replace RUSSIAN in the source code for another layout):


> javascript:function VKLoaded() {var x=document.getElementsByTagName("TEXTAREA"); for (i in x) {if (x_.id == "") {x.id = "txtarea"}}; var kbd = new google.elements.keyboard.Keyboard([google.elements.keyboard.LayoutCode.RUSSIAN],x);} function loadVK() {google.load("elements", "1", {packages: "keyboard", "callback" : VKLoaded});} function initLoader() {var script = document.createElement("script"); script.src = "http://www.google.com/jsapi?callback=loadVK"; script.type = "text/javascript"; document.getElementsByTagName("head")[0].appendChild(script);} initLoader();_


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## Nanon

swift said:


> Are you implying that the other forums (including the French-Spanish one) were forgotten by the _Reyes_ this year?


So it seems !



Miguelillo 87 said:


> Maybe they didn't behave so well



We behaved very well. We just have môrè àcçénts ... And we don't want to give the Reyes extra work, because we usually don't send them cartitas. Papa Noel is in charge here . Or maybe Easter bells... 

Honestly, there are plenty of resources, virtual keyboards and add-ons that have been recommended here and there but I think that having built-in accented letters is a great idea. No more excuses for "optional" accents. ¡Gracias, Reyes Magos!


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## cuchuflete

The rumor that Mike is really Papá Noël is under investigation.


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## Winter

It works great, very useful tool !
Niiice regalito de Reyes !!


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## Miguelillo 87

Nanon said:


> I think that having built-in accented letters is a great idea. No more excuses for "optional" accents. ¡Gracias, Reyes Magos!


 

Reyes Magos Rule!!!!!!


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## SwissPete

Great! Thank you, Mike.


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## Gévy

Miguelillo 87 said:


> Maybe they didn't behave so well
> 
> Or maybe they didn't write their (cartita) letter to Los Reyes


¡¡Oye, Miguelito, que nos hemos portado la mar de bien en el foro de francés-Español!! Hemos escrito a Papá Noël y a los Reyes Magos, ya que tenemos la suerte de poder hacerlo con ambos todos.

¿Pero sabes qué?

Pues no nos hicieron caso porque nuestra carta venía escrita sin acentos...  ¡¡ Es el colmo!! 

Así que se lo hemos pedido a Mike... 

Bisous,

Gévy


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## Nanon

cuchuflete said:


> The rumor that Mike is really Papá Noël is under investigation.


Jajajaja... me he podido reír con ganas con el post de Gévy.
Cuchuflete, el asunto está resuelto .


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## swift

Te alegrará saber, amigo Víctor, que las mayúsculas también están tildadas. Sólo tienes que pinchar el signo + que aparece a continuación del signo de interrogación ¿.

 Saludos.


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## mkellogg

Somebody told me that I have all month to give presents for _Reyes_, or at least that is the way it works in some country or other. 

I have just about everything ready for 15 more forums, but I will be traveling over the next few days.  I want to wait till I'm back home in the US before making any big changes like this.


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## Miguelillo 87

In some parts of the world, they ask Santa Claus for gifts, on others to Los Reyes Magos Gaspar, Melchor y Baltasar

But it seems here in WRF world we ask to the Four wise guys, Melchor, Gaspar, Baltazar and Mike!!!!!


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## Nanon

¿Vieron que Gévy se portó muy bien y le llegó un tremendo regalo de Reyes?
¡Gracias, Mike!

(...)
(later on...)

Well, Vanda also deserved her gift. Great!!!


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## Punky Zoé

Thanks for adding this new feature in the EnFr forums!


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## SwissPete

Definite improvement... 

 Thanks, Mike.


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## lablady

I agree that this is a wonderful addition.

Now, pretty please, could a few of the characters be added to English Only? Occasionally, one needs an accented character in an English discussion, and clicking a character is certainly easier than remembering the magic code the keyboard uses (I keep losing my cheat sheet).


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## cuchuflete

lablady said:


> I agree that this is a wonderful addition.
> 
> Now, pretty please, could a few of the characters be added to English Only? Occasionally, one needs an accented character in an English discussion, and clicking a character is certainly easier than remembering the magic code the keyboard uses (I keep losing my cheat sheet).



Hi lablady,

Which ones do you think would be most useful for English Only?

A few that come to mind:
é  [café]
à  [Voilà]
á  ?
ü  ?
ê  ?
ô  [rôle]

Thanks for the idea.


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## lablady

cuchuflete said:


> Hi lablady,
> 
> Which ones do you think would be most useful for English Only?
> 
> A few that come to mind:
> é [café]
> à [Voilà]
> á ?
> ü ?
> ê ?
> ô [rôle]
> 
> Thanks for the idea.


Hi Cuchu,

Your list looks good to me. The only other one I can think of is ñ, in case we end up talking about one of the borrowed Spanish words that are so common in my part of the country. It could be used right before the thread gets deleted because it's "not English".


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## Nicomon

I just noticed this new feature was also added to the EnFr forum! 

This will come in handy, especially for the *œ* and (less used) *æ* characters. Easier than trying to remember the corresponding ASCII codes. 

I consider myself lucky that all accented characters - including caps - can be typed directly on a French Canadian Qwerty keyboard.


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## Loob

cuchuflete said:


> Hi lablady,
> 
> Which ones do you think would be most useful for English Only?
> 
> A few that come to mind:
> é [café]
> à [Voilà]
> á ?
> ü ?
> ê ?
> ô [rôle]
> 
> Thanks for the idea.


*Ooh ooh ooh!*

Could we have *ï*, too - for _naïve_?
And *è* for _crème de la crème_?


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## ewie

And ç for _façade_ and that other word.


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## Nanon

My question might sound stupid but...
Since accented characters are available in Advanced mode only, do we still need the Quick reply mode?


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## Flaminius

Maybe we can hope that Mike will take your comment as a cue to develop the function for the Quick reply mode.  

To be honest, I still find it of use because I don't rely on clickable characters for accents.
....Of course I must admit that I don't know languages with "exotic" accented letters.
....Of course I think this latest change by Mike is tremendous.


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## Nanon

Sorry Flaminius, I didn't mean my comment to be offensive in any way.
But in the sub-forums for languages using those "exotic" accented characters, there are stickies like "Accents are not optional anymore", "Por un mundo con tildes", etc... advising all users to use the Advanced mode, so... what should we exotic accented speakers do


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## Flaminius

*Nanon*, if someone should be sorry, it's probably more me than you because I am suggesting that Romance languages such as French, Spanish, Catalan are not exotic enough.  ¡¡Look!! Í çăn typë all the accènted letters used in them withôut going to the Advanced.  I expect there are many foreros y foreras who don't need accented characters because they don't participate in sub-forums where accents are necessary as part of the standard writing conventions of the language.

They, like myself, would dearly miss the Quick mode if it were obviated.


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## swift

Dear moderators,

Is it possible to insert a picture in your advertisements (1, 2, 3), something like this? Or maybe like this (the first one is huge ).









Regards,


swift


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## fsabroso

swift said:


> Dear moderators,
> 
> Is it possible to insert a picture in your advertisements (1, 2, 3), something like this? Or maybe like this (the first one is huge ).
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Regards,
> 
> 
> swift


Swift:

Thank you so much for your idea and help 

This picture has been included in the announcements of Spanish-English forum.






Regards.


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## DBlomgren

What about capital letters with accents, used in French and Portuguese? I hope these will be provided soon.


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## fsabroso

DBlomgren said:


> What about capital letters with accents, used in French and Portuguese? I hope these will be provided soon.


I just checked in French-English forum:






Regards.


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## DBlomgren

Oh, wow! Dieu existe!  And just in case he or the WordReference fairy needs a little help with Portuguese (which still doesn't have capital letters with accents), here's a list of the letters needed, along with their Alt codes.

   Á         0193
  Â         0194
  Ã         0195
  À         0192
  Ç         128
  É          144
  Ê          0202
  Í           0205
  Ó         0211
  Ô         0212
  Õ         0213
  Ú         0218
Ü         0220


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## mkellogg

Portuguese?  Convince the moderators of the PT forums that those letters would be helpful, and I'll add them.


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## Vanda

Mike, just in case...and this is the case!


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## Nanon

Mike, I think the mod is convinced... and the users too.
I learnt that accented capitals are not only helpful but compulsory in Portuguese!... If you can add them, we will be very grateful.


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## swift

Hello,

As said above by Anne and Vanda, in Portuguese it is compulsory to put the accents upon capital letters... they are even more punctilious about this than Spanish and French speakers together.


_Just in case..._


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## Vanda

Guys, we have it!!!! Just try!


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## Nanon

Yessss!
Thanks Mike!


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## swift

Supongo que ahora no tengo excusa para no participar en los foros de portugués.


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## Outsider

Thank you, Mike! This is very useful.


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## mkellogg

You all are creating perverse incentives for me. The longer I wait to do something, the more praise I get.


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