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When writing documents occasionally I want to insert Unicode characters into the text. Sometimes I know the character code and sometimes I look it up on the web.
Currently I go to insert mode and then use <Ctrl-V>u{four digit hex number}, which can be very laborious. Is there an easier way of inserting the characters (maybe some form of pasting)?
Preface: This has nothing to do with Vim as such, but I will show you what I consider to be the "best" way to insert these characters by far; Vim's digraph system is more or less the same, but it only works with Vim. This will work in all applications.
This will only work for X11 systems (Linux, BSD, etc.). For Windows, there's AllChars. It hasn't been updated in a while, but I can confirm it works well with Windows 7 (used it at my previous job). I believe OS X also has good facilities to do this built in the OS; if you use OS X, I encourage you to check them out, but as I've never really used OS X I can't point you to them.
The below is (part of) a draft weblog article I have in the pipeline. Unfortunately a truly comprehensive guide doesn't exist (yet), and the below doesn't describe all the features it offers (for example, some parts about dead keys are missing) and could be better written in some parts, but I think it's still "useful enough".
A ‘compose sequence’ is pressing the Compose key and then one or more characters to produce some character not found on your keyboard, for example, pressing Compose, immediately followed by " and a might produce an ä.
By default, Compose isn’t bound to any key1; the Right Alt key (aka. Alt Gr) is often used, but you set this to any key you want.
You can use xmodmap
to set this:
$ xmodmap -e 'keysym Alt_R = Multi_key' # Set it right Alt
$ xmodmap -e 'keysym Caps_Lock = Multi_key' # Set it to Caps Lock
$ xmodmap -e 'keysym F12 = Multi_key' # You're free to use *any* key, like F12
You probably want to add this to your ~/.Xmodmap file2:
! Set compose key
keysym Alt_R = Multi_key
You can also set the compose key as an option to XKB with
setxkbmap:
setxkbmap -option compose:ralt # Right alt
setxkbmap -option compose:caps # Caps Lock
To make these permanent, add the command to your X startup file, or
alternatively, you can also set it in /etc/X11/xorg.conf:
Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Keyboard0"
Driver "kbd"
Option "XkbOptions" "compose:ralt"
#Option "XkbOptions" "compose:caps"
EndSection
Or, in a more ‘modern’ style, you can create a file
/etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/90-compose.conf:
Section "InputClass"
Identifier "Set compose key"
MatchIsKeyboard "on"
Option "XkbOptions" "compose:ralt"
EndSection
A list of possible values can be found in xkeyboard-config(7), section ‘Position of Compose key’3.
A dead key is chiefly used to add a accent or diacritic to a letter (such as the umlaut, accent grave, etc.), although it can be used to create any character. It works by...TODO '
keycode 133 = dead_greek NoSymbol SuperR
http://zuttobenkyou.wordpress.com/2011/08/24/xorg-using-the-us-international-altgr-intl-variant-keyboard-layout/
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/14922007/how-to-enter-greek-alpha-under-xor
keycode 48 = dead_grave apostrophe
<dead_grave> <space> : "`" grave # GRAVE ACCENT
<dead_grave> <dead_grave> : "`" grave # GRAVE ACCENT
<dead_grave> <a> : "À" agrave # LATIN CAPITAL LETTER A WITH GRAVE
The default Compose file if ~/.XCompose is missing is
/usr/share/X11/locale/$LANG/Compose. Having your own ~/.XCompose overrides the default, but you can still include the default with:
include "%L"
Changes to any Compose file takes effect when you restart an application. You don't need to restart X.
A 'compose sequence' is pressing the Compose key and then one or more characters to produce some character, for example:
<Multi_key> <quotedbl> <a> : "ä" adiaeresis
Means that pressing Compose, immediately followed by " and
a produces an ä.
<Multi_key> denotes that we're using the Compose key.
we then follow this by a list of one or more keys, these have to be keysyms, which are symbolic representations of keys used by X (See the Keysyms section).
Followed by a :, followed by the result.
The result:
<Multi_key> <a> : "ä" adiaeresis
<Multi_key> <b> <b> : "ä" adiaeresis
<Multi_key> <c> <c> <c> : "ä" adiaeresis
<Multi_key> Alt <d> : "ä" adiaeresis
<Multi_key> Ctrl <e> : "ä" adiaeresis
Note: A Compose file is case-sensitive, so A is not the same as a.
TODO
Set the environment variables GTK_IM_MODULE & QT_IM_MODULE to xim.
Bourne shell:
# Make compose key work for GTK, Qt
export GTK_IM_MODULE=xim
export QT_IM_MODULE=xim
C shell:
# Make compose key work for GTK, Qt
setenv GTK_IM_MODULE xim
setenv QT_IM_MODULE xim
~/.XComposeThis is the ~/.XCompose that I use;
I used a script to generate this, but I accidentally overwrote this when compiling it >_< So I need to rewrite it.
Also take note of this line:
<Multi_key> <i> <b> : "NL65AEGO0721647952"
Pressing Compose ib will insert this string (a random test IBAN number); very useful for testing applications where such a number is required to create some object (Person, Organisation); XCompose can also serve as a "snippet" tool :-)
1: Some UNIX keyboards had a dedicated Compose key (like this SUN), but this is fairly uncommon these days.
2:
Depending on your existing setup, this may or may not be read at startup,
depending on your config, add the line xmodmap ~/.Xmodmap to either
~/.xinitrc or ~/.xsession;
also see the ArchLinux wiki.
3: Reproduced for your benefit:
Position of Compose key
+------------------------------------------------------+
|Option Description |
+------------------------------------------------------+
|compose:ralt Right Alt |
|compose:lwin Left Win |
|compose:lwin-altgr 3rd level of Left Win |
|compose:rwin Right Win |
|compose:rwin-altgr 3rd level of Right Win |
|compose:menu Menu |
|compose:menu-altgr 3rd level of Menu |
|compose:lctrl Left Ctrl |
|compose:lctrl-altgr 3rd level of Left Ctrl |
|compose:rctrl Right Ctrl |
|compose:rctrl-altgr 3rd level of Right Ctrl |
|compose:caps Caps Lock |
|compose:caps-altgr 3rd level of Caps Lock |
|compose:102 <Less/Greater> |
|compose:102-altgr 3rd level of <Less/Greater> |
|compose:paus Pause |
|compose:prsc PrtSc |
|compose:sclk Scroll Lock |
+------------------------------------------------------+
C-x 8 RET in an editor that isn't vi, I don't know if Vim has something similar).
Feb 27, 2015 at 2:16
To insert Unicode characters such as the euro or copyright symbols, or diacritical marks such as the German umlaut or accent grave, digraphs can be used.
For example, in insert mode press Ctrl+k and type the following:
a' for á, E' for É, n? for ñ,a: for ä, ss for ß,a! for à, a> for â for ê, a? for ã,a* for α (alpha), b* for β (beta), g* for γ (gamma), d* for δ (delta).22 for ², 33 or ³Eu for € (Euro), Pd for £ (Pound),Co for © (Copyright), DG for ° (Degree),OK for ✓, XX for ✗, Sb for ∙ (bullet),-N for – (en dash), -M for — (em dash)When the digraph option is set (:set dg), you can also use the following method:
aBackspace: for ä, EBackspaceufor €, etc.To list currently defined digraphs type: :digraphs (:dig).
Source: Entering special characters at the Vim Wikia site.
OS X
If you're using OS X, it's very easy to type accented letters anywhere by the following method:
á, e for é, i for í and similar,ã, n for ñ and similar,ü,¡, Option+Shift+? for ¿,See also:
My unicode plugin allows for easy input of unicode characters. Specifically it allows
:Digraph <name> - Search digraphs for character
:UnicodeTable - Displays a characterset table
:UnicodeName - Identify character under cursor
Completing of characters using their names or values from the unicode table (:h i_CTRL-X_CTRL-Z) or the digarphs (:h i_CTRL-X_CTRL_G)
Read the help for more info on how to use my plugin.
For commonly used characters, :digraph or external means such as the mentioned Compose key are great. For rarely used ones, I define abbreviations, like this:
norea <unique> unicode_smiley 😃
norea <unique> unicode_skull ☠
And then use my SnippetComplete plugin to get a popup menu that list all such abbreviations, e.g. : unicode_<C-x>]
In adition to using the predefined digraphs (Run :dig to get a list), you can also define your own digraphs in vim:
:digr e: 235 a: 228
See also: http://vimdoc.sourceforge.net/htmldoc/digraph.html
