PopChar

Speedy Insertion of Special Characters

Please note: BitsDuJour customers that purchase today are entitled to a FREE upgrade to PopChar 6!

Also, today's promotion is for EITHER the single license or family pack. The choice is yours!

If you frequently draft documents that require the use of special characters, like the umlaut and other foreign symbols, you know how hard it is to keep track of the keyboard combination for each character. Even if you keep a cheat sheet written down, if your document contains several of these foreign characters, your workflow is subject to constant interruption!

PopChar is an extremely useful application that makes the typing of special characters easy! In just two clicks of your mouse, you can invoke PopChar and select your special character, and then continue about your business -- no more pausing to look up key combos!

Suitable for newer applications that support Unicode, as well as with older applications that are limited to ASCII, PopChar gives you the power to work with all of the characters in any font. For fonts that contain thousands of characters, just enter the first few letters of what you're looking for (like "cub" for the cube root symbol) into PopChar's search box, and the application returns all matching symbols. Just click the one you need to instantly insert it into your document!

PopChar can automatically detect the font that you're currently using. Even better, PopChar can insert your characters as plain or formatted text, and the HTML mode lets you choose between numeric or named HTML codes!

Quick note regarding pricing: PopChar is sold in Euros. The USD price listed above is an approximation and will likely change slightly based on current exchange rates. We'll try to keep it accurate :-)

Promotion Written by Derek Lee

Mac Version

Windows Version

Mac & PC

OFF

$21.37

RETAIL $42.76

31 People Want This Deal

or Buy Now at Regular Price

Ergonis Software Website

Platforms: Windows 2000, XP, 2003, Vista, 7 and Mac OS X 10.4 to 10.7

Access and insert special characters into your documents without remembering key combinations.
Use special characters for both Unicode and ASCII applications.
Intelligently search through thousands of characters with just a few keystrokes.
Choose from a variety of insertion formats.
Purchase with BitsDuJour's discount coupon code and get all this at a promotional price!

After you make a purchase of this BitsDuJour discount promotion, PopChar may be used indefinitely.
PopChar is licensed per user, so if more people are going to use PopChar you will need to purchase additional copies.
Transfer of a license to another owned computer is allowed.
License activation isn't required. what's this?
Upgrades to future versions of the software will be free up to the next major version and minor versions thereafter. For versions after that, upgrades will require additional payment, which will not be discounted.
Support is provided up to when the next major version is released, and minor versions thereafter.
No return policy.
Read the Full License details.
BitsDuJour purchases using a discount coupon code come direct from the vendor, so you'll always get the same software app sold under the same terms as a regular sale, just at a great promotional price.

“I used to use PopChar all the time some 15+ years ago on the Mac, but they now have a Windows version as well, and it is just so much more powerful and useful than CharMap... If you need to type special characters frequently, if you work a lot with Unicode, or if you need character entities in HTML and XML, then you should definitely give PopChar a try.”- Alexander Falk, President & CEO, Altova
“Well no more timewasting! I can just click on the start-up icon and choose the character i want in mere seconds! I love this program!!!”- Windows Marketplace (5 Stars)
“PopChar Win is a simple but amazing tool! My compliments - the Windows version is as impressive as the MacOS version! It works fine and is an execellent tool for whoever wants to insert special characters.”- Versiontracker (5 stars)
“For those who frequently use symbols, mathematical equations, or non-English characters in their writing, this is a must-have program.”- Neat Net Tricks
“I know PopChar from the good old Mac times. It's still available, and luckily even on Windows nowadays. ... To sum up - it's a slick and felicitous solution to search for special characters in a font and to insert those characters.”- CAP Studio

BitsDuJour brings you daily discount deal coupons for Windows and Mac software apps. Promotions run for 24 hours, and our discount prices almost always never sell out as it's all digital download software, or something techie or cool. Discounts start running at Midnight Pacific time, and we do have other ongoing deals too. Read about how it works.

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The Conversation

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MK Nice interface.
But Windows' Character Map (Start... Accessories... System Tools under Windows 7 - and select 'Advanced view' ) can do the same, pastes into Word in the font selected (under PopChar I had to highlight its pasted character in Word and set the font) and is FREE (no offence, but even at 50% discount at $21.37 it seems a wee bit overpriced).

Sep 3 2011 at 1:26am

Genie au Travail Quick Key is doing the same for free.

http://nathanaeljones.com...s/quickkey/

As MK, PopChar is overpriced (EU customers must add VAT) even if it's a very nice software.

Sep 3 2011 at 5:19am

CP I think we will all share MKs view :).

Sep 4 2011 at 10:08am

SoftCollector I agree that the price is somewhat steep. That said, please, keep in mind that this program has not been primarily developed to be used with Microsoft Office - as noted above Office does this for free.

But with notepad, all the various dictionaries for languages with special characters (French, Russian, etc.) it can be very useful, unless you would like to keep Word open at all times.

I am a translator with several languages and it is sometimes a pain in the back to look up a word in a computer dictionary with several languages installed.

Sep 6 2011 at 1:33am

Avi S Hey guys,
This program really is useful!! I just installed the trial version to check it out, and I found that this program does have some real advantages over both Character Map and Quick Key.
The main advantage for power users regards the keyboard-search-interface. PopChar contains an incremental-search box which allows us to instantly locate characters by typing partial strings that match the unicode names of the characters.
I cannot understate how important this feature is. I work with multiple languages, and with all sorts of diacritics and special characters, and I spend lots of time searching through unicode charts to find the specific characters I am looking for. The incremental search here allows very quick and efficient access to the *entire* unicode map! There's no need to isolate specific character ranges first - if you want arabic characters, just type "arabic"; to narrow it down to those 20-odd characters that include a hamza, just add "hamza" to the search tab, and you're in business!
Or, say you're looking for an interrobang, but don't know how to spell it: just type "interr", and there it is.
In contrast, quickkey doesn't include the full unicode names of most of the characters at all. And Windows Character Map, although it does have a search box in the Advanced view, it does not provide for incremental searches, but rather just supports individual searches executed with the "enter" key - far less effective when one is trying to narrow down a specific character. (Also, Windows Character Map doesn't allow one to change the font size, which means that small diacritics can be very difficult to discern at high resolutions; in contrast, PopChar can provide nice big glphys for perusal. Also, PopChar displays the results organized by unicode block, unlike CharacterMap).
All in all, for those who need to quickly find specific characters from across the entire unicode map, PopChar is ideal and well worth the money.
That said, there are some things that I would really like to see added/improved, and before purchasing I'd like to hear from the developers as to whether these features can be added in a release in the near future:
1] I don't see any way to access special unicode character such as the "zero width non joiner" or the "right to left mark". Although these unicode chars don't have corresponding glyphs, they are very important for users of multiple languages, and I was hoping that PopChar would provide a easy way to access them. I believe that these should be added to the character list in PopChar.
2] When searching for a unicode character, I often don't know beforehand within which font it will be contained. Thus, I'd like to have a mode in PopChar where the incremental search will search across *all* unicode chars - not just those within the current font - and then, if the current font does not contain the glyph, the resulting glyph-box can display an "X" of some sort. This way I will know that my search was on target, just that the glyph doesn't exist (as opposed to not knowing if my searched matched any character at all). I agree that this should not be the default mode - by default it makes sense to limit the display to glyphs that are present - but I very much feel a need to have this as an option.
3] The font-choosing interface can be made much more convenient, as follows:
-- The default font list has a set of about 10 fonts, and it seems to be hard coded. However, as I work, I tend to bounce back and forth primarily between a set of about half a dozen fonts, none of which is in the list. Each time I switch between them in popchar, I have to choose all over again from the global list of fonts. It would make much more sense for the basic popchar "font list" to contain the 10 most recently used fonts, or, perhaps better, to provide an option for the user to choose the set of fonts to be included in the default font list.
-- To choose a new font from the global font list, one must click on the current font, go down to the bottom of the menu, click "show
font list", then navigate with the mouse over to that list. This is cumbersome, and there is no way to do so via the keyboard. I'd like to be able to do this whole process via the keyboard, including opening the global font list, navigating the list, and choosing the font, with an incremental search box to allow narrowing down the list before navigating it with the arrow keys.
-- After opening the global font list and choosing a font, the natural thing to do is to close that extra window with "ESC". But instead, "ESC" minimizes the whole application; and to close that extra window, one must instead click on the "hide" button at the bottom. This is awkward. As I've noted above, this program is perfect for those who need quick keyboard-based access to their character set. But for such users, it is important that the font-selection-interface also be easily navigable via the keyboard.
4] Similarly, and just as important: the program is lacking when it comes to keyboard navigation in the main window. There needs to be a keyboard-based interface to allow one to: (a) move back and forth between the incremental search box and the list of glyphs (why doesn't "tab" work?). (b) to navigate through the list of glyphs. (c) to copy the selected character to the clipboard. (d) to change the font size (bigger/smaller). (e) and finally, I'd like to see a super-quick way to search for a single character and copy it to the clipboard. For instance, when I search for "interr" I get only one character - the interrobang - and in such a case I'd like to just hit one key, say F4, to copy the one resulting character to the clipboard. Or perhaps F4 should always just copy the first character in the chart to the clipboard.
5] Finally - and this a minor issue - I find that when I click to paste a character into MS Word, it doesn't place it where my keyboard cursor is, but rather where my mouse happens to be on the screen. This is almost certainly not the intended behavior, but it's not a major issue for me.
Overall, great program, and I do hope to purchase it, pending a hopeful response from Ergonis regarding these issues.

Sep 6 2011 at 4:14am

Genie au Travail @Avi S

Ouuuuah, nice review !

Sep 6 2011 at 7:00am

Max Murkel @ Avi S: Bravo....

Admittedly PopChar isn't a cheap utility. However one may want to consider, that cou can opt for a 5-PC Family License at € 22 (+VAT for EEC customers) once you've chosen the version for your OS.

Fair enough IMHO.

Sep 6 2011 at 7:26am

VLM I agree, brilliant review, Avi, thank you!

Sep 6 2011 at 8:07am

Roger Thomasson @ Avi

Impressively done!

@ Genie

What exactly does 'Ouuuuah' mean? I like it :-)

-r

BitsDuJour Admin - Sep 6 2011 at 10:18am

Genie au Travail Ouuuuah = impressive in french (not a real word but an expression).

Sep 6 2011 at 11:43am

Roger Thomasson I'd guessed it was something along those lines ;-)

BitsDuJour Admin - Sep 6 2011 at 12:05pm

Avi S Hi Everyone,
I've used the program a bit more, and now I've read the help file as well. It turns out that the program has some great features that I missed before. I feel an update is in order:
a] Regarding issues (1) and (2) - it turns out that PopChar's "all" mode that does exactly this! It displays all unicode characters, regardless of whether the glyph is present. In this mode, there is a nice distinction made via color: a blue glyph indicates a unicode character that is not present in the current font, while black indicates a char that does exist. Even better - and this is a really cool feature that I've needed for a long time - a right click option on any character can instruct PopChar to search across all installed fonts to determine which fonts do in fact include the given character. Qualifying fonts are then marked with a special symbol in the global font list, and a filter option allows displaying a list of only those fonts which contain the character. Well done, popchar!!
The "all" mode also displays those special non-graphic characters that I mentioned, like the "zero width non joiner". Unfortunately, these characters are all displayed in one row as a block of white space, so they are not so easy to work with - I would much prefer that there be some sort of box with an "X" in it - but at least they are there and accessible.
(b) Regarding the font-choosing interface - I still find much to be desired in this interface, as I noted, and additionally I've found, annoyingly, that that the global font list cannot be displayed at all while working in full-screen mode. (I believe that it's natural to use the program in full-screen mode, to maximize the number of characters one can see on the screen - so there really should be a way to have the font list displayed in this mode, perhaps as a modeless dialog).
However, it turns out that there *is* a mechanism whereby popchar adds the most recent fonts to its internal menu. The reason I didn't see this - and why I felt the list was hard coded - is that fonts are only added to the list if a character from the font is double-clicked upon (to automatically add them to the top-most window). Yet, I don't think I'll ever be doing that - I much prefer to first copy my characters to the clipboard (with the relevant right-click option). However, when doing so, the font doesn't register as a "recent font" for the font list.
My suggestion to popchar is that any font that is selected from the global font list should be added to the recent font list, whether or not characters are actually double-clicked upon or copied to the clipboard.
(c) One more relatively small feature that I think is very important to add to the program: it should be possible to enlarge the font used to display the unicode names of the characters at the bottom of the screen. Access to these unicode names is critical; yet, on my wide screen monitor these characters are tiny. So, I'd like to suggest that the font used for their display be enlargeable, just as the size of the glyphs is enlargeable.

Sep 6 2011 at 12:26pm

Eddie Tex Yup, it's not cheap but I agree with Avi S, this is the best tool I've seen with foreign language handling. I have to deal with both Biblical Greek and Hebrew in addition to working occasionally with Thai. Neither the Windows Character Map nor QuickKey can compare.

Household license purchased.

Sep 6 2011 at 10:53pm

K X I'm sorry to have missed this deal. I got home late from work, didn't have a chance to try the demo, and reading the discussion made the program sound like it was only for specialists.

Now that I've used the trial (and read a lot of the massive amount of information on the company website, including the fascinating "20 Years of PopChar" page), I see that it's feature-rich, full of intelligent touches which make it quick to find what you're looking for and insert it, and I can think of all kinds of situations in which this program would be extremely useful.

I will surely pick it up as soon as a similar discount opportunity comes around.

Sep 8 2011 at 9:06pm

PopChar

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Speedy Insertion of Special Characters

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