Jon's Imaginarium – Easy Way To Use Symbols

[Visitor]

In a recent thread, it was asked why this forum has no menu option to insert symbols while other forums do. The question was never addressed but alternatives were suggested like Windows Character Map and looking up "alt" codes to make the desired character appear. If you've ever looked at Windows Character Map, you know there are hundreds of symbols and it's a pain in the neck to find what you're looking for. Entering "alt" codes isn't even possible on laptops without numeric keypads or phones.

There's an easier way to enter commonly used symbols. I've created a web page with about 50 symbols. To insert a symbol, say Ω or µ, just copy it from the table and paste it where you want it.

If you use Microsoft Edge, you can "install this site as an app", then it's always one click away, opening in it's own window. I hope you'll find this useful.

Symbols Chart

Note: below is a picture of the chart on the web page. You can't copy the symbols from this picture. This is to illustrate the symbols available.

 

[Pommie]

The picture above is nice and big but if I click the page it's very small. It might just be usable using my 24" monitor but would be invisible on a phone. Any chance of making it a bigger font?

Thanks,

Mike.

 

[Visitor]

I can play with it and see what works best across my phone and laptop. I'll give it a try in the morning. Using Google Sites is somewhat limited in what you can do.

Thanks for the feedback.

 

[Visitor]

I've made a few edits to solve Pommie's issue, and added a few more symbols. It should be legible on most devices.

Not all fonts have all of these symbols; if the symbol column is blank, try a different font.

This picture shows the revised arrangement. You can't copy the symbols from this picture. Click the link I provided above to see the table.

 

[Pommie]

How do you select a different font? What is the default font?

Mike.

 

[Visitor]

There are two issues at hand. I believe the default font on the web page is Tahoma, but most Windows fonts support the full character set. If your computer doesn't have Tahoma, and substitutes a different font, the characters may not show up on the web page..

The other issue is where you paste the symbol. If the font in use by that app doesn't support the character, nothing will show up. If you change the font used by that app to a standard Windows font, the symbol should appear..

I don't think this should be a frequent problem – the table shows up fine on both my computer and phone – but I wanted to head off any complaints.

 

[Pommie]

Cutting and pasting from here to word suggests that the default font is Segoe UI which I've never heard of and it's not in the list of usable fonts.

Mike.

 

[Visitor]

The font in Google Sites is called "Normal", but you can change it to any font you like once it's pasted into whatever application you're using.

I just pasted the "per mille " symbol into Visio, where I have several dozen fonts installed, and it pasted as Calibri, my default font. Changing it to each of those several dozen fonts installed in Visio, the symbol displayed correctly in all of them but about three symbol fonts.

If you look at Windows Character Map, and change fonts at the top of the screen, you can see that not all fonts have all of the characters defined.

 

[Pommie]

I hope you don't mind but I've done my own HTML version of your sheet. Some of the characters didn't work so I just included the ones that do and made it generate the tables from javascript. As everything is now data then it's easy to change/add symbols that you need. The third table is basically spare for custom characters. So, to add the UK pound sign you would change the start of data3 to be,

var data3 = [    "UK Pound","₤","B","B","C","C",

If anyone has the time and feels like adding characters to table 3 then be my guest.

Mike.
Had to change the extension to .txt - rename .html and all should work ok.

 

[Visitor]

I don't mind at all - I salute your HTML powers!

Mike's added a "copy" button to each entry in the table so it's an easy matter to select the symbol you desire. Nice work!

Hmm. That's weird. I don't have any option to display the picture I attached. You may have to click on the link. A reminder, this is just a picture so you can see how the table looks.

 

[throbscottle]

Nice work. Ok let's try..
◄∞¾○■ ☆►
Ok that works
But to be really useful you need ℡ and ℻... (ok some people might just be looking at little squares here!)

 

[Visitor]

Hmmm. Those aren't much used here. Let me know what other characters are desired, and I'll replace my chart with Mike's on my web page.

 

[Visitor]

Awww crap. My site is on Goggle Sites, which is somewhat limited in what you can do. It does not like the Java Script at all.

 

[throbscottle]

I was just kidding

 

[Visitor]

I added those and a few more symbols like

Less than or equals

And

Greater than or equals

I'll upload the file here after a little editing. I'm bummed that I can't post it on my webpage.

 

[Visitor]

Some perseverance, some cuss words and some editing, and I've managed to get Mike's great version on the web.

My web site is hosted by Google, in "old sites", which is limited in the HTML code it will support. Googles "new sites" supports HTML better, particularly Java script. So I created the symbols page in "new sites". Simple, right? No, nothing is ever simple! Because my domain is connected to "old sites" pages, it can't connect to a "new sites" page at the same time. Arrghhh. No matter. It just means thee URL is a crazy mess.

I made some additions and corrections to the chart — I wondered why Mike didn't include "⅞", then I noticed I had missed it in the original. I also had to narrow down to 2 columns as Google would not support the three side-by-side tables. This page works well on my laptop, but not so well on my phone.

Thanks for the help Mike! If anyone has any suggested symbols to add, please let me know.

Mike's Improved Symbol Table

 

[Pommie]

Hi Jon,
I notice you put Therefore back but it displays (on my machine) as an empty box. Same with Fax. Looks good, wonder why google won't do three columns.

Mike.

 

[Pommie]

Two things that could be added that I use often, are,

"Inter IC","I²C","PI","π"

Mike.

 

[Visitor]

The Google page sets some borders around the page, and the 3 tables end up overlapping each other. This is what happens when I look at the two table format on my phone.

The "therefore" symbol appears to be included in most Windows fonts; whatever your default font is must not have it. Way back to junior high math classes, I've always liked the symbol, although I doubt many people know what it means.

I like the I²C idea. My initial thought was "How can I do that?", then I realized it's several characters together. Duh.

I looked through the Windows Character Map a dozen times looking for pi and missed it.

I'll make those additions.

 

[Visitor]

For phones and small-screen devices, the original table, without Mike's nifty copy buttons, has been updated with the additional symbols. If the "new, improved" version doesn't display correctly, use this version.

Symbol Table for small screens