The special-characters tag has no wiki summary.
11
votes
9answers
11k views
Is there a Pac-Man-like character in ASCII or Unicode?
Simple question: is there a character that looks either like Pac-Man, or like the ghost in Pac-Man?
With Google's recent Pac-Man logo, everyone should know what these look like, but in case you don't ...
7
votes
6answers
4k views
Trouble trying to use Windows Search to search for file with a question mark in the content
It seems that Windows Search is having trouble when I specify a question mark character as the content that I'm searching for within my files.
I've tried:
content:?
content:"?"
content:"\?"
...
7
votes
1answer
884 views
Linux 'compose' key sequence extensions
Compose key is a great way way to write all these ©–®—… stuff. It's really MUCH more handy than the windows "alt+0169" method.
Is there a way to define additional sequences? E.g. I'd like to have ...
7
votes
2answers
512 views
How to input special characters w/o numpad?
How do I type special characters (Alt+0???) in Windows on a laptop without any kind of numeric keyboard (even not one accessed by FN)?
Right now I am using the NT 4 charmap (the XP one sucks), but ...
6
votes
8answers
15k views
bash: how to pass command line arguments containing special characters
I've written myself a linux program "program" that does something with a regular expression. I want to call the program in the bash shell and pass that regular expression as a command line argument to ...
6
votes
3answers
2k views
How to delete file with this name on linux: -]???????q
Somehow a file named -]???????q got created on my terminal. I tried rm -f "-]???????q" (in double quotes), but it did not get deleted. (Error:: rm: invalid option -- ]). How do I delete it?
6
votes
6answers
3k views
Typing strange letters¿ w/o numpad?
How do i type ♣ (alt+5) and ♥ (alt+259) and other characters like it on a keyboard w/o a numberpad? using the numbers 1-9-0 doesnt activate those characters. Note i want to TYPE and not use that ...
6
votes
4answers
4k views
Producing a specific ASCII character in Ubuntu
I'm used to holding the left Alt and entering the ASCII character whenever I'm using an unknown keyboard configuration and want to type a special character.
For example, Alt-092 makes a backslash ...
6
votes
1answer
2k views
Getting  and â characters in linux putty console?
I am very much annoyed by â and  output in manual outputs of most of the commands.
Can someone please suggest me workaround?
I am using putty in SSH mode and my linux server is customized by Amazon ...
6
votes
1answer
255 views
How to display new line character (^J) in emacs replace query
Say I want to replace all the new lines in my emacs buffer with the character k (wait for the -1, read the rest! :) ). I know I can type M-x replace-string RET C-q C-j RET k.
It works fine.
My ...
5
votes
4answers
677 views
Why is so hard to use the dash character?
When typing texts on Word, Notepad or even in Google Docs. I want to use the dash symbol. Note that symbol is used in dialogs.
All keyboards simply doesn't have the dash symbol (Alt+0151), so most ...
5
votes
2answers
2k views
How to use special characters in username/password for HTTP proxy?
I am trying to setup an HTTP proxy on a Windows machine. Problem is, the password has a special character (@) in it that is causing the set command to fail.
I have tried both escaping the character ...
4
votes
5answers
505 views
How to type special characters like ↑ in windows?
Is it possible without using tools like word and alike?
4
votes
1answer
431 views
Hidden characters inserted after pipe (|) followed by a space
Very often, on my Mac, when I use the pipe (|) character followed by a space character, an invincible character will be inserted in between.
This is especially annoying when using the terminal, as it ...
4
votes
1answer
1k views
Copying Chinese Characters from PDF
I am on a Windows 7 laptop, which I believe comes preinstalled with all the language packs. I can see Chinese characters with no issues and normally can copy them fine. (From browser to Microsoft ...
4
votes
1answer
1k views
Alt+Numpad key codes on modern Windows laptops without numpad [duplicate]
I am using the Windows Alt+Numpad method a lot on my desktop PC to enter special characters like n-dash (Alt+0150), hard space (Alt+0160), typographic quotes, bullets, etc. This method needs a numpad ...
3
votes
2answers
520 views
White Question Mark in Black Diamond
We are all familiar with the white question mark inside of a black diamond (�) when there is an encoding issue. Does this 'character' have an offical name? Or is it only referred to as the 'white ...
3
votes
1answer
124 views
Mysterious @ character in the Windows Registry
When I navigate to "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\WMP.PlayCD\Shell\Play" in The Windows Registry, I find one REG_EXPAND_SE named MUIVerb on my Windows 7 system. However in its contents it's ...
3
votes
3answers
754 views
Is there any way to type the symbol for the Mac CMD key?
I would like to be able to use the symbol for CMD in a document, without requiring an image. Obviously, if the display font doesn't support it there'll be a problem, but given that it's in a document ...
3
votes
2answers
1k views
Why some unicode characters are missing in charmap?
In Windows, Character Map doesn't seem to display all of the unicode characters, even if the selected font supports them, and "Character set" selector is "Unicode".
For example, the small envelope ...
3
votes
2answers
299 views
Text files on linux have “<97>” characters
When viewing a particular text file in vim or less on Linux or OS X, all the en dashes show up as highlighted "<97>" characters.
What control-sequence do I need to type in order to substitute the ...
3
votes
2answers
114 views
chrome search in page: accented characters
Searching text inside a webpage (with ctrl-f) for an accented character, for instance è, chromium finds all occurrences of è, é and e.
Similarly, searching e finds è and é as well.
While it is an ...
3
votes
1answer
676 views
Insert special characters in Emacs
I use English keyboard and need to type some German letters from time to time. So I defined
(global-set-key [?\C-\;] (make-sparse-keymap))
(global-set-key [?\C-\; ?A] [?\x08C4])
...
to insert ...
3
votes
1answer
224 views
Word 2010: How to change the color of non-printable characters?
I would like to edit my document with non-printing characters (formatting marks: white space, paragraph marks, etc) visible. I find them quite distracting for reading, because they are shown in the ...
3
votes
2answers
98 views
Notepad++ inserting special Unicode characters in UTF-8
What's the best ways to enter special Unicode characters into a Notepad++ document? Do I have to rely on the operating system (Windows)?
Looking for a see-and-click solution.
I can bring up the ...
3
votes
0answers
75 views
Display Null Characters in PuTTy
I have a program which displays incoming data which is delimited by a null character (^A). I am accessing the server it is running on via PuTTY and When I open a log in a text editor these are ...
3
votes
1answer
96 views
Parse by Control Characters
I am trying to parse the output of a command that expects to be writing to the screen. It has data separated by move-to-origin control sequences (for the VT220, ESC[1;1H). I only need the last part ...
3
votes
2answers
619 views
How can I tell Firefox to ignore unprintable characters?
Edit: Summary
Apparently the intended character to display in this case is an "en-dash".
This page has a table half way down that shows that for the –, some software will convert the ...
2
votes
2answers
206 views
How is http://d§.cc/ a valid URL?
While browsing online today, I came across the following URL:
http://d§.cc/
Somehow it works. In Firefox 3.6/Mac, the browser seems to interpret the URL as:
http://xn--d-jca.cc/
In Safari 5/Mac, ...
2
votes
4answers
2k views
How do I find out which language some Unicode characters belong to?
On Facebook, there are currently messages floating around with these strange chars:
ก็็็็็็็็็็็็็็็็็็็็ กิิิิิิิิิิิิิิิิิิิิ ก้้้้้้้้้้้้้้้้้้้
They are used to confuse the reader, because ...
2
votes
1answer
133 views
How can I format this path to work as registry key value?
C:\Program Files (x86)\DotR\DotR.exe
I know I need to escape the backslashes like C:\\Program Files (x86)\\DotR\\DotR.exe but it still doesn't work. Do I need to handle spaces and parens as special ...
2
votes
2answers
520 views
use sed to replace nbsp, 160, Hex 00a0, Octal 240, non-breaking space
I am having some problems with config files which have the non-breaking space chars in them.
How should I specify that character with sed so I can replace it with a space.
sed -n 's/ / /g'
...
2
votes
3answers
636 views
Alt + Number key combination in notebooks
If you do Alt + 64 in a PC you will get "@" and so on for most characters.
I could not find out way yet to use this very helpful resource in notebooks.
Can this be done?
I would like if possible ...
2
votes
2answers
775 views
How to disable inputing characters like ãâà by default in OS X? I just want to simply type ~^`
Is there a solution for OS X 10.6? I don't find it in the system preferences.
2
votes
2answers
233 views
Firefox Awesomebar first character?
In the Firefox (3.6.6) Awesomebar:
? grape
searches Google* for "grape".
! grape
shows the "I'm Feeling Lucky" Google page for "grape".
With what other "special" characters can I start the ...
2
votes
2answers
63 views
Character Map utility for quick insertion
I've been using ClipX for a while for easier Copy/Pasting, and I realised another thing I was missing: The ability to quickly and easily access a character map for immediate insertion as I type. I ...
2
votes
2answers
157 views
OSX: create keyboard shortcut for a unicode character
I would like to be able to insert a Unicode character, namely š, by pressing a keyboard shortcut in OSX. Some applications allow me to press and hold the s key and then I can select the desired ...
2
votes
2answers
980 views
How to configure keyboard shortcuts for special characters on OS X?
How to configure keyboard shortcuts for special character on OS X? For example, one would set ALT+C to ©.
2
votes
1answer
1k views
Cannot type any special character or umlaut in terminal
Environment:
I am using Ubuntu 11.10 with wmii 3.9 as GUI and uxterm as terminal with bash as shell.
The hardware is a Lenovo ThinkPad W500 with a Swissgerman keyboard layout (thus I need umlauts).
I ...
2
votes
2answers
778 views
Why can't I paste from clipboard to OS X Terminal.app when it contains special characters?
For instance, if I have one or more of the following characters copied into clipboard, a paste into the terminal window will not work:
“ ” ’ –
This is pretty annoying, actually, one would think ...
2
votes
2answers
4k views
Using sed to replace string with special characters in XML file
I am having difficulty getting sed to replace a string of text in an XML file, despite the fact that I have no trouble using grep to find that same string. Since the new string and old string to be ...
2
votes
1answer
59 views
Unicode text exceeding boundaries?
I've seen this before on youtube comments and such as well but what is this called and how is it done?
I saw it here ...
2
votes
0answers
37 views
Is there a key combo that's usable for Unicode characters in the same manner as ASCII characters? [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
Typing strange letters¿ w/o numpad?
If you open up Window's Character Map and select, say, Arial as the font then you're obviously shown all of the characters that ...
2
votes
2answers
581 views
Search special characters or short mathematical symbols in pdf files
I have Adobe Reader, Okular and Document Viewer as pdf readers. The papers I read are often texts with mathematical formulae, generated by LaTeX.
But it seems that searching special characters or ...
2
votes
1answer
329 views
How do I get Word 2007 to stop changing the font when pasting special characters
When pasting text as "unformatted unicode text" in Word 2007, some special characters will be rendered in a different font, even when the current font at the place of insertion has these characters.
...
1
vote
2answers
70 views
How do I find out more about a unicode character I see in Windows?
Came across a character I didn't recognize:
‽
I was interested in knowing more about this character, but on Windows 7 charmap wasn't able to search the pasted-in results (in fact, in that text box, ...
1
vote
3answers
179 views
How do I type some letters with an overbar?
How can I type characters with an overbar, like the NOT symbol in math, when in a linux SSH shell with no GUI?
1
vote
3answers
458 views
What is the charater code of the arrow used in location bar/breadcrumb bar of Windows Explorer?
I want to know the character code of the arrows that used in Windows 7's Explorer as below screenshot - the ones that are marked red.
(Reason: I want to add a button like that in my WPF application)
...
1
vote
3answers
339 views
How to type a caron char with querty keyboard?
How to type a Caron char with querty keyboard?
I really need a blank space with this carot. I used the following instructions with no success. The oposite char, the Carot is on printed on my keyboard ...
1
vote
2answers
163 views
ls, rm, or perform other operations on a directory who's name begins with '$'
I accidentally created a directory who's name begins with the "$" character, and now I can't figure out how to ls its contents or rm -r it altogether.
I've tried quoting the name like this ls ...
