Jennifer Murphy
Member
Does Xenforo provide a way to insert special symbols, like the degree symbol (°)?
Does Xenforo support symbols, like the degree symbol (°)?
- Thread starter Jennifer Murphy
- Start date
Solution
Jennifer Murphy
Member
That's what I thought. I couldn't find one. I have posted a suggestion in that section.
⭐ Alex ⭐
Well-known member
I wouldn't say that's Xenforo's responsibility. On a windows computer you can insert a degree symbol using alt code alt + 248
° Degree Symbol Alt Code
Learn how to use Alt codes to quickly type the Degree symbol ° on Windows or Mac. Or, simply click the Degree symbol to copy and paste!
altcodeunicode.com
°
Alternatively you can open charmap (character map) in windows or the equivalent in another operating system to insert a degree symbol anywhere.
On an iphone or ipad you can use this method: https://www.iphonelife.com/content/how-to-type-temperature-degree-symbol-iphone
I suppose this can be a suggestion for the new editor coming in XenForo 3.0 to have a symbol menu like microsoft word does.
Jennifer Murphy
Member
Using that logic, Xenforo should not include anything that I can do in Windows. That would make Xenforo a lot simpler, bur harder to use. And I didn't say it was Xenforo's responsibility. I said it would be helpful.
That is very helpful. Thanks. I wasn't aware of charmap. °°°°°°°°° !!!
Done
Digital Doctor
Well-known member
Chromaniac
Well-known member
Special characters are also available from the emoji popup in windows. Window key + . opens it iirc.
Jennifer Murphy
Member
Of course. I use that all the time for emojis. I just never noticed that there is a symbol tab at the top.
° 
℉ 
℃ . . .Thanks
PapaTango
Member
Really? So providing an easily administered, feature-rich, and extensible editing experience for content generators and members alike is not the responsibility of the platform developers? Surely in a rational world, you jest.
Tell me again why I pay them to provide me with a platform to extend my vision and provide the foundation for the life and future of my community.
Or do we simply leave these matters to the efforts of itinerant and ephemeral third-party developers? This is not a recipe for success.
Silly me. I thought I was living at the end of the first quarter of the 21st century. I, and the majority of the Internet community left such arcane intricacies and obstacles behind long ago. Let the Linux and freeware community have their waning days with that.
Have you heard of UIX/GUI?
Why in the unholy Dilbert Hades would I want to go through all of these convolutions and hoops, simply to place some sort of character? The reality is point-and-shoot.
The sort of early 2000s thinking such as this does not bode well for the future of forum communities.
I have been publishing sites for over 30 years now. I'm going to hopefully wait on that. NOT.
And that right there is exactly why traditional forum platforms are shrinking in terms of relevance, participation, and traffic. Things that make the experience worthwhile add value. As a publisher, I like value. As a content creator, I like value. It's a bloody damn shame that the Editor Manager addon puked out as an outcome of the PHP line dance.
Let's leave behind the vagaries of third-party development. It's long past time to enable and empower full vision and functionality to the site publisher in their community.
Just my opinion, but one not too prevalent within the mainline development community.
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Arantor
Well-known member
Consider that the 102-ish key layout has been around for 40 years and they haven’t seen fit to include the degree symbol as important. I can’t remember the last time I needed to type it so for me, adding this feature is not even a non-priority, it’s straight up bloat.
Given that there are literal thousands of symbols on offer - since every letter in nearly every written language is covered, plus symbols, languages we can’t even translate (Linear A/B), hieroglyphs, what one person decides is critical is another person’s unnecessary. And it is infeasible to expect any vendor of any application to provide this feature when in reality it is an operating system feature to deal with this since it is also the operating system that has to deal with displaying it.
Windows offers the Win+. option, Mac has the long press for key variants, Linux has various options.
Given that there are literal thousands of symbols on offer - since every letter in nearly every written language is covered, plus symbols, languages we can’t even translate (Linear A/B), hieroglyphs, what one person decides is critical is another person’s unnecessary. And it is infeasible to expect any vendor of any application to provide this feature when in reality it is an operating system feature to deal with this since it is also the operating system that has to deal with displaying it.
Windows offers the Win+. option, Mac has the long press for key variants, Linux has various options.
Jennifer Murphy
Member
I just learned that Windows 11 has two emoji keyboard shortcuts: Win+. (period) and Win+; (semicolon). Curiously, but not surprisingly for M$FT, I could not find the Windows key symbol in the collection of symbols. In the Math Symbols section, there is the squared plus symbol: ⊞.
Arantor
Well-known member
Microsoft have implemented the standards as laid down by the Unicode Consortium (of which they are a member). Apple have, on the other hand, registered the Apple symbol as a Unicode symbol in a “free for all” part of the space, but that symbol generally only works on Apple devices because it isn’t standard.
MySiteGuy
Well-known member
Some trivia:
It's been longer than that when you consider they essentially stole the design from Digital Equipment Corporation's LK201 keyboard used with the Rainbow 100, VT220 terminal, DECmate, Pro-series, and others. Released 3 years (1982) before the IBM 101 Enhanced Model in 1985. I don't recall when the 102 version came out, probably when the PS/2 series was introduced.
The cool thing about the LK201 I wish was standard now, is the top area above the function keys was transparent, and flipped up so you could insert a flexible plastic strip labeling the functions for specific applications.
And even before the 101/102 layout, the standard IBM 84-key keyboard allowed the ability to insert special characters via Alt-key combinations. @PapaTango could manage to spend all that time writing a long complaint, yet has not bothered to spend the time learning the extremely simple extended character input method that has been around almost 45 years (maybe longer, if IBM used the same method on their terminals).
Chromaniac
Well-known member
fwiw microsoft emoji popup does not include the middle finger and also none of the flags emojis. so there's that.
also worth mentioning here that, windows 10 is still officially supported yet microsoft would just not add support for the latest emojis announced by the consortium. i do not think they have added new emojis even in recent feature updates. now it is essentially on life support so around billion devices worldwide still doesn't support all the latest emojis. apple does pretty good here. android also takes its sweet time based on your manufacturer.
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Arantor
Well-known member
Does MS even support the flag emojis yet? Far as I know they don’t actually render anyway (so no point having them in the picker)
Though the whole emoji thing is technically a hack, repurposing that vendor-specific space I mentioned before.
Arantor
Well-known member
The only keyboard I have that can actually type it is my iPad, where it is available from long-pressing 0. My MacBook doesn’t appear to offer it (QWERTY with vague UK accommodations) and none of my MSI laptops have had it (even with their weird gamer layouts)
Jennifer Murphy
Member
On my US keyboard, the key to the left of the number 1 is the back quote(?) (`) and the tilde (~).
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