Character Map utility for quick insertion

Question

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 know a bunch of the codepoints I frequently use, such as 0233 for é, but I frequently find myself searching through charmap to find a character I need.

Is there any such utility, that allows me to press a button combination and bring up a charmap where I can select a character (preferably sorted by Unicode subrange) and insert it where I am typing?

Answer 1

UIBN (Unicode Input By Name) might be what you really need: it lets you select a character by typing part of its Unicode name, like “e with ac”.

If you use MS Word (which is what most people use for writing texts), you can assign a shortcut key to its Insert→Symbol function, which launches a character map of a kind.

BabelMap is an advanced character map utility, but I’m afraid it cannot easily be made keyboard-triggerable. Rather, you can launch it manually and leave it on the desktop. Unfortunately, getting characters inserted at your point of insertion requires three steps (click copy, click on insertion point, enter Ctrl V).

Answer 2

I actually just started using AutoHotkey_L today and it works great. You need the "_L" version for Unicode support.

User @endolith shared his AutoHotkey script which has a lot of Unicode scientific notation substitutions in it in a meta post.

You should easily be able to modify that to include any codepoints you need.