Life Pro Tip!

You kid, but as an Canadian Anglophone, this is what I do any time I have to send an email to someone with a French name with an accented character.
Yes, I know the special character menu is a thing, but I have shit to do.
- Try this instead if you have a number pad on your keyboard:
  Hold alt and type 0233 and then release the alt key.
  For my favourite, type : then hold alt and type 0254. 😛
  
  I have not had a number pad on my keyboard for some time :( I remember this arcane magic
  
  Or better yet, start using the US-international keyboard layout. You press the accent you want (', `, ", ~, ...) and the letter you want it on, and boom. Writing normal versions of those symbols requires a space after writing them, but that's easy to get used to.
  It's pretty much the default setting in the Netherlands.
  
  I remember this from working on a DOS PC with a German keyboard. Which has no backslash character, among other characters one need for programming. Having äöü at your fingertips is no help if you need ].
  
  On macOS you can hold down ‘e’ to do this, too.
- I do this to type ™®©• on my computer
  
  Wikipedia is where I get my interrobangs.
  
  Bookmarked.
  Me too.
  
  ° ² ₂ ø are my common ones
- Most modern OSs have special bindings for special characters. On a Mac it's like alt+ e e for é. I think it's just alt + e on Linux.
  
  Don’t you guys have dead keys? On German keyboards there’s a key that does nothing on its own. When you press it twice, you get '`', and when you press that button and 'e' you get è.
  Many people confuse this for the apostrophe which brings me into a murderous rage every time I see it.
- We (Canadians) actually have two layouts to type French characters. The modern Canadian multilingual layout, and the traditional "French (Canada)" layout. As an older French speaking Canadian, I prefer the traditional layout but both work. You can even type English words with these.
  
  (Shout out to !the_kids_in_the_hall@lemmy.ca , that community needs more love)
- They all start with "H"?
  
  It's always some bitch named Hélênè.
  (This was accomplished by searching, in no particular order, 'e accent aigu', 'Pokemon wikipedia', and 'e with pointy hat')

I work in IT and I have coworkers that use caps lock to capitalize single letters, like the beginning of a sentence. It hurts a bit every time I see it.
- I work in IT and I have coworkers that call the emergency support line on Saturday at 7 in the morning because "this bullshit system won't let me log in", then I remote in and it says in big letters right at the center of the login screen CAPSLOCK ENABLED.
  I won't complain though, that way I make an extra 50€ (1h minimum billing time with weekend bonus) in under a minute.
  
  I think this kind of thing is inevitable due to change blindness. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Change_blindness
  You don't get hit with the change blindness because A: you're looking at the situation with fresh eyes instead of sleep deprived pre-coffee eyes that just want to get through the login screen to get some work done
  And B, because you know how to interpret every bit of visual information on the screen and thus think of it as important. I mean, think of all the times you looked at someone else's computer and their desktop background was their kid or their dog. That's a huge change in visual terms, but it's a tiny change in terms of importance, so you dismiss it and get used to it immediately. You file it as unimportant and ignore it. Your filing of stuff is correct because you actually understand it. But an average user will file every single thing they don't understand as important, and also many things they do understand but don't care about.
  Disk mount error. Resolution not recommended. Are you experiencing interruptions? Find out why! Buy boner pills now! It looks like you're trying to write a word document, would you like help? It's a sunny day, 22 degrees C. USERS APPDATA ROAMING. Janice from accounting wants to show you her baby pictures. Back up your files to OneDrive now. You're overdue for an antivirus scan. This flash drive may be corrupted, would you like to repair it? The program crashed, reporting the problem to Microsoft. Solitaire. A Nigerian prince needs your money. Please verify your phone number.
  These messages all have varying levels of importance, but they all demand the user's attention in a way most people can't tell apart. The user is a bald monkey relying on stimulus-sorting firmware that's hundreds of thousands of years out of date. So the occipital lobe just files every one of those messages under the same label: noise.
- Reminds me of the bash.org quote that went something like:
  User1 joins channel
  User1: HELLO EVERYONE!
  Mod: Try hitting the caps lock key
  User1: OMG THANK YOU THAT'S SO MUCH EASIER!!!
  
  Mod: We need you to press the caps lock key again.
  User1: OKAY I DID! JUST TO BE SURE, I PRESSED IT TWICE.
  
  Heh, I remember reading that one on the irc quote database.
- I do that too sometimes.
- https://www.peaveymart.com/animal/cattle/handling-equipment/duraprod-electric-livestock-prod-with-rh36/283090

Yes, but you need to be wary of pasting the formatting.
So when you do this, instead of pasting with Control+V you will want to paste without formatting using the Control+Shift+V command.
So remember - if you want that capital 'H' without issues, use your Shift key when pasting what you copy from Wikipedia.
- sounds a bit complex.
  i prefer to paste into notepad, and then copy it from there
  
  Missing some vital first steps :
  Screenshot the webpage. Print it out. Scan the text using OCR. Cut single character.
- You can copy the H and paste it into the address bar and copy again to clear the formatting.
  
  First you copy, then open word pad and paste it there. Then remember that word pad has text formatting and open excel and paste it there. Then remember excel also has text formatting and open calculator and paste it there. Then remember that calculator can only handle numbers (or a few letters if you are a hacker and put it in hex mode) and open Minesweeper and try to set a new personal best time. Don't you just hate it when you have one mine left and two squares with equal chance of being the mine?
  Eventually remember the pasting thing, act impressed the computer still remembers what you were trying to paste and just paste it into your notepad document and hope no one notices it's different.
  MS getting rid of word pad really messes up my usual work flow. Or would if I wasn't switching to Linux instead of W11. I hear the word pads grow on trees there and that it comes with sudoku built right in, but they are fancy and drop the "ku" to save typing time.
- I just paste it in notepad to remove formatting.
  And I'm not even joking, sometimes the special ALT 0227 doesnt work and my å is only on Wikipedia...
- Dammnnn I use right click page without formatting so much, I hate it when software removes the option from the right click menu... looking at you Teams. This will change my life!
- if you want that capital ‘H’ without issues
  Does this work on people?

I used to do this, but then I changed to Hat. It's increased my productivity significantly and saves me multiple hours each week.
- do you mind sharing your secret for the capital i? you just used three of them in one post and i have no idea how you accomplished such a feat
  
  I go to Infrastructure. I hope to find a shorter word in the future but so far I've got nothing.
  
  Use an l
  
  It's the same thing, but you go to the Wikipedia article for Æthelred I of Wessex and copy his Roman numeral.
- Bro I can do you one better than that and it even works without internet after the first time if you work from home!
  Open a file and copy the capitals (Ass for A, Bumbulum for B, etc.) from Wikipedia and boom! You add some html around it, go to godaddy or your favorite registrar and claim a domain (I like the expensive ones), manage nameserver and dynamic DNS with cloud flare so can access your home router without getting a static IP from your ISP, then use nginx to set up a reverse proxy (don't forget to forward unique ports on your router in the NAT rules section!), spool a virtual machine and use your router to create a static lease, stick that file on that machine, and then make yourself a browser bookmark to the URL you purchased that hits your router port forwards to reverse proxy and lands you in that VM on a shared drive! The best part is you can often do this for less than $1000 per month depending on the URL you pick.
  Oh, be sure to set up some 2FA though if you don't want to get hacked.
  
  I'm not a computer wiz, this is all way over my head.

This but for em dashes
- Many applications will automatically convert two hyphens to an em dash.
  --
  
  Not my copy of Microsoft Word I was given by work, I can say that much.
  
  That’s an en dash. This is an em dash: —
- Alt+0150
  
  That's actually the alt code for an en dash. Em dash is Alt+0151!
  
  This should be a lot more upvoted.
- For me it's "§"
  Easy on Android. PITA and different shortcut on every Windows app.
- I use a compose key. I type Compose - - -
- I just use hyphens for everything.

Just take a picture of the Wikipedia page and use OCR. No need for that copy and pasting nonsense.
- Email the page pdf to your nan so that she can print it out first.

tHats cool and all but How do I get tHe otHer letters uppercase too
- Modifier key
  Use auto hotkey and set up so that super + {letter} gives you the uppercase letter
  
  I ThINK I MESSED IT UP
  
  Set a key as a modifier key and program the character provider function in your text editor to to give the corresponding capital letter of whatever key is pressed, in case the modifier key is down.
  Even better, you can use the same modifier key with number keys and other symbol keys to give an alternative symbol, which you could also indicate on the keyboard.
  Let's call this the Shif... oh wait, what year is this?

On desktop, how many people search for an emoji, then just copy paste the character into their text?
Instead of switching to the alt keyboard, not that one, the other, no the emoji not the international one, dammit.
Or bringing up the keyboard menu, then scrolling around, looking for the right one, searching, no, scroll, scroll scroll, etc.
- I'm about to blow your mind.
  Windows key + . brings up an emoji menu. I only discovered this by accident about a month ago.
  
  On my KDE desktop its a simple Win+Ctrl+Alt+Shift+Space.
  Not even kidding

Gnome search works also for characters
- interesting

I do this when writing λ, Δ, Φ, etc. in a document on a computer I don't own or when on my phone. It's genuinely faster than scrolling through Word's symbol list, for example.
- You mean \lambda, \Delta and \Phi?
  
  Not all of us are able to use superior tools like LaTeX for our documents, unfortunately
- Use compose key. Or is that not available on Windows?

Used to work with someone who would recycle characters. Like, instead of typing a letter on the keyboard (which had many keys specifically for this purpose), they would go looking for that letter in some text they were going to discard and Ctrl-X Ctrl-V it.
- I mean in this economy who can blame them

H
- see? IT FUCKING WORKS!!!!
- Can I borrow this?
  
  Just do it.

Honestly shit like that works really well when half of your notebook's keyboard doesn't work anymore. The on screen keyboard is limited and copy pasting letters from texts can be faster. Especially with special characters. Or when you just need an a or s, opening the on screen keyboard again and again vs copy pasting it once and using it as a source - the second one is faster.
I am very sad and desperate I can't afford a new laptop
- You could get an external keyboard to use with your laptop.
  
  I literally have one at home and didn't think of that. Thanks.
- What's the model? I know a decent bit about laptop repair and I can do some research for you to see whether it would be a massive pain to replace the keyboard.
  
  That's super nice of you. I think it is an HP 250 G7 (that's on the back), I bought it back in like 2017. I'm not very tech savvy and just bought the one a fellow student had and said she liked. It drives me nuts because I don't get how to turn it on or off (I mean I do, but it changes what it wants all the time, you gotta rub it the right way).

What you have to do to type é on a standard keyboard is white supremacy in action
- Just press shift+è, smh
  This comment was brought to you by the Italian keyboard gang
  
  ABNT2 keyboard gang here, we just press ´+e. It even has a dedicated key for ç, French words do not scare us.
- Ctrl-', E
- This is in NF Z71‐300.
- French Canada keyboard is best keyboard for this reason
- I just have to press Alt Gr and the vowel at the same time. ÁÉÍÓÚ.
- For me the é is txped using Shift + ü Guess what Layout that is
- standard keyboard
  That's easy: Alt+130
  But for a tenkeyless one, that's what Wikipedia highlighting is for.

You joke but Google is the easiest way to get the Euro symbol on a UK keyboard.
- You guys are taking this Brexit thing really seriously.
  
  I just wanna know when their referendum to join the US is gonna happen
- Isn't that just AltGr+4? A lot of UK keyboards write € on the 4 keycap next to the $.
  
  You sure you're not thinking of the Pound symbol (£)? The Euro symbol (€) would have to be a third thing, if it's there at all.
  I'm not British and don't know their keyboard layout, so maybe you're right, but I would expect £ to be accessible and € less so.
  Edit: oh, you were right. £ is Shift+3, € is AltGr+4.
  
  None of the ones I've used tbh. That might just be luck though.
- Right Alt + e?

I actually do this for complicated letter that I don't know.
Like: ë, ñ, ũ, ü, etc
- On Android ü just hard press the letter and they all pop up. ñot hárd
  
  Yeah, I know. I was mostly talking on a computer.
- There's something a bit upsetting about how finding it online is faster and easier than using an application purpose-built for this purpose (Character Map)
  
  That application was made before the turn of the fucking millennium and it has a bad UI design?
  
  It's even worse on mobile. I have no idea how to do this without changing my phone's whole locale.
  
  I used to google for it, but now I ask chatgpt. Thats probably way worse resource-wise, right?
- If you got compose key (linux, mac, windows with third party software), then those are trivial:
  ë ñ ũ ü, and even åâăāãȧaąàáæª₂2²
  Goes like Compose e ", Compose n ~, etc
  But a thing to note that resulting letters are generic and not region-specific,
  like that ë (U+00EB LATIN SMALL LETTER A WITH DIAERESIS)
  is not the same as ё (U+0451 CYRILLIC SMALL LETTER IO)
  Which might trigger spellcheckers or not even be displayed in certain fonts
  There's also apparently some weird combos like Compose+:) for ☺ and Compose+CCCP for ☭, but no easily available keys for greek letters unless you tweak configs...
  
  Thanks for the advice, but it's not important enough for me to do it.
  I barely use any of these letters anyway.
- Æ
  
  Compose-Shift-a-e

when I was younger, instead of just using shift, i used to press the caps lock key and then turn it off lol
- My wife does this and it drives me crazy!
  
  Psst, check out my reply to the parent comment :) your wife might be right, though I'm firmly on your side
- I have it on good authority that Sean Wrona, possibly the fastest typist in the world, does this too. When you really think about it, there's nothing wrong with doing it that way, but I agree that it feels wrong and weird.
  https://youtube.com/watch?v=m9EXEpjSDEw this is what his typing looks like in action (though no clear shot of him using shift or caps lock as far as I can see)
  https://data.typeracer.com/pit/profile?user=arenasnow his profile on a competitive typing website.
  Edit: found a quote from his website:
  I recommend using caps lock instead of shift to type capital letters to allow more flexibility in the hand that you would normally use shift with.
- Didn't we all. Tiny me's fingers were not long enough to hold shift and click another key at the same item.

Presumably the original post was made facetiously, but since a lot of people are talking about special characters in the comments:
I can't confirm anymore, but besides all the alt shortcuts in the comments, in Windows it used to be that you could open the Character Map from the Start menu, then either copy any character from a chart or select the character to see its alt code.
- One of the great tricks is also [Super] + [.] to bring up a mixed emoji and emoticon library!
  
  Where the hell is the "Super" key?
- as someone who types special characters a lot, I can't believe how people go about without the compose key
  
  I feel like I saw one of those a very very long time ago, but otherwise, never heard of one. Thank you for the edification!
  
  yo watch this
  - – — ‽
- Presumably? Lmao wat
  
  There have been enough times that I've stated something obvious and been declared mistaken by the original poster that I've learned to hedge my bets. Also, if I pretend to be ignorant of some obvious things, it can be funnier.
  If you'd prefer it to be framed another way, I'm a coward.

How do you think Mexican people spell year in Spanish if it's not by going to Wikipedia and getting that letter that comes after m and before n in the Mexican alphabet? Eh? Eh? Anios!
- Anos?
  
  Cuantos anos tienes?
  Solamente tengo un ano! Y con ese ano me cago. LOL.
  Big difference between ano and anio.

This is what I used once when my keyboard broke and some keys stopped working. Even ordering the new keyboard was difficult when I couldn't type my delivery address properly.
- That's where the on screen keyboard app can be handy as well. It's on most computers.
  
  Back in my day we didn't have no fancy on screen keyboard built into windows! We copy and pasted from a random readme.txt file when our keyboards broke! (Or were taken away by our parents thinking it would make the computer inoperable, haha)
  It is a really nice feature now though.

That’s how I type everything, I just have pages of pages of text with characters and then I scroll through and click each page where a character may be used

Once, I had a friend who's spacebar failed. I told her to copy-padre the space and go to Goodwill and buy a new keyboard.
- That's a copy, padre.
  
  Autocorrupt.

I Google for the l and the I when I can't identify them.
- I search character identifier when I’m curious
  Also it’s too bad this hasn’t been fixed in all fonts yet because it makes some scams easier.

I have just watched Idiocracy... I can't take it anymore.

I'm still trying to find out how people make that flipped d. /s
On Windows, win+r 'charmap'
<enter>
in case anyone ever needs it. On other OS/Window managers, I'm not sure off-hand about the shortcuts.

This was how many errors never made it to a newspaper page. Writer fucked up? You go in the trash and you find an H and you stick it over top. Or you ransom-note a whole word that way.
Ain’t nobody got time for printers. There was partying to be done and deadlines.

There are honestly some people I work with who are like this. It's just as nightmarish as it sounds