WinCompose – A Compose Key for Windows

https://github.com/samhocevar/wincompose

by mkotowski • 5 years ago

228 134 5 years ago

rtkwe• 5 years ago

Cute. My least favorite part of any language class I've ever taken is if I have to type anything outside of the standard US english alphabet, the standard alt code method was never good.

mkotowski5• 5 years ago

Well, at least it wasn’t at the level of pain of getting any IME to work on Linux (not that Windows is much better in that regard…).

binrec• 5 years ago

It's not an off-the-shelf solution, but what I do is roll my own keyboard layout with MSKLC.

Kaze404• 5 years ago

Do you know if such a tool exists for Linux? I would like to use the US-INTL keyboard, as it allows me to write international characters easily, but comes with the downside that ' and " are dead keys, which makes programming annoying.

I did once manage to manually write a keyboard layout that gets around that, but it was a painful process and I've been since looking for a tool that allows me to create keyboard layouts more easily.

edit: I did a quick search and it seems that such a keyboard layout already exists. Here it is in case it's useful to anyone else: https://pieter-degroote.github.io/UltimateKEYS/

cush• 5 years ago

For emojis WIN+. is my go to.

pseudosavant• 5 years ago

The touch keyboard can be really useful for any other special characters too. Just hold your click down on the key and you'll see other variants (e.g. S = šß§). I wouldn't rely on it to constantly type characters like that, but it is great every once in a while.

yc-kraln• 5 years ago

I don't understand how this is different than the "International" keyboard variants that ship with Windows.

How is this better than the status quo?

mkotowski5• 5 years ago

Compose key — and by extension WinCompose — is used as a mnemonic shortcut for various characters, both predefined and custom.

For example, I am using WinCompose right now: … ’ č ß ɐ ə ” « ʌ × þ ð n’t ď ɥ. All the characters inserted without leaving hands off keyboard.

As far as I know, there is no built-in keyboard on Windows with that kind of functionality (the emoji keyboard under `Win+.` coming close, but with no customization and more centered on inputting singular characters rather than blending in with normal keyboard usage).

Springtime• 5 years ago

Autohotkey is also useful for this. Any arbitrary set of characters can be auto replaced with the desired output, or alternatively be bound to a hotkey.

This removes the need to memorize some abstract set of Alt key sequences and instead one could type something such as ++degree to produce °. The sequence of characters could be anything to distinguish it from regularly used text, here using ++ and name of the symbol to illustrate.

WinCompose it appears uses a similar principle.

mavhc2• 5 years ago

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/how-to-use-the-uni...

"Creating international characters

When you press the APOSTROPHE ( ' ) key, QUOTATION MARK ( " ) key, ACCENT GRAVE ( ` ) key, TILDE ( ~ ) key, or ACCENT CIRCUMFLEX,. also called the CARET key, ( ^ ) key, nothing is displayed on the screen until you press a second key:"...

lithiumfrost• 5 years ago

For one, the character coverage is much broader than what's typically found on an international keyboard.

I use it all the time for typing arrows and other symbols, for example. YMMV but I also find it mnemonically better, from time to time I can just guess what the right Compose sequence is.

shawnz7• 5 years ago

Wouldn't it be better to just create a new keyboard layout featuring the composed keys you want, rather than running software constantly in the background to achieve the same thing?

See here for example: https://dailydoseoftech.com/how-to-create-a-custom-keyboard-...

MiddleEndian4• 5 years ago

Say I want to type the copyright symbol, not something I do every day, not something worth its own key on my keyboard. I type Compose O C and it gives me: ©, Compose ~ ~ gives me ≈,

The built-in shortcuts are very easy to guess, it's great for things I don't type every day. Plus you can add or remove shortcuts so you can change your layout on the fly.

It's great in Windows, Compose is great in Linux, and it's also is a good alternative for the otherwise useless CapsLock key.

cjauvin• 5 years ago

I'm a big fan of the compose key, both for its universality and intuitive "syntax". For many years I endured the pain of a dual French/US keyboard layout (one for writing, the other for coding), until a coworker showed me the special Option-key shortcuts you can use on a Mac to make French accents, and then finally I settled on the nice and intuitive Compose Key support offered natively by Ubuntu: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/ComposeKey

TacticalCoder• 5 years ago

Basically the same here, now I settled on QWERTY with a few tricks to do french diacritic signs. Compose key can be a bit slow at times, so I only use it for the less common characters, like e-circumflex. For the really common ones like e-acute and e-grave I simply assign additional shortcuts: for example hyper+e = e-acute (my keyboard has got additional modifier keys: it's not just ctrl/alt/shift as I've got additional physical keys, which I configured to act as Hyper and Super).

yetanother-1• 5 years ago

Same issue.

I struggeled with french on German keyboard, so I searched how to type everything, and all wad easy except the ç.

The only solution was to type ALT+135 from the keypad. It worked until a recent windows update, now I get garbage from that shortcut.

I will give this a try, thanks!

igitur2• 5 years ago

I had a similar problem recently, but it was self-inflicted.

Try changing the status of the "Beta: Use Unicode UTF-8 for worldwide language support" checkbox.

You can see this option by going to Settings and then: All Settings -> Time & Language -> Language -> "Administrative Language Settings"

tasogare• 5 years ago

I'm using a logical FR layout on a physical Mac FR layout, the underlying layout for Japanese input is QWERTY while the pinyin for Traditional Chinese uses AZERTY... I'm tired of all these context switches and I wish there was an universal keyboard IME that allow me to type the languages I care about without having to switch between IME all the time. Same complains about mobile (iOS). I might build something one day because of how annoying it is (at least typing English is easy from FR keyboard so that's one less keyboard to use).

numpad0• 5 years ago

Can’t you just configure Japanese IME to use the same one as physical keyboard map? Japanese IME shouldn’t be adamant about “keymap goes with language” model.

bombela• 5 years ago

On Linux/xorg I use the qwerty international layout and a dead compose key for the rarely used symbols.

Example: é is "altgr+e", ç is "altgr+", while Ω is "right-ctrl, shift+w" and ⁶ is "right-ctrl,^,6" etc.

You can do it all with the compose key. But for typing in french I find altgr+e to be faster than "rightctrl,',e".

tinus_hn• 5 years ago

The difference is if you don’t use these characters a lot, compose+accent, letter is a lot easier to remember than altgr+random key.

Especially when it’s not printed on your keyboard.

pbhjpbhj3• 5 years ago

I was trying to make a grave accent, opposite direction to an acute, on Win10 - everything I tried seemed to make acute accents ... how do I, please?

labawi• 5 years ago

For Ω and other rarely used symbols, I just type: <Ctrl>+<Shift>+U 2126 <Space>.

Works like a charm in pretty much any program and keyboard layout.

For the more common acute/grave/.. letters, I use

  setxkbmap -layout latin,<local layout> -variant ,qwerty -option grp:switch,grp:alt_shift_toggle

Then I can use the nice us keyboard without dead keys for programming and access the local layout by holding <AltGr> (right alt) for local characters (usually via localized dead keys).

gerardvivancos2• 5 years ago

I also use dual layouts and found that switching between US (for coding) and US international (typing with diacritics) is the most comfortable setup for me. Both in Win and Mac switching between both modes is just pressing Ctrl+Space and the US international layout allows me to type all diacritics I use (Catalan) with an US keyboard.

Maybe I’m just stating the obvious and everybody already knows and is moving aware from that, so I won’t explain the details. But if someone is interested just let me know

908B64B197• 5 years ago

dual French/US keyboard layout (one for writing, the other for coding)

Why not use one of the QWERTY layouts with accented characters?

mackrevinack• 5 years ago

these days i prefer to use menus like Rofi for things like this. all you need to memorise is 1 hotkey to open the menu and then you can search and filter the list to find whatever character you want, say 'trademark' or 'tra' to find ™, or search for an emoji by describing it

pessimizer• 5 years ago

You don't have to memorize compose key combinations unless you use a few strange ones often. "Compose", "t", "m" gives me "™". Your first guess is usually right.

porker• 5 years ago

Rofi won't work on Windows, will it?

pier253• 5 years ago

For accents and such a good alternative is selecting an international keyboard on Windows. For example you can write a ñ with ALT + N.

pier253• 5 years ago

Off topic... but damn, Windows emojis are still super ugly.

Anyone knows if they are better in Windows 11?

robmerki• 5 years ago

Totally agree. Apparently they're getting an overhaul: https://www.xda-developers.com/microsoft-emoji-windows-11-mi...

pier253• 5 years ago

Oh wow these look great!

amyjess• 5 years ago

WinCompose is one of a handful of utilities that's made using Windows virtually painless as someone who's used to using Linux as a daily driver.

(other such utilities include Chocolatey, MobaXterm, Greenshot, WSL in general for common CLI tools, and some KDE apps but especially Kate and Okular)

MiddleEndian4• 5 years ago

Also worth checking out is Ditto, clipboard history manager. Much snappier and lighter than the built-in one they eventually put into Windows. Nearly identical to KDE's Klipper, CTRL ` and your searchable clipboard history appears next to your cursor.

nickjj• 5 years ago

Much snappier and lighter than the built-in one they eventually put into Windows

Ditto also supports searching through your clipboard history. Been using Ditto for years.

leokennis2• 5 years ago

Love that app. The built in one does not show tons of stuff you can copy to your clipboard.

I work in IT and people are baffled when I copy a few things, paste them one by one, then search for a thing I copied a week ago…I feel naked without Ditto.

vort3• 5 years ago

There was a software called 3dclip, which is essentially Ditto, but much more lightweight. I think it uses native windows elements and written without use of big libraries.

Unfortunately it's discontinued and website isn't available anymore, but I have installer for anyone who is interested (it's not modified or anything). It doesn't have history search, but if all you want is a multiclipboard, it does that, and some other useful things as well. I use it for many years and happy with it.

Tried Ditto but it's too big and slow for my taste.

UPD: I was wrong, site is still up.

https://www.3dclipboard.com/

francislavoie2• 5 years ago

I prefer Scoop over Chocolatey https://scoop.sh/

Also Windows Terminal is really great https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/windows-terminal/9n0dx20hk...

I also prefer ShareX for screenshots https://getsharex.com/

pitaj• 5 years ago

I just use the built-in screen snip. You can configure it to activate on press of the "print screen" key.

keithnz• 5 years ago

for screen shots, I mucked around with a bunch and ended up using lightshot https://app.prntscr.com/en/index.html and a tool called GifCam to take animated Gif screenshots.

JoBrad• 5 years ago

Second scoop: it’s smart use of symlinks and no need for admin is exactly what Windows CLI needs.

yarosv• 5 years ago

Unfortunately scoop stopped being maintained. See https://github.com/lukesampson/scoop/issues/2609#issuecommen...

leokennis2• 5 years ago

A nice alternative for MobaXterm is Royal TS, especially for maintaining a list of 100’s of servers and simultaneously executing commands on a subset or all of them:

https://royalapps.com/ts/win/features

lproven3• 5 years ago

Have a look at Taekwindow as well, then.

Provides the missing but to me vital functionality of "middle click the title bar to send to the back of the stack".

asciimov• 5 years ago

I'll have to remember this when I go back to windows one day.

I roll my own keyboard layout on Linux, and the Compose key is a nice to have. I put it where the right Alt normally lives along with the dead greek key (by using shift-RALT).

aphit2• 5 years ago

I started to use WinCompose when I changed from a full size keyboard (with numpad) to a TKL keyboard which omits it.

As a mechanical engineer, I often need to type things like the degree symbol and with WinCompose it is just Compose, o, o whereas I used to type these using alt codes.

Other common uses are for sub and super scripts (₁¹), bullets (•), and my own custom ones like on for my email, which I set as Compose, e, m (since these days working from home I am constantly logging into lots of things).

jamal-kumar• 5 years ago

The guessability of combos to compose characters with is really key to what makes the compose key a great tool. I wouldn't be surprised if Microsoft adopts this into their OS someday.

ethhics2• 5 years ago

Being a plan 9 nerd, I originally found 9ime [1] when I wanted a compose key in windows. It serves the same purpose and has the same default compose key of right-Alt. I’ve yet to be frustrated by it enough to switch to wincompose (but the UX is certainly better).

[1] https://github.com/sqweek/9ime

TriStateFarmer3• 5 years ago

I want to try this, is there a prebuilt binary available.

ethhics2• 5 years ago

There is not unfortunately.

TriStateFarmer3• 5 years ago

I'm now using this and I like it very much, tiny and superfast, better than the slow bloat of WinCompose.

Build notes for those from the future (I use Windows 7):

1) Install Cygwin, including mingw64-x86_64-gcc-core package

2) Edit build.sh file to replace compiler from CC=gcc to CC=x86_64-w64-mingw32-gcc

This provides a native exe without dependancy on cygwin1.dll

lloydatkinson2• 5 years ago

How does this compare to the built in Win + .?

asxd• 5 years ago

Wow, I had no idea this was a thing. Not to distract from the thread, but thanks for sharing!

jccalhoun• 5 years ago

Wow, I had no idea this was a thing. Not to distract from the thread, but thanks for sharing!

I think it was added in just the last few years. I am pretty sure it was added in one of the Win 10 updates. But yes it is really useful.

lloydatkinson2• 5 years ago

You’re welcome, now try Win + V

nybble413• 5 years ago

The Win + . sequence opens the Emoji selector window, which as the name implies can only be used to select emojis. It's also more disruptive since it opens a separate window where you must navigate to or search for the desired emoji, select it, close the window, and then paste the selection into the original app. WinCompose (like XCompose) works as you are typing, without opening a new window; you just type a certain sequence starting with a special Compose key (like "Right-Alt ( 3 )") and it inserts arbitrary pre-defined characters (in this case ③). The key sequences and their replacements can be redefined by the user.

k12sosse• 5 years ago

If you win+. from the carat/focus on text input, just type a hint for the emoji and hit enter (or use arrow keys to select other result) and it should replace the string you typed. i.e. win+. Skull

falcrist2• 5 years ago

as the name implies can only be used to select emojis

It has a tab for emojis, a tab for "kamoji" (emoticons), and a tab for what looks like a decent chunk of the non-asian symbols in the unicode basic multilingual plane. ©™⇈⇊⇄↹

I don't know about everyone else, but in my copy of Windows 10, Win+. opens a small window attached to the text box I'm typing into. I can then type the name of the symbol I'm looking for, hit enter, and the symbol is inserted into the text box. Escape closes the box, so I don't even have to touch my mouse.

https://i.imgur.com/FsDc7F9.png

To be clear, it is somewhat more disruptive, but requires no prior knowledge of anything except how to open it. There's room for both methods.

MiddleEndian4• 5 years ago

Wincompose can handle emojis, Compose compose g o b l i n will give you a tengu ("Japanese goblin") emoji for instance. But it's on you to try to guess what you think their names are and I usually fail.

I prefer the Win . for emojis.

SAI_Peregrinus• 5 years ago

WinCompose has a "Show Sequences" to see all the sequences.

TriStateFarmer3• 5 years ago

This WinCompose app seemed to be what I've been looking for, but it didn't work for me.

Just so sluggish, sometimes missing keystrokes or waiting for it to catch up. Keyboard is one of those things that have to be INSTANT, even milliseconds is too long. This app is way to slow.

It seems to be written in .NET? Which would be a very poor choice for such an app.

EDIT: I presumed the sluggishness was because of .NET, perhaps my thinking is a bit dated.

mikkelam• 5 years ago

Why do you think that .NET is a poor choice?

alkonaut2• 5 years ago

.NET (framework) should be a very compelling choice for a win-only tray app. The framework is included with the OS, and the standard libraries will most likely already be in memory. The process footprint will be tiny and if the app is written correctly, it should be quite possible to make a very resource friendly app.

aphit2• 5 years ago

I haven't had this experience at all, for whatever it's worth. I type ~120-130wpm for reference.

alexanderh• 5 years ago

Looks like a great project template for making a robust keylogger. Neat.

alkonaut2• 5 years ago

Why is it composing e.g. ´ + e into é when that's the default behavior without composing? Is it just to make the compose key a no-op in all such scenarios?

dragonwriter• 5 years ago

Why is it composing e.g. ´ + e into é when that's the default behavior without composing?

It's not “the default behavior”, its just what certain keyboard layouts (US-International, for instance) do.

ryanschneider• 5 years ago

Total aside but I never knew about the `kbd` HTML tag used for the key sequence renderings in the readme.

https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Element/kb...

Leftium• 5 years ago

Oh! I always thought they were specific to SuperUser.com

Semaphor2• 5 years ago

Related but different (and no emoji special features), I was once recommended (either here or on Reddit) EurKEY [0] and have been using it since. Ö is (AltGr/Ctrl+Alt)+Shift+o.

I mainly type in English (and prefer it for programming), but I still need German Umlauts, it’s just a super convenient layout and even has niceties like typographical apostrophes (’ vs ') built in (ctrl+shift+alt+0).

To me, that seems more convenient than this (and Windows has a decent emoji picker with Win+. anyway, if you are into that )

[0]: EurKEY The European Keyboard Layout https://eurkey.steffen.bruentjen.eu/

jdrek12• 5 years ago

Did you run into any problems using that layout? I tried using it (also after discovering it on HN) but I could not get around that bug where Windows error sounds appear randomly when alt tabbing.

Semaphor2• 5 years ago

I’ve been using it exclusively for probably over a year by now, the only problems I have is when crappy software has non-configurable hotkeys and conflicts with certain letters. And even then, AltGr instead of Ctrl+Alt usually works.

tangus• 5 years ago

This is great! It's a shame XCompose doesn't follow rfc1345 though, which is the input method I use on Emacs. I have to learn two different sets of composing sequences :(

(Fortunately they seem to agree on the majority of the accented Latin letters I use.)

account423• 5 years ago

You could always place the rfc1345 sequences in your ~/.XCompose file.

BrandoElFollito3• 5 years ago

Isn't this something that can be done in AutoHotkey?

I feel that it is more effective to have a powerful tool such as AHK and invest a bit into writing the combinations of key/mouse/whatever than to have several standalone programs.

nolok2• 5 years ago

The same way "2003 google can be done by yahoo" I guess

BrandoElFollito3• 5 years ago

Sorry but I do not understand this comment, can you please clarify?

mkotowski5• 5 years ago

Actually, WinCompose started as an AHK script, so your conclusion isn't far off.

kzrdude3• 5 years ago

I'm on Linux and on a keyboard layout that already uses AltGr for a lot of symbols. What key do you use for the compose key? I certainly don't have a physical compose key on my keyboards.

kelnos• 5 years ago

As documented in the linked README, they use right-alt as compose, but that can be changed in the settings.

kzrdude3• 5 years ago

That's the readme for WinCompose. I'm wondering about linux

pricci• 5 years ago

Maybe the menu key, if you have it

bmn__2• 5 years ago

I use capslock.

There are a number of popular choices that come preconfigured, see file /usr/share/X11/xkb/rules/base.lst line 851

https://github.com/freedesktop/xkeyboard-config/blob/master/...

kzrdude3• 5 years ago

cool thanks

mkotowski5• 5 years ago

In my case (AltGr similarly reserved for (mostly) Polish specific letters), I set it to the right Ctrl key, though keys like CapsLock and Menu are also good candidates.

aendruk• 5 years ago

Shift+AltGr, i.e. ralt_switch_multikey

emmanueloga_• 5 years ago

I was wondering why Windows doesn't come with a built in compose implementation. There doesn't seem to be a reason, just something that exists outside of the folklore of Microsoft/Windows [1].

1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compose_key

lproven3• 5 years ago

Also see AllChars:

https://allchars.zwolnet.com/

This was universal functionality on the DEC terminals that IBM adapted the PC AT Enhanced keyboard layouts from. It's a standard feature on Sun machines too, and can be turned on trivially in Linux.

So there are many implementations.

layer8• 5 years ago

AllChars hasn’t been maintained for a long time, last stable release is from 2007, bugs are not getting fixed. I switched from AllChars to WinCompose for that reason.

lproven3• 5 years ago

Fair enough.

I've seen Windows installations where one will work but the other won't.

DEC itself included another such tool for Windows 3 with Pathworks. Here's another:

http://www.accentcomposer.com/

My point being, it's a popular function and there are multiple implementations.

Sadly I don't know of a working one for macOS. I've seen claims and tried them but nothing that actually works.

WinCompose – A Compose Key for Windows

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