Embedding non-English characters into a post. How?

In this thread, I refer especially to post # 35.

How does one embed non-English characters into a Dope thread? They do not appear to be cut and pasted JPEG images. They appear to be typed into the body of the posts as any other characters would be.

Where do I go to find the list of languages that can be typed into a Dope post? I haven’t found that area. Not that I KNOW any other languages but it sure is nifty and I’ve never seen where those characters are.

Cartooniverse

Кαρτωηιϋερζ.

You can “insert” symbols in Word, and then cut/paste them into your post. Thats the easy way. You can also hold down the ALT key and enter ASCII codes on the number keypad.

You can get these characters in various ways, including copying-and-pasting from a source that contains them. This list claims to include 65,535 characters (though I suspect that some of the character positions are invalid). If you want to find out more, the key words to look for are Unicode and Unicode Consortium.

Another way: in Windows, you can open Start Menu/Programs/Accessories/System Tools/Character Map. Once the Character Map is open, you can choose plain ol’ Arial to access Roman, Cyrillic, Greek, Hebrew, and Arabic characters.

Another font, called Arial Unicode MS, allows you to access almost every East and South Asian language’s character inventory. All the other character sets included with plain Arial are available as well within Arial Unicode MS.

Once you find the characters you want, you can double-click them and “type” after a fashion – the characters will show up in the “Characters to copy” window at the bottom. From there, you can copy and paste into your SDMB post.

One method I regularly use when I need Greek or Cyrillic characters, words, or phrases: load MS Word. Pull down Insert/Symbol menu. Leaving the choice of font at default, drop down the list to the characters needed, which are generally in alphabetical order in that alphabet. Having composed the non-Roman-alphabet text I wish, I then cut and paste from Word into the VB browser message-composition box. Though I’ve never had occasion to need them, I know that the Hebrew and Arabic alphabets are also available this way, and there may be others.

I think I’d use Кαρτωυνιβερς. An omicron-upsilon or omega-upsilon diphthong is a pretty standard way of rendering an /oo/ English sound. You definitely want nu, not eta, for the N, despite the fact that the eta looks like an n with a tail. The V is difficult but I’d use medieval-modern beta rendering a bilabial V sound (think of Spanish V de vaca y B de burro, an almost precise parallel). And most definitely terminal sigma not zeta for the final sound, which is unvoiced in my mind’s ear.

In Cyrillic transliteration, it would be Картуниверс

I confess! All of my greek comes from mathematics and I often forget the names of the letters.

Please tell me what you wrote.

All of the help specifically refers to keystrokes and menus in the Windows Operating System. I use a Macintosh.

The Safari Preferences under Appearance is for fonts on web pages, not content.

If I did know another language, how would I compose a word on a Mac?

Thanks for all of the info, though- trés cool.

Not sure if it’s a default, but there’s something called a character palette. I think it’s associated with the language preference you selected. I have a little American flag in the command bar at the top of the screen, just to the left of the day and time. When I click on it, there are three lines that show up. One is U.S., which is checked, one is Show Character Palette, and one is Open International.

If you tell it to show you the Character Palette, there are a whole bunch of language options under “by category”. You can select and insert from there and get all kinds of cool characters. This is from one of the numbers categories: ㈢㈧㈩

You can also add to favorites from there. I keep all the special characters for Spanish and German in the favorites.

My explanation may make it sound clunky, but I find it very easy to use.

Hope this helps a little.

GT

Found it. Very cool ! Thank you.

Кαρτωυνιβερς.

Kappa alpha rho tau omega upsilon nu iota beta epsilon rho sigma

I had a minor epiphany in a mediteranean grocery store when I realized that even though I don’t speak greek, I knew what was in a bottle labeled КρωКυς.

A transliteration of “Cartooniverse”.

Once every long while I post Chinese characters. I go to zhongwen.com which has a good online dictionary. Enter the word I’m looking for (either English or Chinese) and cut and paste the dictionary entry into a post. Works like a charm.

Oh cool ! I wonder how that’d look as a tattooo…
:smiley:

Χηπ :smiley: