Does anyone know if there is a way to type an em dash into the find box in Firefox? The only way I know how to do it is to copy an em dash and paste it in; but, there has to be a way to just type it in, right?
Will Alt 0151 work?
— like this.
Shift-option-dash, just the same as in any other OS X application. Or are you using some other operating system that you didn’t specify?
Alt 0151 produces this — in my Firefox browser. (Caveat: You must have Num Lock on and use the keypad, not the number keys above the letter keys.)
What would ever make you suspect that he might be using some other operating system?
I mean, depending on whom you believe (1 2 3), a whopping 4.5 - 7.5 percent of the computer market runs an Apple OS. Given that sort of market domination, is it really even possible that he could be referring to anything else?
What if I have a laptop? SOL?
I don’t know. I don’t have a laptop so I couldn’t say.
Here’s a page with lots of special characters and two or three different ways to generate them. Maybe one of those will work. You could copy and paste their codes if nothing else.
I don’t know about yours, but my laptop (and most others I’ve seen) have a “function” (Fn) key that lets you do various multimedia things (volume, etc.; they’re written in blue on my black keyboard). In the middle of the keyboard there’s a numpad superimposed over some letters. It works the same as a numpad on a normal keyboard; you just have to hold down Fn to use it.
You can see it in this picture:
http://resources.online.nwtc.edu/mediaservices/images/fnmonitor.jpg
(Ignore the circled keys; it’s not my picture.) In that keyboard, for example, you’d hit Alt, then Fn, then M-J-I-J, then release the Fn key, then release the Alt key.
That’s how I do special characters on my laptop (———!). It causes problems occasionally, however, because some sites have special access keys (Alt-M, for example) that override your laptop’s Fn feature. If that’s the case, you’ll have to go to a different window, type it, and copy and paste it back into the window you want to type in. Sucks, but as far as I know there’s no way to disable access keys in Firefox.
That’s a solution to your problem, assuming your laptop has such a feature, but it doesn’t solve the greater problem of how hard it is to input special characters on PCs. A better solution (which I would get around to if I weren’t so stubborn) would be to find a Firefox extension that allows easy Unicode input. Search through Firefox Add-Ons and see if there’s one that’s good for you. This one looks promising.