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Unicode "character map" on edit form
Closed, ResolvedPublic

Description

Author: gastonrabbit

Description:
Currently, there is no default way to input special characters straight from the
browser. Wikimedia pages have a box at the bottom containing some characters. A
character map (similar to the Character Map programs in Windows XP and Fedora
Core) containing numerous Unicode characters could be placed in an
out-of-the-way menu, either as a pop-up or in the same window (using Javascript,
for example). This would be useful on non-Wikimedia pages using MediaWiki, which
often lack the box containing special characters found on Wikipedia and Wiktionary.


Version: unspecified
Severity: enhancement

Details

Reference
bz1785

Event Timeline

bzimport raised the priority of this task from to Medium.Nov 21 2014, 8:19 PM
bzimport set Reference to bz1785.
bzimport added a subscriber: Unknown Object (MLST).

denelson83 wrote:

There is a heated discussion about this going on right now at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MediaWiki_talk:Edittools#Revert. Perhaps it could
be implemented in such a way that a user could toggle it on or off in his/her
user preferences.

robchur wrote:

(In reply to comment #1)

Can you not wrap the whole thing in a <div> and have users use custom personal
CSS files to hide it?

robchur wrote:

To the OP: That box can be implemented on most release versions of MediaWiki
using the CharInsert extension and the MediaWiki:Copyrightwarning system message.

Rob, the reporter of this bug is apparently aware of that extension, because
they mention the box. But I think they're referring to a tool where you could
show only a certain set of characters (based on script or language, perhaps)
after selecting from a dropdown menu. Also, please read the discussion that
denelson has linked to.

This is fixed quite nicely in the new edit toolbar provided by the usability initiative. Non-Wikimedia-Wikis that want this feature just need to install the UsabilityInitiative extension. Therefore I'm closing this bug.