In
Gnome/
GTK+ flavors of Linux, hold down <
Ctrl>+<
Shift> while typing
U followed by the four-digit
hex value of the special character. For example:
<
Ctrl>+<
Shift>+
u00ae for the registered trademark character "
®"
With Windows versions of UE, hold <
Alt> while typing the four-digit
decimal value of the character using the numeric key pad. For example:
<
Alt>+
0174 for the registered trademark character "
®"
In KDE flavors of Linux you'll need to set up and use a "compose" key as described
here.
The "compose" key method has the advantage of not requiring the user to remember or look up the hex/decimal values of most Unicode characters. You simply construct your Unicode character using a combination of two non-Unicode characters. For example:
<
Compose>
OR or <
Compose>
RO will construct the registered trademark character "
®"
The "compose" feature isn't limited to KDE flavors of Linux. You can also activate the "compose" key in Gnome and GTK flavors of Linux as well. If you want to compose Unicode characters in Windows, try installing
allchars. For Vista or Windows 7 you'll want
v5.0.181 which has been in beta since Feb 2009. Although no one has bothered to move it out of beta into an official stable release, it has been reported to work fine with both 32 and 64-bit versions of these operating systems. After launching the program, right-click on the system tray app then click on "Configuration..." to select your hot key to use as your Windows "compose" key.