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Review: PopChar X

Of all the neat utilities I have found for the Mac, one of the most useful has been PopChar X.  PopChar X is a simple utility that gives you the ability to quickly and easily insert symbols and international characters into your writing.  For someone like me, with a German last name that, in it’s formal state, requires an umlaut, this is an absolute necessity.This is the main interface of PopChar.  As you can see, this makes it very easily to select a font, and any symbols associated with that font very quickly.  It also enables you, via double-click, to easily insert that symbol where your cursor was before calling up PopChar.  Bringing PopChar up is very easy, as it is always hiding, ready, in the background.  Simple navigate to the top-left of your screen, and you will see a small letter P.  That is the symbol that launches PopChar – and it always runs on startup as well (which of course is no problem at all, since the program is very tiny and does not hog any RAM or processor cycles.)For such a small, simple app, the program does provide a surprising number of options and settings, such as where you’d like to put the trigger (one of three places, as you can see), and when you’d like the window to close (the app does a great job staying out of your way.)  This program does pretty much everything I hoped and expected it would do, and a someone who frequently works with and comes into contact with international people, it is absolutely indispensable.

One further great feature of this app – and this is the feature that really brings it all together – is that it can help you to learn the keyboard shortcuts for the symbols that you frequently use – certainly an a+ feature, and in my opinion, the feature that really makes it worth the money that Ergonis, the developer, asks.

Speaking of money – the only downside to this app is the price.  It runs approximately $38 (29.99 €, and yes, I did use PopChar to insert that euro symbol).  To some, that may seem steep.  However, I content that, at least for me, making the usage of international characters this easy is well worth the price.  For more information on PopChar X, you can visit Ergonis on the web.

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Categories: Mac Apps, The Feed, TheMacFeed Reviews:

  • Filip
    How is this app any different than the already BUILT-IN Mac OS' Character Viewer, which can be accessed quickly from the status bar?
  • Glenn
    Several differences right off the top of my head. First, the interface. PopChar has a much cleaner, more efficient interface, and it stays out of your way. Once you insert a character with PopChar, it's gone, and you can resume working immediately. Downloading this character map will save you time. With standard character maps, finding and inserting the character you're looking for can take a while. With PopChar, you simply click and insert - before long, you won't believe how long-winded the process used to be.

    Second, it doesn't hog space on your menu bar. If you are anything like me, you worry about your menu bar space. Instead of stealing a slot, it hides unobtrusively to the left of the apple, or to the right of the finder icon. Third, it actually teaches you the keyboard shortcuts for those characters. Fouth, it supports both Unicode and HTML characters.

    So, it's easier, it's faster, it's more feature laden, it has support for more types of characters, it is less obtrusive, it teaches you the keyboard shortcuts... Shall I go on? Add to that the fact that it doesn't have to be specifically enabled via a preference pane, and is more customizable, and it becomes quite clear why many people would choose PopChar X, even at it's current price, as a feasible alternative to the native character map.
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