Use PT-Run to copy special characters to the clipboard : alt + space → *mu → μ

[QuentinDstl]

Description of the new feature / enhancement

Like many other users, I take daily notes on which I sometimes use scientific characters.

⁉️ My problem is that I can't quickly access the special characters.

There are alternatives such as :

• windows + . but you have to go to symbols and then scroll through an infinite list, which takes far too long.
• Alt code, but nobody's going to memorize 50 codes to be able to quickly write a text.
• Quick Accent, but not all characters are available and it's a one-character key, so if you forget the key, you'll have to search for it.

💡 Proposed solution

Julia's Tab completion sequences greatly simplify the use of special characters, and it's a similar solution that I'd like to be able to use in PowerToys.

For those who don't want to go to the link, here is a short extract from the list :

Code point	Character	Tab completion sequence	Unicode name
U+003B1	α	\alpha	Greek Small Letter Alpha
U+003B2	β	\beta	Greek Small Letter Beta
U+003B4	δ	\delta	Greek Small Letter Delta

ℹ️ For the rest of the explanation I'll use the word keyword to refer to the equivalent of tab completion sequence in Julia.

→ Users could quickly put the character into their clipboard by typing the asterisk character * (a quick-access character that fits with the need for quick correspondence) and then the keyword of their character.

I don't know if it's possible to add it directly to my text, so that's why I'm proposing clipboard, which will still be faster than other current solutions. And of course it would be better if the character could be added directly to the text, as with quick accent.

⭐ Multi keywords

Using several keywords could also simplify the approach. For example, to display ÷, we could use the following keywords: div, division, divide.

I wanted to clarify that some keywords can be improved as for example (the bold keywords are those that I suggest) :

Code point	Character	Asterisk completion sequence	Unicode name
U+02260	≠	*ne, *neq, *!=	Not Equal To
U+02261	≡	*equiv, *==	Identical To
U+02263	≣	*Equiv, *===	Strictly Equivalent To
U+02264	≤	*le, *leq, *<=	Less-Than Or Equal To / Less Than Or Equal To
U+02265	≥	*ge, *geq, *>=	Greater-Than Or Equal To / Greater Than Or Equal To
U+02266	≦	*leqq, *<==	Less-Than Over Equal To / Less Than Over Equal To

Scenario when this would be used?

👉 I want to write the ≠ character quickly. 🪀 I press alt + space to open PowerToys Run and then enter the following string: *!= ✅ I press the enter key to copy the character to my clipboard

[Aaron-Junker]

Do you know Quick Accent? It's a utility specifically for such use cases: https://learn.microsoft.com/windows/powertoys/quick-accent?WT.mc_id=studentamb_274787

[QuentinDstl]

Thank you for notifying me, I had forgotten this solution, I will edit my post. I stopped using it because I can't find all the characters if I want to for example ⊂ I have no idea what to type as a base character