Enter Unicode U+21CC code point in dialogs?

[Bob_Niland]

Is there a backslash notation?

This question would only apply to FM8 or later.

I only have FM9 to try things on.

When using special (non-keyboard) characters in the Unicode age, it is often the case that one discovers the needed glyph on some Unicode web site, and is then armed with the code point, but not necessarily a glyph that can be copied and pasted.

Unicode-aware versions of FM include an unpleasant little Character Map, and there is also, on Windows, the system Character Map (which allows entry of code point numbers, or search by formal Unicode glyph id).

Yes, there is also a way, on Windows, of entering Alt+21CC code points, but this requires a Registry hack and a reboot.

It appears that the only way to enter Unicode characters in Frame is:

• via the FM Cmap,
• pasting from the OS Cmap or some other source, or
• using the numpad Alt hack.

If creating a Variable for a special character (commonly needed because a Unicode or more fully populated Unicode font is required), it has to be Cmap'd, Alt'ed or pasted in the Variable dialog. There is, so far as I've been able to discover, no:

\u+21cc

style notation for entering known code points as plain text. There is apparently no Unicode equivalent to the legacy \xb4 notation for special characters.

I've studied the MIF for one of these, and was surprised to see that Adobe is apparently storing the actual UTF16 in the definition, and in body text when typed directly into Flow A. If you hack MIFs with an editor that is not at least UTF16-safe, beware?

Is that about it?

[Bob_Niland]

> ... apparently storing the actual UTF16 in the definition ...

On second look,  it's definitely UTF-8. It's 3 bytes, and my test sample hand-decodes to 21cc hex.

So if you're MIF mucking with FM8 or later, you need tools that are at least UTF-8-safe.

[Bob_Niland · Accepted solution]

> There is, so far as I've been able to discover, no: \u+21cc style notation

The notation is \u1234 without the +.

Is this documented anywhere?

[Arnis_Gubins]

Yes, it's obtusely referenced in the "Searching for Unicode Text" section of the Help file. It's typical of FM documentation of late that follows the Catch-22 mantra, you have to know exactly what you're looking for in order to find it...

[Bob_Niland]

Since this thread turns up in generic web search engine results, it might be worth adding that the Framemaker \u notation expects precisely 4 hexadecimal digits from the codepoint space U+0000 … U+FFFF.

This includes only the Unicode BMP (Basic Multilingual Plane).

FM 8-2019 (and FM2020 as of posting date) does not yet support any SMP (codepoints F0000 … ​10FFFF). There is at least one feature request open on it (and very likely in-work).

Meanwhile, typing or pasting in SMP characters is preserved, but currently rendered as "?".
\u12345 doesn't work, being treated as \u1234 and "5".

This is mainly an issue for emoji, as nearly all new ones are being added to SMP, but a lot of useful icons and dingbats are up there too (such as 3 of the 4 Creative Commons symbols).