Adding Special Characters

Windows contains a utility called the "Character Map" that can be used to insert these special characters.

Accessing the Character Map

The easiest way to access this utility is from within Ancestral Quest. While you are on the Edit Individual screen, go up and click the "Tools" menu and you will find an option to access the Character Map. When you open this application, you get a screen like this:

Using the Utility to select and use a character

You can use this screen to insert your characters.

Click on the character you want, then click the Select button. You can choose multiple characters this way, and when you are done selecting, click Copy.

Then, switch back to your Ancestral Quest program and go to notes, or whatever field you are dealing with. When in the correct field, you can use Edit > Paste or use the Ctrl+v keyboard shortcut and your characters will be pasted into the field at the position of the cursor.

Macintosh has a utility to access "Characters" that can be used to insert these special characters.

Accessing the Characters screen

Begin with Ancestral Quest running.

Within the menu bar along the top of the screen, locate the System icon at the far left of the screen (the Apple icon). Click on that Apple icon, then click on System Preferences.

Within the System Preferences window that appears, click on Keyboard.

Next...

• If you are running macOS 13 Ventura, beneath the Text Input heading, locate Input Sources and click the Edit... button. Within the window that appears, click to turn on the switch for Show Input menu in menu bar, and then click the Done button.
• If you are running OS 10.11 El Capitan through macOS 12 Monterey, click the checkbox labeled, Show Keyboard, Emoji, & Symbol Viewers in menu bar.
• If you are running OS 10.10 Yosemite or earlier, click the checkbox labeled, Show Keyboard & Character Viewers in menu bar.

Up on your menu bar, toward the right, you will see a new icon. Click on that icon, then...

• If you are running OS 10.11 El Capitan or later (including Ventura), click the option labeled, Show Emoji & Symbols.
• If you are running OS 10.10 Yosemite or earlier, click the option labeled, Show the Character Viewer.

If you see a window of smiley faces appear, click the icon in the upper-right of that screen.

Now, within the Characters screen that appears, in the left panel, click on Latin.

You are now ready to insert special characters in Ancestral Quest.

Using the Utility to select and use a character:

Begin to enter the text into the desired text field of Ancestral Quest (like Birth Place). When you get to the point where you need to insert a special character, use your mouse to go to the Characters screen, and scroll as needed to locate the desired character. Once you locate the character you are after, double-click on that character, and it will be inserted into AQ where your cursor is blinking.

Repeat his process as needed to add additional special characters to the fields in your AQ program.

Note: If most of what you are typing are Latin-based characters, you can scroll through pretty easily to locate what you are after. For other character sets, like Asian, Arabic, and so on, you will need to go to the left panel and click on Unicode, then scroll as needed to locate the desired character.

You may wish to watch this video of the steps to take, as shown working with OS X Yosemite.