Macro of the Month – March 2022 – WhatChar

Identifies the name of a character and its ANSI and Unicode numbers

This month’s macro helps to ensure you are using the correct character, especially when using tricky fonts. And a way to help more editors learn about macros. 

WhatChar

Can you tell an ordinary hyphen from a non-breaking one? What about an en dash from a minus sign? The letter “l” from the number “1”? A capital “O” from the number zero? Depending on the font, it can be impossible for the naked eye to spot the difference.

The WhatChar macro will do just that for you. Select the character in question and run WhatChar. It brings up a dialogue box identifying the character as well as the font name and other information.

Which of the above symbols is the degree symbol? According to WhatChar, the symbol after “32” is the masculine ordinal. (The highlighting is for illustrative purposes to indicate which symbol I ran the macro on.) The symbol after “33” is a proper degree symbol. (The screenshot was taken on a Mac; the macro works the same on a PC.)

Bonus feature: If you place the cursor before the character in question, WhatChar will read out the character type rather than giving you a dialogue box. 

Download WhatChar here.

You can also watch a video demonstration of WhatChar, including the read-aloud feature.

Paul Beverley’s Macro Library

For more than 15 years, Paul Beverley has made his macros freely available to editors across the globe. He will always keep them free. He would, however, like to help more editors to get started using macros. If you were anything like me, getting started can be a bit daunting. He is currently raising funds to hire someone to develop more accessible training materials, which editors can freely use to train themselves and their fellow editors.

If you’d like to contribute to this effort or just say thanks, consider buying Paul a “coffee” through his KoFi page.


What is your current favorite macro? Reply to this email and let me know.
 
Regards,
Jennifer ​