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Author Topic: Can unicode characters be added to thumbnail text?  (Read 896 times)

markf2748

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Can unicode characters be added to thumbnail text?
« on: February 02, 2024, 04:25:04 pm »

For example, I would like to add a filled triangle symbol, Unicode F5B0, to my thumbnail text.
Is this possible?

Copy/Paste the text symbol from MS Word to Thumbnail text sometimes works, but does not work for this symbol.

Windows 11 Pro 64-bit
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dtc

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Re: Can unicode characters be added to thumbnail text?
« Reply #1 on: February 02, 2024, 04:33:00 pm »

You can try the CHAR function. It supports unicode, but not hex numbers I believe.
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markf2748

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Re: Can unicode characters be added to thumbnail text?
« Reply #2 on: February 02, 2024, 04:57:10 pm »

Thanks.
Using a hex to decimal converter, I find F5B0 = 70 53 66 48.
Neither CHAR(70 53 66 48) nor CHAR(70536648) work as thumbnail text.

Simpler decimal numbers, like the wiki example CHAR(189) for the symbol 1/2 do work.

2/3/2024 Duh, misled by the web, I should have realized that's the wrong way to convert to dec base 10!  :-[
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dtc

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Re: Can unicode characters be added to thumbnail text?
« Reply #3 on: February 02, 2024, 05:36:38 pm »

F5B0 is 62896 in decimal. That prints a symbol that looks like a dot for me but it is too small to be sure what it is.  The problem may be CHAR or with the ability to print that unicode or with my understanding of unicode.
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MrBiff

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Re: Can unicode characters be added to thumbnail text?
« Reply #4 on: February 02, 2024, 06:05:18 pm »

Like this?
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dtc

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Re: Can unicode characters be added to thumbnail text?
« Reply #5 on: February 02, 2024, 06:07:53 pm »

Like this?

What unicode values are you using?
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markf2748

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Re: Can unicode characters be added to thumbnail text?
« Reply #6 on: February 02, 2024, 07:04:49 pm »

Like this?
Not the design I'm after, but yes those are the symbols.
The right pointing filled triangle could be Unicode F5B0 or 25B6 (Geometric Shapes), but how to get them into thumbnail text?
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MrBiff

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Re: Can unicode characters be added to thumbnail text?
« Reply #7 on: February 02, 2024, 07:16:54 pm »

You likely don't want F580.

One of the triangles was:


BLACK DOWN-POINTING TRIANGLE
Unicode: U+25BC, UTF-8: E2 96 BC

In standard view, pull down the tab's triangle, and edit Thumbnails > Thumbnail Text
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markf2748

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Re: Can unicode characters be added to thumbnail text?
« Reply #8 on: February 02, 2024, 07:20:23 pm »

You likely don't want F580.
You are correct.  Apparently F5B0 is not valid.

However hex codepoint 25B6 = dec codepoint 9654 (Block Geometric Shape: Black Right-Pointing Triangle) works with CHAR(9654).

Note the following decimal does NOT work:
hex codepoint 23F5 = dec codepoint 9205 (Block Miscellaneous Technical:  Black Medium Right-Pointing Triangle)

Puzzling. There must be restrictions within MC, having to do with available character sets for the selected font that determine which decimal Unicode symbols work with CHAR().  While the font can be changed in Options > Tree & View > Select font..., I don't see any information about special character sets other than language encodings.

FYI, I'm experimenting with using the right-pointing triangle to indicate the date [Last Played (Album)] in thumbnail text for the tab "Recently Played" (attached).  Other views show the undecorated "date acquired" instead.  :)

2/3/24 Addendum:  One approach to finding symbols.  Scroll through the Windows Character Map (or try Insert > Symbol > More symbols... in a Microsoft Office app like Word) for the MC skin font being used (Segoe UI in my case).  Select a symbol of interest to find its hex codepoint.  Then either convert the hex to decimal base 10 or search the web for that codepoint to find a resource which lists the equivalent decimal codepoint.  Try the decimal in CHAR().  Not all available symbols are found this way.  For example the Up-Pointing and Down-Pointing Triangles are listed in the Segoe UI Character Map, but the Left-Pointing and Right-Pointing are not listed.  To find the latter, I looked at the character map of the closely related font (same family) Segoe UI Symbol.
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dtc

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Re: Can unicode characters be added to thumbnail text?
« Reply #9 on: February 03, 2024, 08:09:16 am »

These codes work for the arrow functions. 

Up Arrow       25B2  9650
Right Arrow   25B6  9654
Down Arrow  25BC  9660
Left Arrow     25C0  9664
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