What’s It Do?

PopCharWin lets you insert into your documents special characters, accented and foreign letters, etc., from all installed fonts. You never need to search for or remember keystrokes again.


Does it do what it promises?

Reviewer 1: Yes. PopChar starts when at boot up and sits quietly in the System Tray until needed to bring up a special character.

Reviewer 2: Yes. PopChar claims that the user can insert special characters into a document—for example, foreign language characters, currency symbols, math operators, etc.—without having to change keyboards, learn cumbersome codes, cut and paste, or use a cheat sheet. It does what it promises.

Reviewer 3: Yes, very well.

Reviewer 4: Yes. PopChar makes it very easy to insert characters and symbols into documents that are not ordinarily or easily available from the keyboard normally used.

Reviewer 5: Yes, it quickly inserts special characters into one’s document without needing to search for them or memorize ASCI keyboard codes or the special codes that HTML uses for special characters. Many applications do not have the “insert special characters” ability built in and PopChar solves this problem.

Reviewer 6: Yes. It claims to “make typing of unusual characters easy without having to remember keyboard combinations.” It does this and more.


Was it easy to install?

Reviewer 1: Installation was fast and easy. The license restricts installation to a single computer. Multiple licenses and site licenses are available at a discount to the single license rate. Upon entering the license code, I was informed that I was entitled to free updates and upgrades for two years.

Reviewer 2: Yes. The small (2.32 MB) file downloaded and installed quickly and easily. According to the EULA, PopChar can be installed on only one computer, though the user can purchase a 2-pack at a discount. The installation offered the option to launch at startup and to install a desktop icon—a pleasant change from programs that try to put themselves into the startup menu and/or place icons on the desktop without asking.

Reviewer 3: Yes, the 2.51 MB downloaded exe file installed without any problems or conflicts.

Reviewer 4: Yes. It was a standard Windows installation process during which I was able to place the program and its shortcuts where I wanted. The download was very fast, less than five seconds on a cable Internet connection. Entering the license key was a simple copy and paste, and entitles me to free updates and upgrades for two years. A couple of months after I had installed PopChar an "Available upgrade” message appeared on my screen when I ran PopChar. Double-clicking on it brought me to the Ergonis site, where I was showed the changes that had been made, and given a link to the file to download. The installation found the location of the PopChar files and all my settings without my having to intervene. However, at each step of the way, I was given the choice of location, the icons, and whether or not to start with Windows. I could therefore change any of my previous settings if I wished to do so. It is a very smooth and professional process.

Reviewer 5: Yes, it was typical install routine. PopChar for Windows is usable on Win2K, SP and Vista. An older version (2.2) is available for earlier operating systems. It supports Text, Unicode and HTML and is available in English and German versions. The license covers a single installation on one computer. License packs are available for multi-computer users as well as a “Site License” which reduces the need for administration of many keys. The license includes free updates for two years. The application will continue to work but the free upgrades will not be available after two years. Reduced price upgrades are available for registered users. The install files is a download only and no CD is available.

Reviewer 6: Yes. It was a small a 2.32MB download (8.5MB on disc) that took a scant 2 seconds with my connection, and installed easily using a standard installation wizard. The registration procedure was equally simple and went quite smoothly. The EULA (End User License Agreement), while not printable, may be one of the simplest, shortest, cleanest I have ever seen. There is no legalese whatsoever. Unfortunately, the license is only for a single computer—really unacceptable in this day and age when many people have both a desktop and notebook—and there is no refund or guarantee. These two exceptions are even more noteworthy considering the uncompetitive high price of this software program. I do applaud the fact that I was given the option to have the program run at start-up as well as whether I wanted a desktop icon. There is also an information window during installation, also a nice touch that explains the use of the system tray icon. Finally, the program uninstalls cleanly leaving no empty files and only those few Registry fragments created by Windows. This is the mark of a well-written program.


Good points.

Reviewer 1: The PopChar icon resides in the system tray. A special character is accessed by clicking on the “P” icon and an extensive list of special characters pops up. Click on the character desired to insert it into the document at the cursor’s location. Here is a sample of some of the special characters I pulled up in less than a minute: This left me wondering how long would it take to do the same in a word processor if I could, in fact, accomplish this.

The PopChar menu is easy to read. When the cursor is placed over a symbol, a balloon appears above it with the character significantly enlarged. A wide variety of fonts are available. By default, PopChar displays the font one currently working in.

Conveniently, PopChar keeps track of the symbols recently used. Focus on just them by using the “Recent Characters” option, or find them quickly in other lists since they are highlighted.

For non-English characters, there is a very comprehensive range of characters available in just about any major language. The character number and how to enter it manually is displayed at the bottom of the PopChar window.

Reviewer 2: PopChar has much to recommend it. It is very easy to use. I simply click on the small icon in the system tray, and PopChar opens. I think its default window is about 6" x 6", but it can be enlarged or made smaller if one wishes.

One of PopChar's greatest strengths is the wide variety of languages it can handle. It includes not only characters from French, German, and Spanish (e.g., é, ç, ü, ß, ñ, ¿) but also Scandinavian languages, Cyrillic languages, Greek, Turkish, Vietnamese, Hebrew, Arabic, Chinese, and Japanese. (PopChar will only show fonts installed on one's computer, but apparently my computer came with fonts for all the languages I've mentioned without my requesting them.) In addition to special characters from a variety of languages, PopChar will insert currency symbols such as the euro (€), mathematics operators such as ∑ and ∞, and an assortment of arrows, boxes, shapes, and symbols (e.g., ♂ and ♫). It can also insert HTML symbols either numerically or by name.

PopChar will automatically detect the font and font size of the document into which I want to insert special characters. Thus, if I have a Word or WordPerfect document using 14 pt. Arial, the PopChar window will immediately show that information and will insert characters that match the font and size. However, if I want to use a different font and/or size for the inserted characters, I can simply click on the Formatted Text button at the bottom right of the PopChar interface and specify the font and size I wish to use.

Though PopChar offers a very large array of characters, it can be set to highlight up to 30 of the characters used most recently, making them easier to find. In addition, at the top of the PopChar interface, the user can select a screen showing only the characters most recently used; in my case, it included more than 150. Many may find that this screen shows all the characters they need. Similarly, PopChar's font menu gives quick access to the most recently used fonts, while also making it possible to access the full range of fonts available on the computer.

Another useful feature is a magnifying glass on the PopChar interface that one can click on to see a much larger version of a character before inserting it. This can be very handy for distinguishing between characters that look a lot alike, such as ế and ề. Under the magnifying glass, these characters appear more like ế and ề. Alternatively; one can arrange for the characters in PopChar's interface to be larger, but the larger they are, the fewer characters can be seen at one time. I prefer to have relatively small characters in the interface and use the magnifying glass when I need to see a larger version.

PopChar has versions that will run on all Windows platforms from Windows 95 to Vista, including 64-bit systems, as well as on Mac systems from 7.1 to OS X.

Finally, PopChar has very responsive tech support. Messages I sent received prompt and useful responses within 24 hours.

Reviewer 3: PopChar Win is a very easy program to learn how to use. The help file included in the program is accessible through the program and the context menu of the task bar icon. In very little reading of it, a new user can learn how to use PopChar Win to insert characters in any text type application you may be using. In just a few minutes after installing PopChar Win I was using it to insert characters.

One point about PopChar Win that I considered to be the best point about this program was the ability to not have it start every time I boot my PC up. Many of the software one installs wants to start the program at boot up, as if the only reason one would start their PC would be to use their program. I do a lot of writing that involves inserting many characters, but I don’t write with the need for character insertion every time I start my PC. PopChar Win has a preference that allows it not to start on boot up. If, after I have started my PC, I decide that I will need character insertion I can start PopChar Win. It loads very quickly and thus causes no delays when the need arises. Even when loaded it draws very few resources. This makes PopChar Win a helpful yet unobtrusive program.

I am a scientist who writes using characters and symbols on a regular basis. I use Word to accomplish this task part of the time and direct keyboard input of ASCII and Unicode for those characters/symbols that Word does not contain or I can’t find in Word. PopChar Win is a definite improvement over this method. This becomes even more noticeable when inserting characters into text editors other than Word and makes the copy and paste of these characters obtained from Word unnecessary. In testing PopChar Win, I was pleased to see that I was able to insert some characters into NotePad, which is something I never even thought to try before. I was able to insert characters using Word, WordPad, NotePad, Outlook Express, Names of files and folders in Explorer, Web page design (HTML editor), and on line forum text boxes. I was unable to find an application that I use to write text that I could not insert a character into using PopChar Win.

One very nice aspect of PopChar Win is the grouping and displaying of characters. This, along with the magnification of the character by holding the mouse pointer over the character, lets a user select characters that they might not have known even existed. I have been using characters in my writings for many years and even have long lists of ASCII and Unicode number codes, but with PopChar Win I discovered some characters I never knew existed but always wished I had.

It is important to note that some text writing application will not support some or all of Unicode characters and this is dependent upon not only the application but also the font being used. PopChar Win helps in these situations by selecting ASCII characters only and displaying only those characters for the chosen font that will insert correctly. Not only will it present only those characters that it can insert, but it will also insert it so that it matches the current font and size.

Support to resolve problems that arise in the use of a program is a very important part of the program package. I had difficulty inserting some characters into a document. Support is attainable through the Contact Us option on the task bar icon menu. Contacting support is via email. I sent my question seeking help on a Sunday and received a reply on Monday. The reply was from a real person that had read my request and asked questions seeking further information in order to resolve my problem. I replied and received a solution to my problem on Tuesday. From my experiences, this was some of the best email support that I had ever received.

Reviewer 4: The program is very easy to use. Finding and entering unusual characters from the standard keyboard can be very difficult to do, particularly when many programs may not provide a way of accessing those kinds of symbols. I have often had to hunt for the way to produce some of those characters, and even written down in a small notebook the different options that may or may not work in the program that I am using at that moment. PopChar makes it easy to find and use such characters as ¢ or € or ¿ or ≠ (for example) and to do so using any of the fonts on the computer. Or one can find characters in other languages, and insert them in provided the font that supports that language is installed.

Clicking on the character in the System Tray brings up the PopChar window, there several lines of letters and symbols are displayed. A side panel shows what fonts are installed on the computer. PopChar has a search function, which I found to be very intelligent. PopChar will also remember symbols that were previously chosen, so when returning to its window, those characters will be highlighted so and found easily.

PopChar works across all programs that can support different fonts. Thus, Notepad, for example, will not always be particularly successful, as it has only a limited text-character set. Wordpad, however, is much more flexible, and such programs as Atlantis (previously reviewed by the Panel), Open Office and the Microsoft Office set will be able to use all the installed fonts.

Originally developed for the Macintosh, PopChar Win is the Windows implementation. Unlike most programs that are only developed for Windows, PopChar Win can be run on older systems, from Windows 95 through to Windows NT. In these cases, users are requested to use PopChar version 2.2. Those running Win 2000 to Vista will use the current version of the program. Again, this attention to detail, and an interest in all users of Windows, indicates to me that Ergonis will continue to develop the program and it will be available to their customers for the long haul.

I had this impression confirmed when I contacted the support people with a question that was a bit out-of-the-ordinary. Although I sent in my question on the weekend, it was answered within 24 hours. Ergonis promises free support for all their products, and provide clear instructions on the site, as well as from the "Contact Us" item in the context menu surfaced when the PopChar icon is right-clicked.

Reviewer 5: It is fast and easy to use. This specialized program makes inserting special characters a snap. It automatically recognizes the font used and presents the character map for that font when called from the system tray where it resides. It can be used in applications that do not normally have the ability to insert special characters from a menu selection. With PopChar, there is no need to memorize the arcane ASCI number codes to insert special characters. PopChar maintains a “recently used” list for frequently used characters for quicker location and insertion. PopChar also shows the ASCI keyboard codes if one chooses to continue on the keyboard without using the mouse. For hand coding of Web pages in a text editor, PopChar can save a few keystrokes by inserting the proper HTML codes in the text such as “&and” for the ampersand character.

Reviewer 6: PopChar’s biggest selling point may be that it has been around for 20 years and has been almost a must-have utility for MAC users for most of those years. As a result of its long development history, the program is truly rock solid and really has no significant bugs, glitches, or weaknesses of which to speak. While it is really a one-trick-pony in that it is at its simplest a replacement utility for the built-in Windows character map, it does offer several additional features beyond that most simple function. The features I found most useful were:

► Its simplicity. Unlike the Windows built-in utility, there is no copy and paste or setting of fonts. One need only to point to the special character or symbol needed and click for it to be inserted.
►Inserted characters are automatically inserted using the exiting font and type size.
►The search function. If you know the name of the symbol you are looking for, you will automatically be taking to it on the palette.
►The recent character view, which keeps track of recent characters you used so that you can build your own personal library of regularly, used special characters and symbols.
►Its low use of resources. I noted minimal RAM usage and undetectable use of CPU; there was only a single running process when in use.
►Support requests were answered within 24 hours and were easy to understand and offered resolution.

There are other features such as Unicode Support, HTML support, the ability to display both ASCII and Unicode characters but these are highly specialized and not, I think, of much use to the average user.


Weak points.

Reviewer 1: I encountered no adverse issues while using PopChar.

The manual openly discusses their “known issues” which are:

Some applications, e.g., Microsoft Powerpoint, insert plain text and display a pop-up menu where you can choose to keep the document’s current style or use the style that PopChar has copied to the clipboard. PopChar displays the keystrokes needed to insert the selected character with the current keyboard settings. In the current version, the keystrokes are not displayed for some characters even if they can be inserted with keystrokes. Auto-font does not yet work for all applications. For some applications, e.g., Microsoft Office, PopChar may not be able to automatically detect the application's font unless you have manually used the font combo box in the respective application.

Rather than a weakness, I regard such disclosures as a strength, reflecting the openness of the publishers since every program is going to have some technical issues.

Reviewer 2: Although I was able to set a preference for PopChar to stay in the foreground after inserting a character, PopChar loses focus as soon as I stop inserting characters and resume typing with the keyboard. Thus, each time I want to move from the keyboard to PopChar, I have to call PopChar to the foreground again. I was able to set a hot key combination to do this, but I still would have preferred an option to dock the PopChar interface so that it is always in the foreground.

Also, I should note that if one wants to use PopChar to insert characters in languages read right to left (e.g., Hebrew and Arabic) or vertically (e.g., Chinese and Japanese), one needs to insert them into a program that recognizes the appropriate direction in which to place the characters. PopChar itself has no setting to do this.

Reviewer 3: I found two weak points with PopChar Win and these are rather suggestions to the maker on how to improve the program than an actual weakness in the program.

There are characters/symbols I know of that can be entered into a document using ASCII or Unicode keyboard input that I did not find in PopChar Win. PopChar Win should have an add mode to allow such characters into the program list by entering the ASCII or Unicode number code.

The characters displayed in the ALL mode will show characters on one’s system. The characters in blue are characters that exist on that system, but not in the current font being used. There should be some way for PopChar Win to identify what fonts will display that character. I had to contact technical support as to why a character would not display correctly. It was only through technical support that I learned what font had to be used in order for the character to display correctly. It would be a great help if the program would provide this information rather than having to contact technical support or trial and error of all fonts to find which font(s) displayed the character correctly.

Reviewer 4: None noted.

Reviewer 5: None that I discovered and it worked fine every time.

Reviewer 6: Price, price, price, price! At the current rate of conversion as I write this, the cost of this program is €29.99 (EUROS) or $47.38 (US Dollars). This simply prices this program out of the US market especially when one considers that:

►This price buys only a two-year license.
►Support is email only with no turn around time indicated
►There is no guarantee or refund offered if unsatisfied
►The license is only for a single computer
►A rather Spartan and bland GUI (Graphic User Interface) and Icon.

Quite frankly, however, even if the above issues did not exist, this program cannot justify its current price in the U.S. Because of this price, I cannot recommend this software.

Ergonis Software, developers of PopChar Win, replied: This reviewer describes the two year warranty incorrectly. This, in fact, should be an advantage rather than a drawback, since it's a free upgrade service for two years which not many other companies offer.


Developer's Web Site

Reviewer 1: The Web site is clean and professional. It is loaded with information about the abilities (and limitations) of PopChar in its different versions.

Reviewer 2: The Ergonis Web site offers a useful, well-illustrated description of PopChar, including coverage of the program's many features and the advantages of using PopChar over alternative methods of inserting special characters. The site includes a useful video demonstrating PopChar's use and features; however, while the video for the Mac version of PopChar opens right away in Quick Time, a similar video for the Windows version first has to be downloaded. Even with my cable connection, downloading the 43.5 MB file caused a delay of several minutes before it could be played.

Reviewer 3: I found the Ergonis Web Site easy to navigate and locate the information I was looking for. I liked the explanations of different versions for different Operating Systems so a buyer would get the version made to run on their PC. The site is well organized and the FAQ section is by product.

Reviewer 4: The FAQ section of the Web page is less about information, and more about how easy PopChar is to use, when one wants to use a character from a non-English alphabet. For example, the section on French provides a little description of how the accents over letters in French are not, in fact, specks on one’s computer screen, but actual symbols that indicate specific phonetic sounds. A short explanation of some of these sounds is followed by a longer blurb about how much easier it is to use PopChar to insert one of these symbols than other methods used in the American-English keyboard.

The same comment can be made about most of the topics in the FAQ, topics that deal with other non-English writing systems. After reading through several of these FAQ comments, each one more or less repeats the same story about how much fun it is to have PopChar if one wants occasionally, to write his name in (Select your language here). This introduces the idea, then tends to reinforce it, that PopChar , rather than being an important program used frequently throughout the workday, is instead a fun activity to use once in a while.

Reviewer 5: The Ergonis website is usable and easy to navigate. I had no problem locating any information about the application. Everything was well labeled and easy to locate.

Reviewer 6: While the Web site if full of information from video demos to features and how-to's with full graphics, it suffers almost from too much information. The Web site is a bit busy and difficult to read. The tool bar approach to navigation works well, but each page is just too full for easy comprehension. I also was quite annoyed that I could not find the U.S. price of this software as the only pricing was listed in EUROS. Maybe PopChar wants to only sell their product in Europe. Finally, and this is purely aesthetics, the site is boring with little color other than two tedious shades of blue.


Other comments.

Reviewer 1: For those who frequently use symbols, mathematical equations, or non-English characters in their writing, this is a must-have program.

Reviewer 2: At 29.99 Euros (currently more than $42 US), PopChar seems to me rather pricey. If all one needs is a way to insert special characters from languages that use the Roman alphabet, there are several ways one can do this for free: 1) use the extended ASCII numeric keypad codes (e.g., holding down the ALT key and typing 0241 produces ñ; ALT + 0233 produces é)—see info at http://www.starr.net/is/type/altnum.htm; 2) install the freeware program AllChars; 3) use the Windows character map (I find this third method very slow and awkward, but some people like it). All of these methods enable one to insert not just characters from the Roman alphabet but also a variety of symbols such as €, ¶, and ©. However, I should also point out that, at the start, none of the free methods is as simple as PopChar, nor does AllChars come with tech support. Furthermore, neither the numeric keypad codes nor AllChars can handle languages like Russian, Arabic, and Hebrew (though the Character Map does).

Reviewer 3: While the program does save a lot of time over using Word for characters, the 29.99 EUR prices that, converted to 43.21 USD, seems a little pricey unless you use characters a whole lot to justify the price.

Reviewer 4: This is not a program that I will start up with the computer, as it is something that I need do not every day. I do often have to type accented French characters such as é and à. But it is actually quicker to use the Alt-number pad combination for these particular often-used characters than have to use the mouse and bring up PopChar for them. However, I do use PopChar for È that, for some reason, I have not yet found an easy keyboard combination. And I use PopChar often enough that I have placed a shortcut to it on my desktop; so when I need it, I do not have to go too far to get it up and running.

I have spent quite a few frustrating hours looking for, and not always finding, characters that I would like to include in one document or another. PopChar™ is intelligently designed, with many features that make it very easy to use; however, it is on the expensive side. As it does not require a long time to start using it, it would be worth trying it before buying it. One must balance the cost against its amount of use. The support is good, it is free for all users, and the license allows for updates and upgrades for two years. If it is within one’s budget, I can recommend it.

Reviewer 5: This is a very specialized application. Unless one writes a lot of writing documents in applications without the ability to insert needed special characters, this application is not all that useful. Microsoft Word has the function built in, as do most popular word processors, although PopChar is a bit faster and easier to use. It can be set to not start with Windows boot up and simply be started when needed. Technical support is available by email only.

Reviewer 6: The pricing situation is really unfortunate because I really love this program. It is small, clean, rock solid, does everything it says it will do, makes writing or emailing simpler and easier, and adds a professional touch to all writing (think résumé rather than resume). Unfortunately, the price is a deal-breaker.


Will you continue to use it?

Reviewer 1: Yes.

Reviewer 2: I'm not sure. I may keep PopChar on my computer for those infrequent times when I want to include special characters that are not included in the extended ASCII character set, such as Hebrew and Russian letters. However, because I often write words and sentences in Spanish and occasionally in French and German, I've learned the numeric keypad codes to type for inserting the special characters I need such as ñ, é, ü, and ¿. Knowing these codes enables me to use just the keyboard for all my typing in Western languages, something I strongly prefer. On my laptop, where accessing the numeric keypad is more difficult, I will continue to use the freeware program AllChars, since it too permits me to insert all characters from the keyboard.

Reviewer 3: Yes, especially since it is set not to load on startup and only loads when I need it.

Reviewer 4: Yes.

Reviewer 5: This application is probably not one I would buy since I have little need for its specific services. Since it is installed, I will leave it there just in case I find the need.

Reviewer 6: Yes, but only because I did not have to pay for the program. I would never pay more than around $20.00 for a single-feature utility.